Hans Otto Theater

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Headquarters of the Hans Otto Theater from Tiefen See , 2007

Hans Otto Theater , named after the actor Hans Otto , is the Potsdam city ​​theater. It is managed in the legal form of a GmbH . Since September 2006 his ensemble has been playing in the Großer Haus am Tiefen See , which is synonymous with the Hans Otto Theater as the seat of the house and is located on the Schiffbauergasse. Another venue of the theater is the neighboring historic riding hall. It also appears regularly in the palace theater in the New Palais .

history

original theater venue, the Royal Playhouse

The Royal Theater , dedicated to the pleasure of the residents , was opened in 1795 under King Friedrich Wilhelm II , the successor to Friedrich II (Prussia) , on the Potsdam city canal . Because of this location, it was popularly known as the “Canal Opera”. The house offered space for 700 guests and initially functioned as a venue for the Royal National Theater in Berlin , did not have its own ensemble and was under the artistic direction of the Berlin General Management. The program included plays, operas and ballets - all guest performances from Berlin. Since the Potsdam garrison made up around a third of the population, a large part of the audience, in addition to the bourgeois audience, was made up of the military. Since 1846 the house has been run by private tenants and directors with their own ensembles. They showed plays and operas, comedies and a lot of trivial things. The enterprises were economically on shaky feet; the house was temporarily closed completely several times. After the beginning of the First World War , people switched to patriotic food. After the November Revolution in 1918, the state took over the theater and in 1919 handed it over to a former officer, Kurt Pehlemann, as leaseholder, senior theater manager and actor. Pehlemann performed common German classics, entertainment and German national. In 1924 the theater was converted into the Potsdamer Schauspielhaus GmbH ; Pehlemann became director. A little later the house was renovated with public money and donations and reduced to 650 seats. When it reopened in 1929, Schiller's Kabale und Liebe was given . After 1933 the repertoire was rearranged: In addition to a little classical music, light fare and National Socialist drama were played. In 1945 the theater burned down after heavy artillery fire in World War II, and in 1966 the ruins were blown up.

old venue in Zimmerstrasse

The Brandenburg State Theater was founded in 1946 and initially found its venue in the baroque palace theater of the New Palais . Iphigenie auf Tauris by Johann Wolfgang Goethe was selected for the opening production . A new provisional venue was opened on October 16, 1949 with Goethe's Faust I in the former restaurant, society house and concert garden "Zum alten Fritz" in Zimmerstrasse, which today houses the Science and Restoration Center of the Castle Foundation .

Actor Hans Otto ,
portrayed by Peter Kern

In 1952 the theater was named "Hans-Otto-Theater" after the actor Hans Otto , who was arrested, tortured and murdered by the National Socialists in November 1933 as a communist and trade unionist .

The "Tin Box" on the Alter Markt, venue of the Hans Otto Theater from 1992 to 2006

A reconstruction of Potsdam's city center, including the town hall and theater, decided in 1968 - the opening was planned for 1974 - was delayed. In 1985 a new theater building was planned; the house planned by Günter Franke , one of the architects of the Berlin television tower , was to be handed over in 1993 for the 1000th anniversary of Potsdam. The foundation stone was laid in 1989 before the fall of the Berlin Wall. The shell of the old market , which had already been completed , was demolished in 1991 following a decision by the city council. In its place, the Brandenburg State Parliament was opened in January 2014 in the historicizing facades of the Potsdam City Palace, which was damaged in World War II and demolished in 1960 . The long-serving venue on Zimmerstrasse was closed around the same time due to structural defects. For the time being, substitute venues were found in Schiffbauergasse and Heinrich-Mann-Allee. A provisional theater house was built on the Alter Markt, which was initially to serve as the central venue for five years and was soon nicknamed "Tin Box" by the Potsdam audience.

In 1998, a venue for children's and youth theater was set up on Schiffbauergasse (on Berliner Straße). In 1999, the decision was made to build the long-awaited new theater building for the state capital Potsdam on the new cultural and commercial area in Schiffbauergasse. The groundbreaking ceremony was held in April 2003; The foundation stone was laid in October 2003. To bridge the construction phase until the New Theater was put into operation, the then director of the Hans Otto Theater, Uwe Eric Laufenberg (2004–2009), invited his audience to various, e. Sometimes exotic alternative venues in the city such as As in the Orangery Palace in Sanssouci Park , in the pavilion at the Friendship Island , in the Palais Lichtenau or the French Church . The "Blechbüchse" also continued to play - until it was finally closed in June 2006, it was the main venue of the Hans Otto Theater for fourteen years. On the weekend of September 22nd to 24th, 2006, two years after the topping-out ceremony in September 2004, the new building of the Hans Otto Theater, the New Theater, was officially opened.

Brief summary of the history of the theater since 1946:

  • from 1946 “Landestheater der Mark Brandenburg” in the New Palais
  • from 1947 "Brandenburg State Theater"
  • from October 1949 in the former restaurant, society house and concert garden "Zum alten Fritz" in Zimmerstrasse
  • since October 1952 "Hans-Otto-Theater"
  • 1953 Connection of the travel theater "Landesbühne Brandenburg" as a touring ensemble to the Hans-Otto-Theater
  • 1991 to 2006 in the provisional theater building on the Alter Markt ("Blechbüchse")
  • 1993 Conversion of "Hans Otto Theater" to "Hans Otto Theater GmbH" (and "Brandenburgische Philharmonie Potsdam GmbH"; dissolved in 2000)
  • since September 2006 in the Neues Theater on Schiffbauergasse
  • since the 2018/2019 season the new theater has been called the Großes Haus

Directors since 1946:

Venues

The main venues on Schiffbauergasse are the Großer Haus, a new stage that opened in 2006 with 485 seats, and the nearby riding arena with 162 seats. There is also the smaller box riding arena and the open-air summer stage at Tiefen See.

Big House (formerly New Theater)

Neues Theater, main venue of the Hans Otto Theater

The parent house and main venue of the Hans Otto Theater was built from 2003 to 2006 on the cultural and commercial site Schiffbauergasse (house number 11). The building owners of the 26.5 million euro project were the city of Potsdam and the state development company Brandenburg. The documentary film by Klaus Wunder Theater without end for a happy ending - Theater building in Potsdam shows the eventful struggle for a new theater from 1988 to 2006.

architecture

View from the Havel to the New Theater

The architect and Pritzker Prize winner Gottfried Böhm designed a five-story theater building with bowl-shaped, cantilevered roofs. Concrete, glass and steel are the predominant materials. A listed gasometer was integrated into the building. On the side of the Tiefen See, a former chicory mill, which is also listed, adjoins the theater building; it now houses a restaurant.

The upper foyer and the stage hall have glass window fronts that reveal a view over the Havel to Babelsberg Park . The hall can be completely darkened for evening theater performances. The hall can accommodate a maximum of 485 spectators. 50 lifting platforms are arranged under the rows of spectators, with which the auditorium can be flexibly lowered and raised. The back stage can be opened to the rounded interior of the gasometer. An orchestra pit also equips the stage for musical theater performances.

The specific design of the design and the construction were carried out by Paul Böhm , Gottfried Böhm's son. The new Hans Otto Theater was officially opened on September 22, 2006. During a ceremony in the presence of Federal President Horst Köhler and Brandenburg Prime Minister Matthias Platzeck, the cultural and economic importance of the new theater location for the city of Potsdam was recognized and the hoped-for signal effect for the new federal states was pointed out. The opening met with wide media coverage throughout Germany. On the weekend from September 22nd to 24th, the program featured five premieres, including two world premieres, a German-language premiere and Lessing's Nathan the Wise . In the film documentation Die Böhms - Architektur einer Familie by Maurizius Staerkle-Drux, published in 2015, the new building of the New Theater occupies an important place.

Riding arena

The riding arena is located at Potsdamer Schiffbauergasse 16, a two-minute walk from the main building .

In the riding hall A mainly productions of the children and youth theater are performed. The theater rehearsals in particular take place in riding hall B.

Palace Theater in the New Palais

Theater hall in the New Palais , baroque venue in Sanssouci Park

The Schlosstheater is located directly in the Neues Palais on Am Neuen Palais 1 street on the western edge of the Sanssouci Park .

Repertoire and ensemble

Directorship

Bettina Jahnke, born in Wismar, studied theater studies at what is now the "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" University of Music and Theater in Leipzig. She brought out her first productions at the former “Poetic Theater” of the University of Leipzig, before joining the Staatstheater Cottbus (director: Christoph Schroth ) as an assistant director in 1994 . Between 1998 and 2007 she worked as a freelance director at various theaters in Germany and Switzerland (including Magdeburg , Leipzig , Rostock , Potsdam, Esslingen , Bern), was a lecturer at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University of Music and Theater and ab 2005 senior stage director at the Cottbus State Theater (artistic director: Martin Schüler). In 2009 she took over as artistic director at the Rheinisches Landestheater Neuss , which, with her high artistic standards, led her to attract national attention in a trend-setting manner. Under her leadership, several productions were invited to the Theatertreffen NRW and also awarded. Bettina Jahnke has been director of the Hans Otto Theater since the 2018/19 season.

repertoire

The repertoire of the Hans Otto Theater includes drama as well as children's and youth theater. Together with the Potsdam Chamber Academy , the Hans Otto Theater produces the annual new production of the Potsdam Winter Opera . Within the theater and concert network of the State of Brandenburg, the Hans Otto Theater shows its performances in the cities of Frankfurt (Oder) (Kleist Forum) and Brandenburg an der Havel ( Brandenburger Theater ). Music theater productions come from the Cottbus State Theater to guest performances in the Hans Otto Theater.

play

The drama ensemble of the Hans Otto Theater consists of 25 permanently engaged actors. Since autumn 2018, female directors have been working increasingly at the Hans Otto Theater under the directorship of Bettina Jahnke, whereby the artistic direction attaches importance to parity. Since then, guests have been or are guests as directors: Frank Abt , Jörg Bitterich , Marc Becker , Nicole Erbe, Kathrin Filler, Manuela Gerlach , Esther Hattenbach, Sascha Hawemann , Mario Holetzeck , Anna Franziska Huber , Bettina Jahnke , Jan Jochymski , Malte Kreuzfeldt , Steffi Kühnert , Konstanze Lauterbach , Bernd Mottl , Ulrike Müller , Milena Paulovics , Nina de la Parra , Moritz Peters, Katrin Plötner , Mike Priebe , Annette Pullen , Tobias Johannes Erasmus Rott , Katharina Schmidt , Petra Schönwald , Caro Thum , Alexandra Wilke, Sebastian Wirnitzer , Angelika Zacek .

Awards

  • 2008: Friedrich-Luft-Preis for the world premiere production Staats-Sicherheiten under the direction of Clemens Bechtel

Web links

Commons : Hans Otto Theater  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Otto Theater: Imprint www.hansottotheater.de, accessed on March 19, 2017.
  2. ↑ Image with shell (with 1,920 by 1,280 image points; embedded in the new building Hans Otto Theater page that can only be used with JavaScript enabled ) - at Art-Pro ; accessed on December 31, 2016
  3. ↑ a b Site plan with house numbers , homepage of the cultural and commercial site Schiffbauergasse, www.schiffbauergasse.de, August 24, 2013.
  4. ^ Theater Finds City , Der Tagesspiegel , July 6, 2014.
  5. ↑ Theater: The strict box grows bold wings , theater opening in Potsdam, www.zeit.de, September 13, 2010.

Coordinates: 52 ° 24 ′ 11 ″  N , 13 ° 4 ′ 31 ″  E