Branconi Palace
The Palais Branconi , located at 36 Zerbster Strasse, was a classicist city palace in the old town of Dessau , which was later used as a theater , vaudeville and gastronomic establishment "Kristallpalast".
history
The Heilig-Geist-Hospital, mentioned for the first time in 1228, was originally located on the property located directly east of the Zerbst Gate within the oldest city wall . Prince Leopold III. Friedrich Franz von Anhalt-Dessau relocated the princely privileged hospital in 1794/95 to the southern extension of the city of Franzstadt , which he planned and carried out as the client , where the poor house and workhouse were already located. He had the old hospital buildings demolished. According to plans by Friedrich Wilhelm von Erdmannsdorff , a classicist city palace was completed in 1797 as a two-story plastered building with a central portal and two-winged staircase. Prince Franz left the construction to his travel marshal Anton von Branconi . After several changes of ownership, the palace came to the innkeeper Friedrich Bolling, who, after serious renovations, opened the “... most elegant establishment in the Residenz ...” with variety and theater operations on February 20, 1904, but had to file for bankruptcy in 1906 . With changing ownership and lease conditions, the premises were used for a wide variety of festivities and events in addition to the theater and variety show.
After the court theater building on Kavalierstrasse was destroyed by a major fire on 25/26. January 1922 the ensemble found a temporary home in the "Branconi / Kristallpalast" and in the " Tivoli " for the rest of the current season and until the opening of the interim venue in the former ducal riding arena in February 1923 and was thus able to keep the theater going.
From 1930, in particular, the establishment was often the scene of political disputes and appearances by National Socialist politicians. As in the first , the house served as a makeshift hospital during the Second World War and burned down in the bombing raid on March 7, 1945.
Since the new theater building, which opened in 1938, was also badly destroyed by the events of the war, the theater of the “Branconi / Crystal Palace” was again used as the “Big House” of the now Anhalt State Theater from 1945 to 1949, after the damage had been repaired on the initiative of the Soviet military city administration . Ludwig van Beethoven's Fidelio was the first opera premiere in the house on December 25, 1945 .
After the theater reopened in 1949, the consumer cooperative took over the operation of the establishment, which had never been completely restored, as a multi-purpose venue.
After 1990, unclear ownership conditions and acute structural defects led to the closure and, to this day, to a ruin-like state of construction.
After a diploma thesis on future uses of the Branconi area was presented at the Bauhaus University Weimar in 2006, a community foundation has been in the process of being established since autumn 2008 . The foundation aims to revitalize the site as a culture and congress center. In a public session on December 10, 2008, the city council of Dessau-Roßlau decided on a development plan for the “Branconi / Kristallpalast” area with a stipulation of its use as a conference and cultural center.
The plans were never realized and the friends' association dissolved in 2013. The project failed mainly because of the city council's veto against the move to a medical care center.
literature
- Bernhard Heese: The Dessau Chronicle. Self-published, Dessau 1925.
- Hartmut Runge: Dessau theater pictures. Anhaltische Verlagsgesellschaft, Dessau 1994.
- Willy Bodenstein (ed.): From court theater to people's theater. Anhaltisches Landestheater, Dessau 1949.
- Stefan Frohnsdorf: Crystal Palace. Culture and congress center for Dessau. Unpublished diploma thesis, Bauhaus University Weimar, Weimar 2007.
- Mitteldeutsche Zeitung / AnhaltKurier from November 18, 2008
- Official Gazette of the City of Dessau-Roßlau from December 20, 2008
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mitteldeutsche Zeitung: Förderverein Kristallpalast dissolves. on mz-web.de. Retrieved January 22, 2015.
Coordinates: 51 ° 50 ′ 16.5 ″ N , 12 ° 14 ′ 45.6 ″ E