Bad Kissingen spa theater

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Front view of the spa theater

The spa theater in Bad Kissingen (Theaterplatz) was built in 1904 by the Munich architect Max Littmann in the Franconian baroque style and put into operation on June 25, 1905 for the spa season.

prehistory

The first Bad Kissinger theater from 1856 (colored steel engraving, approx. 1860)
The first theater around 1890/1900

As early as April 1778, Prince-Bishop Adam Friedrich von Seinsheim had given his approval for the first theater operation in Bad Kissingen. After rapid renovation of the cellar and kitchen of the old office building , operations began there in the summer of 1778. It is not known how long this temporary solution lasted. The later leaseholder of the theater probably had little success, because in a letter dated August 1, 1835, Bavaria's King Ludwig I waived the due lease of 250 guilders , "because he had neither the corresponding income nor the rent without the sale of the most indispensable" could have mustered.

The theater business had probably moved immediately afterwards. In any case, with the support of the district government, the large hall of the Hirschheimer Garten was rebuilt before 1837 . But even then, “a theater worthy of such a Curort” and the seasonal collaboration with the Würzburg City Theater were under discussion. At least in 1839 the Meiningen Theater used the "newly decorated theater bar" for several guest performances. In 1850 there had been theater performances for several years during the summer course season in the great hall of the Daburg garden , which had also been converted into a theater room with the support of the district government.

Six years later (1856) the first new theater was built in the Swiss house style made of wood - with stairs and walkways on the outside - and opened in the course season of 1857. Overall, there were over 400 seats in the stalls , in the boxes , in the tier and in the gallery . Since the theater did not have a common room for the audience, an outbuilding with a restaurant was built in today's Von-der-Tann-Straße 2 . However, the theater was only intended for summer operation and therefore had very simple stage technology and inadequate artists' cloakrooms.

The theater was initially operated by the Badkommissariat (spa administration) in a seasonal association with the Würzburg City Theater. In 1860 Anton Bömly is named as theater director. From 1871, initially for only three years, it was leased to the Würzburg theater director Eduard Reimann , who ran it next to his Würzburg theater until his death in 1898. This made it possible to keep the Würzburg ensemble busy during the summer months. His son, the actor Otto Reimann , became his successor. But soon the Schweizerhaus-Theater no longer met the increased demands of the global spa and the more stringent fire protection regulations over time. In 1904, the first theater in Bad Kissingen was demolished after almost 50 years of existence and a new massive theater was built.

New theater

Side view of the theater
View from the middle of the tier over the auditorium to the stage
View from the rank side into the auditorium with the ceiling painting Zug der Kraniche , on the right the stage

In February 1904, Littmann began planning the construction of a new sandstone theater on behalf of the Bavarian government . It became his first building in Bad Kissingen. The particular difficulty was building the new building on the site of the old theater without unnecessarily disrupting the theater.

Construction began as early as July 1904, just six months after planning began, behind the old wooden theater. When the season ended on August 16, the old theater was demolished. At the end of October, the stage building had its roof structure , and in mid-November the topping-out ceremony was celebrated in the auditorium and foyer . Despite a very harsh winter, the new Royal Theater was even finished eight days before the contractually agreed date at the beginning of the spa season and opened on the evening of June 25, 1905 in a ceremony with Ruggero Leoncavallo's opera The Bajazzo . The local Saale newspaper wrote about it on the following day: “… the new house of the muses, which Kissingen's residents and bathers had longed for for many years, is yesterday evening in front of a festive crowd, which except for the elegantly furnished, bright house filled the last seat, was ceremoniously opened in the most dignified manner. ” The costs for the theater and outdoor facilities were given as 509,000 marks .

For reasons of space, the building had to be compressed in its longitudinal axis: the auditorium was made wider than usual and the foyer , staircases and cloakrooms were built around it. Littmann loosened up the façade, which became quite wide as a result, with a pavilion architecture. The sculptors Heinrich Walther and Julius Seidler created the exterior decorations and putti on the attic .

The inner walls, covered with green fabric, are adorned with silver decorations in contemporary Art Nouveau style. The ceiling painting Train of the Cranes created by the painter Julius Mössel is impressive . The stage border, numerous stucco profiles and columns as well as the pillars of the boxes covered with antique silver still show the splendor of bygone times. The house has a total of 538 seats - like the heavy curtain covered with dark red fabric - in the parquet, on the tier and in the boxes. The auditorium was designed according to the model of the courtly rank theater, because a parquet theater, as it was common at the time, was too bourgeois for a royal Bavarian health resort.

Otto Reimann also continued his successful artistic directorship with his own ensemble in the new theater . Regardless of the difficulties caused by the First World War , inflation , the Great Depression or the emergence of National Socialism , the theater business for the entertainment of the spa guests remained at a high level. On August 9, 1941, however, the now 71-year-old ended his directorship in Bad Kissingen for reasons of age with a performance of the gypsy baron . After that, the theater was only used sporadically during the Second World War , until it had to serve as a clothing store for the Volkssturm in the winter of 1944 . After the US troops moved in , it was confiscated by them in 1945.

Only at the beginning of the 1949 season did the theater start operating again. Karl Heinz Proehl , who was dependent on guest performances without his own ensemble, became the artistic director . But the new audience of Sozialkurpatienten had very different needs than the earlier educated middle class , the game plan was so thinned and 1951 films were shown even on non-match days. The cinema was continued by the spa administration until 1970. Proehl had already given up in December 1960.

Due to the limited budget of the state spa administration and the low financial strength of the spa guests at the time, the level of theatrical performances fell. You had to be satisfied with predictable guest theater . Nevertheless, it was precisely during these years that the most popular and best-known stars of the war and post-war years came to the spa town for guest performances, such as the actors OW Fischer , Maria Schell , Curd Jürgens and Inge Meysel or later also Grit Böttcher , Christiane Hörbiger , Günter Strack and Heinz Drache and Horst Tappert or singers like Rudolf Schock , René Kollo , Freddy Quinn and Karel Gott . The list of well-known guest actors could be continued to this day.

In the meantime, even this theater no longer meets the technical requirements of today's stage art. There is no possibility of sinking into the stage or a revolving stage necessary for a quick change of scenery and scenery . In addition, the building - still owned by the Free State of Bavaria as the legal successor to the Kingdom of Bavaria - has the greatest need for renovation, which the Free State has not yet met. For years there has been a threat of closure.

literature

  • Jakob Heilmann , Max Littmann : The Royal Theater in Bad Kissingen , company publication (39 pages), Heilmann & Littmann GmbH (ed.), Bruckmann Druck, Munich 1905
  • Georg Dehio : Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler: Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler, Bavaria I: Franconia: The administrative districts of Upper Franconia, Middle Franconia and Lower Franconia: BD I , Deutscher Kunstverlag Munich Berlin, 2nd, revised and supplemented edition, 1999, p. 71
  • Thomas Ahnert: Boards that mean the world. The Kissinger Kurtheater. In: Thomas Ahnert, Peter Weidisch (Eds.): 1200 Years Bad Kissingen 801–2001. Facets of a city's history. Special publication of the Bad Kissingen City Archives, Verlag TA Schachenmayer, Bad Kissingen 2001, ISBN 3-929278-16-2 , page 329f.
  • Edi Hahn: A city tour. Rotter, Bad Neustadt (Saale) 1991, ISBN 3-925722-04-1 , page 31f.
  • Walter Mahr: History of the City of Bad Kissingen. Bad Kissingen 1959
  • Adina Christine Rösch: The Royal Theater in Bad Kissingen by Max Littmann (1904/05) , Master's thesis, Nuremberg 2007
  • Sigismund von Dobschütz: The big stage between stucco and silk wallpaper , in: Kulturkalender für der Landkreis Bad Kissingen , February – April 2015, pp. 7–10
  • Werner Eberth : The Kurtheater im Bade Kissingen , two volumes, 2015

Web links

Commons : Kurtheater  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ewald Wegner: Friedrich von Gärtner and Bad Kissingen , in: Mainfränkische Studien, Volume 25, Friends of Mainfränkischer Kunst und Geschichte, Würzburg 1981, page 47 ( excerpt )
  2. ^ Johann Wendt: The healing springs at Kissingen in the Kingdom of Baiern , 1837, page 27 ( digitized version )
  3. ↑ Franz Anton Balling : Kissingen's baths and healing springs , 1837, page 270 ( digitized version )
  4. ^ Heinrich Carl Welsch : Kissingen with its healing springs and baths , 1839, page 331 ( digitized version )
  5. ^ "Theater in Kissingen: 2nd performance in the 1st subscription; Tuesday, June 18, 1839, in the newly decorated theater , under the direction of the director Swoboda from Meiningen , the following is performed: The Triplets; Comedy in 4 acts, from the French of Mr. Bonin " ( excerpt )
  6. ↑ Franz Anton Balling: The healing springs and baths in Kissingen , 1850, page 372 ( digitized version )
  7. ^ Denis André Chevalley, Stefan Gerlach: City of Bad Kissingen (= Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation [Hrsg.]: Monuments in Bavaria . Volume VI.75 / 2 ). Karl M. Lipp Verlag, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-87490-577-2 , p. 102 f .
  8. ↑ A. Heinrich's deutscher Bühnen-Almanach , Volume 20, 1856, page 418 ( digitized version )
  9. ↑ Martin E. Schleich: Munich Punch , Volume 13, 1860, page 240 ( digitized version )
  10. ↑ The new art lover. Organ for Art and Literature , Volume 1, 1870 page 64 ( digitized version )
  11. ↑ "Cartell Club Stage with 1 vote. Board of Directors in Würzburg: the Wohllöbl. City Magistrate, in Kissingen, the Kgl. Government of Lower Franconia and Aschaffenburg. Management: Mr. Eduard Reimann. “ In: Almanach , Volume 4, Genossenschaft Deutscher Bühnen-Members, Verlag E. Gettke, Leipzig 1876

Coordinates: 50 ° 11 '56.75 "  N , 10 ° 4' 47.33"  O