Cinema Pioneer 1907
The Kino Pionier 1907 (old name until a few years ago: Kino Pionier 1909 ) is a cinema in downtown Szczecin . In the Guinness Book of Records from 2005 it was registered as the oldest cinema in the world that is still used today. The cinema is in the al. Wojska Polskiego 2. The German address was Falkenwalder Strasse 2 (138, 212).
history
The cinema Pionier 1909 was opened in 1907, contrary to the name indicated and as shown in the Guinness Book of Records; therefore it was renamed Kino Pionier 1907 a few years ago . The name of the film theater at that time was Helios Welt-Kino-Theater .
The history of the cinema began when Otto Blauert opened a movie theater on the ground floor of the Falkenwalder Str. 138 building on the corner of Hohenzollernstrasse. The exact date of the opening of the cinema is not known, but it was before the late autumn of 1907. Two years later, Blauert sold the cinema to Albert Pitzke.
As a result of the explosions, which frequently occurred on projection equipment in the first decade of the 20th century , a number of regulations were introduced to improve the safety of viewers. Cinema halls and facilities were regularly checked by the building police. Such an unannounced inspection by the building police took place in Pitzke's “Welt-Theater” on May 22nd, 1909, and it discovered some deficiencies. The owner was obliged to remove them as soon as possible. On this occasion, Pitzke applied to enlarge the cinema. On September 2, 1909, permission was given by the building police. As early as October 8, 1909, 185 numbered seats were offered to the public. In 1913 10 more places were made available. When Albert Pitzke was fatally wounded by a grenade explosion in World War I , his widow Hedwig Pitzke continued to run the business.
On July 5, 1945, the Soviet occupation forces handed Stettin over to the Polish state , which repopulated the city with Polish citizens who took over the facilities that remained there. From December 1945 to December 1950 the - now Polish - cinema was operated under the name "Odra". The poet Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński described it in his poem “Small Cinema” (1947) as the best small cinema in which one can forget everything.
The Pionier cinema has two cinema halls. A special feature is the "Kiniarnia" (derived from the Polish kino and kawiarnia, i.e. cafe), where you can watch films in a coffee house atmosphere at the cafeteria. During a thorough renovation in 2002, the halls were equipped with modern technology, but the cinema has regained its old character. Today, newer international films are shown in the Pionier cinema.
Controversy about the title "Oldest Cinema in the World"
The 2005 entry in the Guinness Book of Records read: The oldest cinema in the world is the Pioneer Cinema, which opened and is still in operation as Helios Kino on September 26, 1909 in Stettin, Germany (now Szczecin in Poland). In 2008 the Danish Korsør Biograf Teater was entered in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest cinema ( Oldest purpose-built cinema in operation ).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The numbering changed over time 138 → 212 → 2
- ↑ Bartosz Morylewski, Karolina Andrzejewska: Sto lat, sto lat ... . On: sedina.pl on September 26, 2007
- ↑ Oldest cinema in the world in Szczecin ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ The oldest cinema in the world - Kino Pionier in Stettin ( Memento from February 20, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński: Małe kina (Small Cinema) (Polish)
- ↑ Guinness World Records: Oldest purpose-built cinema in operation . Retrieved August 9, 2015.
Coordinates: 53 ° 25 ′ 35.6 ″ N , 14 ° 32 ′ 43.2 ″ E