French Comedy House (Berlin)

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Gendarmenmarkt in Berlin with the French Cathedral and the French Comedy House (left); Picture by Carl Traugott Fechhelm, 1788

The French Comedy House (also known as the French Playhouse) was a theater building on the Gendarmenmarkt in the Prussian capital Berlin , which existed from 1774 to 1801. The building, initially used from 1778, had to be demolished in 1817 after a fire.

French comedy house on Gendarmenmarkt

After King Friedrich II. ( The Great ) had Berlin adorned with an opera house in 1742, in which Italian operas were performed according to the taste of the time, he realized his plan at the beginning of the 1770s to provide the French court actors with a permanent place of work. and had part of the development of the Gendarmenmarkt in Berlin (then called Friedrichsstädtischer Markt ) removed for this purpose. Up until now , the stables of the cuirassier regiment Gensdarmes had been located here in spacious rectangles, separated around the German and French churches . In 1773 the stables on the Gendarmenmarkt were demolished and the Royal Senior Building Director Johann Boumann the Elder. Ä. drafted the plans for the French Comedy House on the orders of Frederick the Great in 1774.

Facade of the French Comedy House in Berlin, design drawing by Georg Christian Unger, 1774
French comedy house, detail from a picture by Carl Traugott Fechhelm, 1788

His son Georg Friedrich Boumann the Elder took over the construction (until 1776) on the vacated center of the square . J. The king financed the construction.

Theater building

The French Comedy House stood with the narrow side facing Markgrafenstrasse , not exactly in the geometrical center of the square, but slightly facing Jägerstrasse . The longitudinal fronts ran parallel to Jäger- und Taubenstrasse . The spectators climbed a flight of stairs to the entrance portal. The hall with four tiers offered about 1000 spectators. The ramp on the south side of the building served as a driveway for the royal court's carriages.

In 1776, the Berlin councilor Peter Heinrich Millenet praised the building in his critical comments regarding the state of architecture in Berlin and Potsdam and emphasized its simplicity: "The plan of it is also, like the opera house, a long square, [...] the outer structure is quite simple, and merely with Rustique adorned, except at the front entrance, woselbst four Ionic Pilastres a fronton wear ". The gable triangle (fronton) mentioned here was crowned by three statues of the Muses, the designs of which presumably go back to the architect Georg Christian Unger .

The motto "Ridentur et corriguntur mores" ( "The morals are laughed at and improved" ), which describes the aim of theater art according to the view of the time of the Enlightenment, had chosen the motto "Ridentur et corriguntur mores" in the gable triangle .

A French game plan

In the French Comedy House, three days of the week were played exclusively in French , the language of the nobility at the time. His favorite poets Racine , Corneille and Voltaire were performed for the Francophile King Frederick II . Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm came on stage here in a French translation. Mainly members of the court attended the performances.

Situation of the German-speaking theater

While the French Comedy House received a state subsidy of 10,000  thalers annually, the German-speaking theater in old Berlin was dependent on makeshift stages or backyard stages during Friedrich's reign and had to finance itself through entrance fees. Around 1760 there was a wooden stage for German plays on the Neuer Markt in the old town. Karl Schuch set up the first permanent speaking stage in Berlin, the Döbbelinsche Theater , in 1765 in the courtyard of the Behrenstrasse  55 building . From 1771 Heinrich Gottfried Koch staged there and from 1775 his successor Karl Theophil Döbbelin , who established the young German contemporary drama of Lessing, Goethe and Schiller.

National Theater

National theater built according to plans by Carl Gotthard Langhans, which existed from 1802 to 1817. Graphic by Friedrich August Calau

From 1778 there were no more performances in the French Comedy House. The theater stood empty for eight years and was then used as a warehouse and plug factory.

As one of his first official acts after his accession to the throne on August 17, 1786, the successor of Frederick the Great, his nephew Friedrich Wilhelm II , awarded Doebbelin's theater troupe the title of Royal Prussian Most Gracious National Actors on December 5 and provided them with a grant of 5,000 thalers annually. In addition, he had the building of the French Comedy House, which had been dilapidated due to the longer vacancy and external uses, restored and handed it over to the Döbbelin German actors' troupe, which opened the German National Theater in it as a royal-privileged theater . Now the German-speaking theater in Berlin took a decisive boom.

The suitcase

In 1800 King Friedrich Wilhelm III commissioned. the architect Carl Gotthard Langhans with the design of a 2000 seat new building for the National Theater between the two cathedrals on Charlottenstrasse . The rectangular structure of the new National Theater, popularly known as “the suitcase” , was built directly behind the French Comedy House. Its last performance took place on December 31, 1801. The next day, January 1, 1802, the National Theater gave its opening performance. The comedy house was demolished. The building of the National Theater fell victim to a fire on July 26, 1817. The theater designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel was built in its place in 1819/1820 , and its structural shell still exists today .

literature

  • Elke Blauert, Katharina Wippermann (ed.): New architecture. Berlin around 1800. Nicolai Verlag, Berlin 2007. ISBN 978-3-89479-401-9 . Pp. 145-161.
  • Richard Borrmann : The architectural and art monuments of Berlin. With a historical introduction by P. Clauswitz . Julius Springer's publishing house, Berlin 1893 ( digitized in the Internet Archive ). Unchangeable Reprinted by Gebrüder Mann Verlag, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-7861-1356-4 , p. 371f.
  • Laurenz Demps: The Gensd'armen Market. Face and history of a Berliner Platz. Henschel-Verlag, Berlin 1987. ISBN 3-362-00141-6 .
  • Ruth Freydank : Berlin around 1800 and its theater. In: Elke Blauert / Katharina Wippermann (eds.): Neue Baukunst: Berlin um 1800. Nicolai Verlag, Berlin 2007. ISBN 978-3-89479-401-9 . Pp. 145-161.
  • W. Mila: Berlin or history of the origin, the gradual development and the current state of this capital. Nicolaische Buchhandlung, Berlin and Stettin 1829.
  • Peter Heinrich Millenet: Critical remarks regarding the state of architecture in Berlin and Potsdam. Himburg Publishing House, Berlin 1776.
  • Alfred Mühr: Around the Gendarmenmarkt. From Iffland to Gründgens. Two hundred years of musical Berlin. Verlag Gerhard Stalling, Oldenburg and Hamburg 1965.
  • Friedrich Nicolai : Description of the royal royal cities of Berlin and Potsdam, all the peculiarities located there, and the surrounding area. (4 volumes). Berlin 1786.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Alfred Mühr: Around the Gendarmenmarkt. Verlag Oldenburg and Hamburg 1965, p. 16 ff.
  2. ↑ Cf. Ruth Freydank: Berlin around 1800 and its theater. In: Elke Blauert, Katharina Wippermann (eds.): Berlin around 1800. Nicolai Verlag, Berlin 2007, pp. 145 ff. And Laurenz Demps: Der Gensd'armen-Markt. Berlin 1987, p. 149 ff.
  3. ↑ See Laurenz Demps: The Gensd'armen-Markt. Berlin 1987, p. 150.
  4. ↑ Cf. Friedrich Nicolai: Description of the royal royal cities of Berlin and Potsdam, all the peculiarities located there, and the surrounding area. (4 volumes). Berlin 1786. Here: Vol. 1, p. 203.
  5. ^ Richard Borrmann: Die Bau- und Kunstdenkmäler von Berlin (lit.), p. 371.
  6. ↑ Cf. Peter Heinrich Millenet: Critical comments regarding the state of architecture in Berlin and Potsdam. Himburg Verlag, Berlin 1776, p. 33.
  7. ↑ Cf. Ruth Freydank: Berlin around 1800 and its theater. In: Elke Blauert, Katharina Wippermann (Ed.): Berlin around 1800. Nicolai Verlag, Berlin 2007, p. 146.
  8. ↑ cf. W. Mila: Berlin or history of the origin, the gradual development and the current state of this capital . Nicolaische Buchhandlung, Berlin and Stettin 1829, p. 311.
  9. ↑ See Alfred Mühr: Around the Gendarmenmarkt . Verlag Oldenburg and Hamburg 1965, p. 21.
  10. ↑ See Alfred Mühr: Around the Gendarmenmarkt . Döbbelinsches Theater , Verlag Oldenburg and Hamburg 1965, p. 19.
  11. ↑ See Laurenz Demps: The Gensd'armen-Markt. Berlin 1987, p. 229.
  12. ↑ Cf. Ruth Freydank: Berlin around 1800 and its theater. In: Elke Blauert, Katharina Wippermann (Ed.): Berlin around 1800. Nicolai Verlag, Berlin 2007, p. 145.

Coordinates: 52 ° 30 ′ 49 ″  N , 13 ° 23 ′ 32 ″  E