History of the Cologne Theater

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The history of the Cologne theater has its roots in the Middle Ages . There are indeed indications of the existence of an ancient Cologne theater in the Roman CCAA , as has also been proven for other Roman cities (e.g. Mainz , Trier or Xanten ). Despite this culture of theater, which was cultivated in the Roman past, a direct link to this time and form only takes place after centuries. Cologne was one of the most important cities in Europe in the Middle Ages, but the city was of no importance in the theater industry. The indecision of the mayors for centuries marked Cologne as an exception among major German cities in the theater industry. After the resurgence of this art, theatrical performance in Cologne was subject to a change in the modern era .

Terenz stage design around 1496, from a Basler Terenz edition

Forerunner of the Cologne theater

War in the Middle Ages, the "spectacle" primarily a religious matter (Mysteries and Passion Play) by the faithful mostly on holidays staged performances were offered the Holy stories, the citizens of Cologne next to the experienced improvised burlesque and emerging carnival games in 1539 for the first time the performance of a Dramas as a performance by a bourgeois ensemble .

Commedia dell'arte performance on an improvised play frame, painting by Karel Dujardin , 1657

The piece “Homolus or the sins loin is the toid” by the printer “Jaspar von Gennep” (around 1500–1564) was shown. His stage success showed the progressive secularization of thinking, in which the bourgeoisie also gradually took this culture into their own hands. Since the church plays of the Middle Ages did not focus on their own enjoyment of the artistic activity, nor was there an incentive to pay a fee , it was an emotionless cultic or ritual process. The "Homulus" actors were all lay people from the Cologne bourgeoisie, who followed an artfully designed plot with enthusiasm and talent .

As Hermann von Weinsberg reports, the dramas performed by Bursen enjoyed great popularity . The tragedy of St. Laurentius, for example, was performed for the first time by the scholars of the Laurentian Burse in 1581 and was repeated for many years on Laurentius Day (August 10) in front of a large audience.

Theater of the Cologne Laurentian Burse around 1581

The first printed copy, which was handed down by “Bertram von Hilden” from 1620, is a program for a school performance at the Montaner Gymnasium, in which a program of the drama about King Assuerus Xerxes was described.

It was not until the 17th century that amateur actors became professional actors, following the example of English comedians' troops who traveled across the country on touring stages . In this way they combined the pleasant with the useful and earned their living with acting talent . The performances mostly took place in the afternoons and initially in the open air. Later, a podium was built from boards on the edge of busy streets or in squares such as the Heumarkt especially for the performances . The first theater buildings in Cologne were not princely buildings, but private theaters or municipal properties. The latter included the "Ballhaus on Apostelstrasse", a hall of the Bruloff House on Quatermarkt (opposite the Gürzenich ) with a capacity for 800 people , which is often used for theater performances . This house belonged at the beginning of the 14th century. the Quatermarkt family (previously Hartmann dem Wisen), until 1417 the Hardevust von Vaitalmershoven family and came to the city in 1561. It began in 1595 as the “Katzbahn” and has been attested as a ballroom since 1648; his tenant was Niclas Kisselstein. It was demolished in 1827 because of dilapidation. The “Gebuirhaus” of the parish St. Brigiden on the Alter Markt also functioned as a theater . At that time, all presentations were under the supervision of the Cologne Council. In addition, since the 17th century at irregular intervals performances in several guild houses .

A wooden house on Neumarkt

For a long time, the Cologne council had always opposed attempts to establish a permanent stage in the city. Franz Joseph Sebastiani, principal of a traveling theater group, arrived at the Heumarkt with his traveling stage on May 27, 1763 and proposed a “wooden house for the Opera”, which however could not be realized due to public protests. Further construction was stopped by the city on June 11, 1763. On June 14th, 1763 he was assigned a place on the Neumarkt , "on the Maur against St. Aposteln". On July 8, 1763 he invited the Cologne City Council to a performance there. Sebastiani finally asked again in a letter dated June 7, 1765 the city for permission to build a "comedy house" - again on the Neumarkt. Only the theater director Johann Joseph Felix Edler von Kurtz , known as Bernardon , was able to convince the city. In May 1768 he dismantled his Frankfurt theater and had it transported by ship across the Rhine to Cologne. The first stationary theater "Deutsche Schaubühne" opened on May 19, 1768 in a wooden house on Neumarkt. It was a simple four-story half-timbered house, where it was drafty in winter and too hot in summer, which also served as a straw and hay store. At the opening there was the opera “ La serva padrona ” by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi . A note prepared for the opening announced that “the Deutsche Schaubühne of Mr. Joseph von Kurtz under the sound of a drum and trumpet… in the Singspiele La serva padrona, translated into German by him (Kurtz) himself, also with 11 arias and one funny one Chore ... “would be opened. This building was dilapidated as early as 1779, and performances continued until 1783.

The first permanent house

Theater an der Schmierstrasse around 1869

On the basis of a council resolution of March 6, 1782, the citizen captain and dance hall owner Franz Caspar Rhodius received the license for 24 years to have a brick comedy house built by the city architect Johann Caspar Dechen on Schmidstrasse next to his redoubt. The lubrication route was named after a fat and oil department store located here in the Middle Ages. On March 10, 1486, the city decided to remove the prostitutes from the street. Construction of the first stone theater building began on February 21, 1782. All important merrymaking events, organized for a fee, had to take place in the new comedy house with a capacity of 800 seats. The "new privileged comedy house" was opened at Easter 1783. Shakespeare's Richard II was premiered under the direction of Johann Heinrich Böhm .

The 35 meter long, 16.90 meter wide and 10 meter high building bore the inscription: MUSIS GRATISQUE DECENTIBUS 1783 (“Muses are always free 1783”), the sandstone vases attached to its facade were reproduced in 1790 for the Apostle Church. The 12.50 m × 15 m stage was criticized by contemporaries as too small. The auditorium formed an amphitheater in the form of a tapering oval with three floors. 1805–1806 he received new furnishings, designed by Matthias Joseph de Noël and executed by Maximilian Fuchs, rich in allegories and sculptures, while the new Empire style in the “Egyptian taste” replaced the rococo ambience. In order not to bother viewers with the rattle of cars, the lubrication road was cordoned off every evening. In the course of the reform of the street names during the French era , Lubricating Street was renamed Komödienstraße on December 16, 1812, the theater was located at Komödienstraße No. 40/42. The occupiers in the French era took the comedy house on Lubricating Street as an opportunity to name the street “Rue de la Comédie”. The Cologne collector and patron Ferdinand Franz Wallraf , who is associated with art and his city , later successfully campaigned for the changed name to be retained. The theater had to be demolished in 1827 because it was in disrepair.

Second theater

Ruins of the city theater in Cologne, which burned down on February 16, 1869

In 1826 the “Stadtköln Theater-Actien-Verein” was founded to finance a new theater building, financed by wealthy citizens. After a dispute over the building site, they held on to Komödienstraße. The Cologne-based architect Jakob Ignaz Hittorff , who lives in Paris , made a design, but its execution was ultimately rejected as too expensive. The new building was finally carried out by the Cologne royal building inspector Matthias Biercher. The foundation stone for the Cologne “Comödienhaus” at Komödienstraße 42-44 was laid on November 8, 1827, construction began in April 1828. After only 9 months of construction and construction costs of 75,000 thalers, the theater offered a capacity of 1540 seats. The inscription LUDIMUS EFFIGIEM VITAE (“We play an image of life”) stood above its entrance, its auditorium had good acoustics and was designed as a box theater with three tiers and a gallery. At 21.20 meters × 27.90 meters, the stage was one of the largest in Germany. The opening took place on January 19, 1829 with Ludwig Spohr's opera Jessonda . On July 22nd, 1859 it was destroyed by fire except for the surrounding walls. After reopening on September 1, 1862, it was destroyed by another fire on February 16, 1869, with 7 dead. The alternative venue, the "Actien Theater", burned down completely on May 9, 1869. It was located in Frohngasse between Cologne Zoo and Flora and was opened as a summer theater on April 21, 1867. For financial reasons, a decision was made to build a new theater in Glockengasse.

The population of Cologne increased steadily during this time. Around 1867, around 125,000 citizens lived in the city, in 1871 already around 130,000 and after the incorporation of several suburbs already over 280,000. These numbers, along with the city's economic boom, can be seen as an explanation for the construction of another theater.

City Theater Glockengasse

Theater an der Glockengasse around 1872

After laying the foundation stone on June 15, 1870 in Glockengasse No. 17-23, the city theater designed by Cologne city architect Julius Carl Raschdorff opened its doors on September 1, 1872 with Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz on a built-up plot of 1633 m² with over 1800 seats . The construction costs of the 53.35 meter long, 30.76 meter wide and 15.70 meter high building in the style of the German Renaissance amounted to 700,000 marks. The northern long side, located after Glockengasse, was divided into a central building and two side porches extending to the east and west. On February 10, 1873, Johannes Böhm received the license to operate the theater, which marked the beginning of a new era in Cologne's theater industry. Opera , operetta , drama and ballet should now find their place here. Heinrich Behr, the first director of the house and opera singer himself, had Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm performed at the opening . The house lasted until it was destroyed by bombing in World War II on June 29, 1943. In 1943 the city appropriated the rubble.

Smaller theaters

After the trade regulations in Prussia in June 1869 also brought about the liberalization of the theater industry, a few smaller theaters opened in Cologne, which, in addition to the large theaters, specialized in certain theater genres. Franz Stollwerck built a “concert theater and cafe house” in 1844, which could hold 3,000 people, but which burned down in March 1849. Already in December 1847 he had unconsciously arranged for a successor building at Schildergasse 49, the ballroom of which was initially called the “Vaudeville Theater”, then the “Thalia Theater”, and from 1882 “Wilhelmtheater”. His “Königshalle”, which was built in 1856 in the remote Bayenstraße 29/31, with 2400 seats, functioned as a theater, concert and ballroom. On September 24, 1863, the city of Cologne rejected an offer they had made to buy, after which it was converted into a candy factory.

The Gertrudenhof (nickname "Geistersterz") had belonged to the circus director Oscar Carré since November 1859 and was a variety that was acquired in 1875 by the "lese ", a society with national liberal convictions. It burned down on August 25, 1878. After Carré was able to acquire other neighboring properties, he had master builder Heinrich Nagelschmidt build a permanent circus under the name "Circus Carré" in 1878 . The “Reichshallen und Operetten Theater” at Getrudenstrasse 10 was created from him in 1886; it was the third largest theater in Cologne after the opera and the theater. Wilhelm Josef Millowitsch relocated his puppet theater to the Reichshallen-Theater and started today's Volkstheater with a major opening event on May 10, 1895 with Jules Verne's "Journey around the Earth in 80 Days" in Cologne dialect . The Getrudenhof on Neumarkt opened in September 1869 and was owned by Manuel Mosler. The "Victoria Theater" at Riehler Türmchen 1 was a summer theater until 1867, after its demolition the "Actien Theater" opened on April 21, 1867 between Flora and Cologne Zoo (Frohngasse) as a summer theater. It served as an alternative theater for the theater that had burned down, but burned down completely three months later on May 9, 1869. The “Tivoli Theater”, built in 1870, flourished on June 22, 1874, with the same fate. In order to keep the theater going, the "Thalia-Theater" and Gertrudenhof continued to play, but this too burned down on August 25, 1878. In May 1868 the "Flora Summer Theater" opened with 1200 seats (until 1908). In the Actien- und Flora-Theater, Jacques Offenbach's works were premiered . As one of the last large private theaters, the “Wilhelmtheater” on Schildergasse was demolished in 1888 . For the citizens of Cologne at the end of the 19th century, going to the theater was one of the most popular leisure activities. The Varieté-Theater Groß-Köln opened in 1912 at Friesenstrasse 44-46, with the “Bonbonniere” it had a separate room . After being destroyed in the war, the Sartory halls were built here in 1948 .

Cologne's first opera on the Habsburger Ring

Opera on the Habsburgerring

After the large incorporations, the city council had no doubts about the need for an additional stage. In May 1898 it was decided to build a new building on Habsburger Ring on the site between Aachener Strasse and Richard-Wagner-Strasse. The architectural competition was won by Carl Moritz , who works as urban planning inspector at the municipal building department in Cologne . A building with a restaurant and garden terrace in neo-baroque style was created according to his design . The house, completed in 1902, had 1,800 seats and its construction costs amounted to 3.9 million marks . Cologne now had two large stages, which first operated as the “United City Theater” and from the 1906/1907 season as an opera house and a theater, but were run together. Mainly operas and drama were performed in the new theater, and plays and operettas in the “old” house in Glockengasse. Julius Hofmann, the director of the theater, took over the operation of both houses. Since theaters were now considered profitable businesses, Hofmann initially took over the management as a tenant on his own account. However, because the two venues soon became less popular due to the emergence of new entertainment venues such as variety shows and cinemas , the municipal theaters were subsidized from 1905 .

On November 27, 1926, one of the most important works of the first half of the 20th century, Béla Bartók's ballet pantomime The Wonderful Mandarin, premiered in the opera on the Habsburger Ring . The play triggered a theater scandal, and the then mayor Konrad Adenauer prohibited further performances.

The opera house was badly damaged by bombing raids on November 22, 1943 and May 14, 1944 during World War II and, although it could be rebuilt, demolished in 1958. The provisional venue was then the assembly hall of the city university .

Todays situation

The theater and opera were not rebuilt. In the meantime, the number of urban theaters has continued to grow. The stages of the City of Cologne bring together all of the city's performance venues for drama, ballet and theater, etc. In addition, the interested visitor will find a large number of private cabaret stages with a wide- ranging and demanding repertoire .

Literature / sources

  • Adam Wrede : New Cologne vocabulary . 3 volumes A - Z, Greven Verlag, Cologne, 9th edition 1984, ISBN 3-7743-0155-7
  • Carl Dietmar: Die Chronik Kölns , Chronik Verlag, Dortmund 1991, ISBN

3-611-00193-7

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wolfgang Binsfeld, Two New Inscriptions on the Cologne Amphitheater , Bonner Jahrbücher , 1960, p. 160
  2. ^ William Grange, Historical Dictionary of German Theater , 2006, p. 67
  3. ^ Carl Dietmar, Das Medieval Cologne , 2003, p. 155
  4. ↑ Ferdinand Kösters, When Orpheus Sang Again , 2009, p. 288
  5. ↑ Christoph Schwandt, Opera in Cologne , 2007, p. 31
  6. ^ Carl Dietmar, Das Medieval Cologne , 2003, p. 159
  7. ^ Carl Dietmar / Gérard Chaix, Chronik von Köln , 1997, p. 210 f.
  8. ^ Carl C. Hiller, Vom Quatermarkt zum Offenbachplatz , 1986, p. 24
  9. ↑ Peter Fuchs (Ed.), Chronicle of the History of the City of Cologne , Volume 2, 1991, p. 97
  10. ↑ Karlheinz Weber, From minstrel to urban chamber musician , 2009, p. 207
  11. ↑ Adam Wrede, Neuer Kölnischer Sprachschatz , Volume III, page 45. From the 12th century onwards, settlers there were called “smerrenger” after the designation “smer” (fat, tallow), hence Lubricating Street, the street of the fat dealers.
  12. ↑ Carl Dietmar, Das Medieval Cologne , 2003, p. 214
  13. ↑ Carl Dietmar, Das Medieval Cologne , 2003, p. 236
  14. ↑ Peter Fuchs (ed.), Chronik zur Geschichte der Stadt Köln , Volume 2, 1991, p. 151
  15. ↑ Christoph Schwandt, Opera in Cologne , 2007, p. 23
  16. ^ Association of German Architects, Cologne and its buildings , August 1888, p. 577
  17. ↑ Martin Jacob, Cologne theater in the 18th century. until the end of the imperial city period , 1938, p. 113
  18. ↑ Carl Dietmar, The Medieval Cologne , 2003, p. 263
  19. ↑ Klara von Eyll, Old Address Books tell , 1993, p. 84
  20. ↑ Wilhelm Unger, What is that a sign? , 1984, p. 129
  21. ^ Karlheinz Weber, From minstrel to municipal chamber musician , 2009, p. 901
  22. ↑ The numerous theater fires were due to the use of gas lights, which were then used for lighting.
  23. ↑ Werner Jung: Modern Cologne 1794-1914. From the French period to the First World War. JP Bachem, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-7616-1590-6 , page 215.
  24. ^ Carl Dietmar, Das Medieval Cologne , 2003, p. 301