Hansa Theater (Hamburg)

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The logo of the theater
The Hansa Theater 2012
The Hansa-Theater on a picture postcard from around 1900

The Hansa-Theater is a variety theater in Hamburg . For a long time, the house on Steindamm in the St. Georg district was the only remaining classic variety show in Germany. The private theater, which was founded in 1893 and its rooms have remained almost unchanged since 1953, stopped operating for a few years in 2001 and has been used again as a variety theater in the winter months since 2009. The theater has been used all year round since 2020.

history

The illusionist and brewery owner Paul Wilhelm Grell (1860–1937) bought the Hansa Concert Hall, built in 1878, in St. Georg in 1893 . He had it converted into a variety theater with catering, the Hansatheater, which opened on March 5, 1894.

In a short time this became one of the most important German variety shows through the engagement of international stars like Cléo de Mérode . In 1919 Paul Wilhelm's son Kurt Grell became junior boss, in 1924 he took over the theater. He abolished the catering business in 1927 and had the theater expanded so that it could hold around 1,500 visitors.

The performing artists included: Hans Albers , Josephine Baker , Wilhelm Bendow , the Comedian Harmonists , Clown Grock , Erik Jan Hanussen , the escape artist Harry Houdini , Fritzi Massary , juggler Enrico Rastelli , Therese Renz , Charly Wittong or the Wolf brothers .

During Operation Gomorrah in July 1943, the Hansa Theater was also destroyed. Kurt Grell rebuilt the theater with 330 seats. As early as August 1945, the occupying powers gave it permission to reopen. The first post-war program included a juggler, a trapeze artist, a dance couple and four dancers. The payment was made with food stamps .

The non-subsidized, family-owned private theater became the most important German variety theater of the post-war period. In 1953 a new renovation took place, which turned the Hansa-Theater into a show theater with an integrated restaurant and 491 seats. Every month there was a numbering program lasting several hours. Actors included Caterina Valente , Friedel Hensch and the Cyprys , clown Charlie Rivel , the Tiller Girls , Conny Froboess , Wolfgang Neuss and the magician Kalanag . Even elephants and horses could be seen. In November 1964 Siegfried and Roy could be presented.

Kurt Grell died on February 7, 1967. The Hansa Theater was continued by his wife Telse Meyer-Grell. Broadcasts from the theater on the increasingly popular television, at the same time also a competitor of the variety shows, were rejected despite a possible increase in awareness. One even successfully advertised with the motto: Never on television . In the Hansa Theater, Otto Waalkes also discovered the monkey, later known from the music television program Ronny's Pop Show .

The Hansa-Theater defied the crisis of the variety theater for a long time and after further closings in the 1960s it remained as the only classic variety theater in the Federal Republic, where new stages did not emerge until the 1980s. But because of declining visitor numbers, it has made annual losses of 700,000 to 1.5 million marks since 1994. Since the theater owner Telse Grell was no longer allowed to deduct the theater's losses from her rental profits due to the new tax law, she decided to close. After over 107 years with over 36 million visitors and more than 25,000 artists in 51,188 shows, the last curtain fell on December 31, 2001.

The furnishings of the theater (from the hand-painted stage sets to the bell button for service at the table) have remained almost unchanged since 1953 and have been kept in pristine condition even after the owners closed. In 2018 it was listed as a historical monument.

New beginning

On January 13, 2009, operations were resumed on a trial basis at the initiative of Thomas Collien and Ulrich Waller , directors of the St. Pauli Theater . The number of visitors even made it possible to extend the initially planned season to April 5, 2009. Due to the positive experience, other seasons have since followed, always from October to February.

  • View from the hall to the stage

  • Partial view of the foyer in the Hansa Theater

  • Unchanged for 50 years: the toilet room

Web links

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

Television broadcasts

  • Hansa-Theater Varieté: March 5, 1894 to December 31, 2001 (75-minute NDR documentary by Gisela Tuchtenhagen from 2003 about the history and the last four months of the Hansa Theater, with many recordings behind the scenes, with artists, but also in service, kitchen and technology)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Stefan Grund: Hansa-Theater Varieté: As Club St. George to the hotspot of the district . In: THE WORLD . March 22, 2019 ( welt.de [accessed April 19, 2020]).
  2. ↑ Varieté for over a hundred years Hansa-Theater is listed as a historical monument
  3. ↑ Hansa-Varieté-Theater is reopened

Coordinates: 53 ° 33 ′ 12.3 "  N , 10 ° 0 ′ 42.3"  E