Lübeck district cinemas

As Luebeck neighborhood cinemas that are Lübeck cinemas referred to outside the Lübeck were.

backgrounds

Most of the district cinemas came into being after the Second World War , when Lübeck developed into a large city. Almost all cinemas were concentrated in the old town, which made it difficult for residents of most parts of the city to go to the cinema in a time of low individual mobility and poor local transport connections. Since the previously sparsely populated old suburbs had grown considerably as a result of the influx of war refugees (Lübeck's population had almost doubled compared to the pre-war level, and most of the new citizens lived in the newly emerging, extensive residential areas of the various parts of the city), cinemas were built here were aimed at the residents of the surrounding area.

Until the beginning of the 1960s , the district cinemas could count on the audience's approval. The increasing competition from other entertainment offers, greater mobility and dissatisfaction with the film offer (in the district cinemas mostly only films were shown that had already been shown in the larger city center cinemas) ensured a steady decline in audience numbers from around 1962 onwards, due to a general crisis in the Cinemas was reinforced. In 1983 the last district cinema in Lübeck closed.

A number of former cinemas, which owing to their location just outside the old town should actually be regarded as district cinemas, are nevertheless counted among the city center cinemas because of their size or importance: the Holstentor-Lichtspiele , the Burgtor-Lichtspiele and the Lichtspiele Hope . The camera represented a borderline case, since its sophisticated film program did not correspond to the rather undemanding entertainment program of the other district cinemas.

Cinematograph Waisenhof

The Waisenhof inn at Fackenburger Allee 56 was one of the oldest restaurants in the suburb of St. Lorenz . The owner, Stefan von Robowski , set up a 200-seat cinema in the associated ballroom , which opened on March 9, 1907 and was therefore one of the earliest cinemas in Lübeck and at the same time was the first district cinema, since the other fixed cinemas are all located in the Old town.

Based on the existing newspaper advertisements, it can be seen that daily gaming took place for a few months. After that, the advertisements become more sporadic and finally dry up, but this does not necessarily indicate a restriction or cessation of cinema operations.

From July 1910 Gustav Gipp was the new owner of the inn; there is no evidence that he continued the movie theater business. After his death in 1913, his widow Anna Gipp continued to run the restaurant. Since her license as a dance hall was withdrawn in December 1914, she resumed cinema operations instead. After she was granted the license again six months later, she finally stopped showing films on May 22, 1915. After the First World War , the hall was only occasionally a venue for traveling cinemas .

Blast furnace play of light

See blast furnace lighting .

Schlutup film stage

In the remote district of Schlutup , whose residents could only reach the cinemas in the city center with great effort, Karl Böge organized film screenings in the hall of his Gasthof Weißer Schwan (Am Schlutuper Markt 1) from the mid- 1920s . Up until the end of 1937, cinema screenings were held there up to two days a week.

In the course of 1937, the married couple Karl and Marie Walther , who already ran the cinema in the Travemünder Hotel Deutscher Kaiser (see Kurlichtspiele ) and had hosted the cinema screenings in the White Swan for six years, left the Gasthof Zur Post (Mecklenburger Straße 37), which had a suitably large event hall, converted into a permanent movie theater with 300 seats. The opening of the Schlutup film theater took place on January 1, 1938.

In 1939 the Walthers sold the Schlutup film theater together with the Travemünder Kinobetrieb to Hans and Charlotte Kuhnt , who ran the cinema for 21 years. In 1960 they leased it together with three other district cinemas that were in their possession - the Kurlichtspiele , the Film-Eck and the Rex-Lichtspiele - to Albert Kieft and Wilhelm Grießhammer , the operators of the Lichtspiele Hope . The Schlutup film theater closed at the end of June 1964. The building was later demolished; in its place there is now a supermarket .

Gloria (1946-1969)

At the beginning of 1946, Rudi Scholz applied for permission to set up a cinema in the event hall of a former restaurant at Marlistraße 18 on Marli . He justified his request by stating that most of Lübeck's cinemas had either been destroyed or confiscated by the occupying forces , which resulted in a severe shortage of supplies. He also pointed out that Marli, with 20,000 largely immobile residents, needed his own easily accessible cinema. The application was then approved, and on November 29, 1946, the movie theater with 213 seats opened under the name Marli-Lichtspiele . Just five weeks later, 27,000 spectators had attended the performances.

The opening of the much more modern Gloria in the same district in 1954 made the situation of the Marli light games, which were equipped in the spartan simplicity of the immediate post-war period and therefore much less attractive, became difficult. In April 1958, Minna Kirch and Bernhard Kuyper , the owners of the City center cinema , took over the cinema and renamed it Kurb . Kirch and Kuyper mainly needed the crank in order to be able to operate two cinemas in a stronger position than film distributors ; They were not interested in increasing the attractiveness of the theater, to which they paid little attention. Since neither modernization nor renovation was carried out, the neglected cinema fell into disrepair in the following years.

In January 1964 the crank passed to Gustav Riechey , who had been running the Hansa since 1958 . Riechey changed the name of the cinema to Gloria and initially intended to make the cinema again a popular district cinema . For lack of time and money, which would have been necessary for an intensive occupation with this project, he renounced these plans and ran the Gloria like Kirch and Kuyper before him, whereby he only showed films that were not for a screening in the Hansa were of more interest. Most recently, Riechey made the Gloria a cinema for guest workers before finally closing it at the beginning of 1969.

Eichholz film stage

Since the summer of 1948, regular cinema screenings have taken place two to three days a week in the community house of the Eichholz settlement community in Eichholz - the former kitchen barrack of a prisoner-of-war camp established during the war . The extremely sparsely furnished Eichholz film stage (Hirschpaß 27a) with 215 wooden chairs that had to be assembled and dismantled for each performance was used, initially by the Hamburg Northern Lights Film Service , and later by Volksfilm GmbH, also based in Hamburg .

In the late 1950s years, the viewership of the film carrier Eichholz declined because of the lack of comfort, the low quality of the shows with elderly Ernemann I - film projectors and films on offer, given the attractive competition found no more encouragement. The unprofitable cinema was stopped until the traveling cinema entrepreneur Erwin Steuber took over the film stage in the early 1960s . But despite a comprehensive renovation and new technical equipment, there was no lasting success. At the end of 1963 he ceased operations at the Eichholz film theater. The former community building is now a club building for a dance sport club.

Moisling film stage

Since the 1920s , regular film screenings have been held in the event hall of the Moislinger Gaststätte Kaffeehaus Moisling (today August-Bebel-Straße 1), organized by Maria Wegner , the operator of the Lichtspiele Fackenburg in Stockelsdorf . There were no demonstrations during the Second World War, as the hall served as collective accommodation for Polish female forced laborers who worked in the Drägerwerk .

The trained projectionist and traveling cinema entrepreneur Erich Freelandt converted the hall into a permanent cinema in August 1948 by adding a projection room and installing 195 seats. In September 1948 the theater opened as the Moisling film stage . In 1951 he handed over the business to Otto Wilken , also a traveling cinema entrepreneur. Wilken ran the Filmbühne Moisling as a weekend cinema parallel to his ongoing hiking company; only occasionally was an additional screening scheduled on a weekday for particularly successful films.

From the second half of the 1950s onwards, following a general trend that was slowly emerging, the number of visitors steadily declined, making it increasingly difficult for Wilken to keep the cinema running at a cost-covering level. In mid-1964 he closed the film stage. The building became a nightclub , was then unused for many years and collapsed on October 18, 2013.

Hansa

Helmuth Draguhn , who had fled with his family from Eisenach and had no connection to the cinema, received official approval in the summer of 1947 to convert the building of the former Hansa brewery (Fackenburger Allee 100) in St. Lorenz-Nord into a movie theater to remodel. Due to the general shortage in the post-war period, the work took over a year until the Hansa-Lichtspiele could open on June 20, 1948 (the day before the currency reform ) .

In October 1958, Gustav Riechey , a traveling cinema entrepreneur from Peine , who wanted to switch to operating a fixed cinema, took over the Hansa von Draguhn. Riechey soon discovered that as the operator of a single cinema he was in a weak position vis-à-vis the film distributors and therefore additionally acquired the Schauburg in Bad Schwartau in May 1960 and the crank in January 1964 , which he renamed Gloria . Since the number of moviegoers generally fell considerably in the course of the 1960s , Riechey gradually began to withdraw from the cinema business while at the same time setting up a campsite on Fehmarn . In the autumn of 1968 he separated first from the cinema in Bad Schwartau, and then from Gloria the following year .

Heinrich Brockstedt from Hamburg took over the Hansa on January 1, 1970 and ran it for five years until he handed it over to Artur Mest , the owner of the Zentral , at the end of 1975 . Mest, in turn, leased the cinema from January 1, 1981 to Thomas Geisler (today operator of the theater in the former Mest-Kino Zentral), who tried to keep it running despite the low number of viewers. In March 1981 he made the Hansa a so-called service cinema under the new name Hansa-Residenz , without being able to stop the negative trend. The cinema was closed at the beginning of 1983 and after three years of non-use it was converted into a fitness studio that still exists today .

Ultra light games

Since the spring of 1948, the administration of the Kücknitz district has been looking for interested parties who are willing to convert the event hall of the Dieckelmannschen Gasthof (Travemünder Landstrasse 241) into a cinema and operate it. The need for an own movie theater was great, because the 25,000 inhabitants of Kücknitz could hardly reach the cinemas concentrated in the city center because of the great distance and the still limited mobility.

In autumn 1949, cinema operators were found for Kücknitz: The married couple Gotthard and Athanasia Krüger began converting the restaurant into a cinema with 398 seats, although they had no experience in the field of cinematography. The Ultra-Lichtspiele opened at the beginning of December 1949 and subsequently became a popular film theater, although only productions were shown that had been running in the other theaters for some time.

The beginning of a general decline in cinema audience numbers due to competition from television and the desire to retire prompted the Krüger couple in September 1963 to close the Ultra-Lichtspiele and sell the building to a grocery chain. The building has been unused for many years.

Kurlichtspiele

From 1916 to about 1939 in the 200-seat hall found the hotel city of Kiel in Travemünde regular film screenings take place, and since the 1930 years taught Charles and Marie Walther - from 1937 also owner of the film stage Schlutup - also at the hotel German Kaiser film screenings under the name Tonfilmtheater Travemünde . However, Travemünde did not have its own cinema building.

In 1939, Hans and Charlotte Kuhnt took over the sound film theater in Travemünde and the Schlutup film theater, although they had no previous knowledge of the cinema. During the Second World War , the shows were moved to the Hotel Stadt Kiel, while the Kuhnts began building their own cinema building. However, the construction work had to be stopped due to the war and was suspended until 1949.

On January 21, 1950, the Kurlichtspiele (Vogteistraße 50) opened with 630 seats; at the same time, the Kuhnts shut down the cinema in the Hotel Stadt Kiel.

In 1967 the number of places was reduced to 392; Larger distances between the rows of seats should provide more comfort and thus counteract the decreasing attractiveness of going to the cinema. Nevertheless the Kurlichtspiele had to close at the end of 1972 due to unprofitability; a supermarket took over the building.

Camera

See camera .

Film corner

In 1951, Hans and Charlotte Kuhnt , who already ran the Kurlichtspiele , had the hall of the Colosseum inn (Torstrasse 42) in Travemünde converted into a 309-seat cinema. The Film-Eck opened on October 21st , smaller and more modestly equipped than the Kuhnts' other Travemünde cinema.

Even after the Kurlichtspiele closed, the Film-Eck continued to exist as the only cinema in Travemünde. In February 1978 the already neglected movie theater was closed and converted into a warehouse.

Gloria (1954-1963)

The Oldenburg cinema owners Hans Heinemann was in 1954, the former drill hall of the former Meese barracks on Marli converted into a cinema. Although the district with the Marli-Lichtspiele (which would later also bear the name Gloria ) had its own cinema since 1946, the new cinema was located in the middle of the new residential areas that were emerging in the 1950s . The Gloria (Goebenstraße 36) had 700 seats and had a Cinemascope - screen and an air conditioner . The cinema was opened on September 24, 1954; after its closure in April 1963, a supermarket that is still located there today took over the building.

St. Jürgen light plays

From December 1953 to April 1954, Anita Fick had the former Grauer Esel dance hall , which had a suitable hall, converted into a cinema with 331 seats. The district of St, Jürgen , whose population multiplied after the Second World War, had until then only had a single cinema, the camera , which was more oriented towards the city center. The St. Jürgen Lichtspiele (Friedrichstrasse 34) opened on April 24, 1954 and remained in operation until the end of 1962. Today there is a kindergarten in the building , which continues the name of the former restaurant Grauer Esel .

Rex light games

Hans and Charlotte Kuhnt, who already owned three district cinemas with the two Travemünder cinemas and the Filmbühne Schlutup, had a new cinema with an associated row of shops built in Kücknitz in 1956 , in the immediate vicinity of the Ultra-Lichtspiele. The Rex-Lichtspiele (Solmitzstraße 22-24) with 598 seats were at a 12-meter-wide Cinemascope - screen , air conditioning and automatic Ernemann X - projectors aware elaborately equipped and designated commercial appeal as the most modern cinema of Lübeck. In addition, as a special innovation, the Rex was given its own large car park , which was intended to attract visitors from other parts of the city.

It opened on September 7, 1956. In autumn 1960, the Kuhnts leased the Rex together with three other district cinemas they owned - the Kurlichtspiele , the Film-Eck and the Schlutup Film Theater - to Albert Kieft and Wilhelm Grießhammer , the operators of the light games hope . In 1967 the number of places was reduced to 393; the cinema closed in the summer of 1968. The building was demolished in 2007 for the construction of a new Aldi supermarket.

Ring movie theater

The Ring-Filmtheater (Hansering 14) was opened in 1960 as the last of the Lübeck district cinemas. Almost 35,000 people lived in the residential areas in the vicinity of the Hansering quarter in St. Lorenz-Süd that were created after the war , so that Rudolf GT Baader considered it a sensible investment, a high-rise that he had commissioned not just with a row of shops, but Can also be combined with a new cinema building on the ground floor.

The cinematic theater with 584 seats was technically much more elaborate than it was usual for the usually rather modest district cinemas: the screen, for example, 17 meters wide and 7 meters high, was the largest in Lübeck and designed for cinemascope films, and the sound system was a four-channel - Magnetic sound system installed, while mono sound was still used in most cinemas . In addition, there were wooden wall claddings specially designed to optimize the acoustics. Its equipment made the Ring-Filmtheater the technically most modern cinema in town.

Baader did not run the cinema himself, but leased it to Albert Kieft and Wilhelm Grießhammer , the owners of Lichtspiele Hope . The opening took place on May 18, 1960. Since the construction work on the high-rise was still ongoing, performances initially only took place in the evening when no more annoying construction noise was to be expected.

The initially high audience numbers fell significantly after a while. The main reason for this was the range of films on offer: the technical equipment of the Ring-Filmtheater was designed for the presentation of complex current films. However, film distributors did not give these films to district cinemas, so that secondary productions had to be shown in the ring, which were far less attractive to the audience.

The Ring-Filmtheater was closed again at the end of 1962. The premises were taken over by a supermarket, which closed its business in December 2009.

photos

Opening announcement of the cinematograph Waisenhof
The former Gasthof Weißer Schwan (2009)
Program sheet for a performance in the White Swan , 1930
The Gasthof Zur Post , from 1938 Filmbühne Schlutup
Filmbühne Schlutup newspaper advertisement , 1953
The Former Gloria (2009)
The former Eichholz film theater (2009)
The former Filmbühne Moisling (2009)
The former cinema Hansa (2009)
The former Ultra-Lichtspiele (2011)
Ultra-Lichtspiele newspaper advertisement , 1950s
Newspaper advertisement for the Kurlichtspiele (1970)
Opening announcement of the Film-Eck (1951)
The former cinema Gloria (2009)
The former St. Jürgen Lichtspiele (2009)
The Rex light games
Display of the Rex light games
The entrance area of the former Ring-Filmtheater (2009)
The hall of the former Ring-Filmtheater (2009)

literature

Petra Schaper: Cinemas in Lübeck . Verlag Graphische Werkstätten GmbH, Lübeck 1987. ISBN 3-925402-35-7