Prater (Berlin)
The Prater in the Prenzlauer Berg district is the oldest beer garden in Berlin . It was originally founded in 1837 only to serve beer. Through the Kalbo family, who acquired and expanded the establishment in 1852, the Prater developed into a popular leisure and entertainment restaurant, where theater and variety performances were also held ( Prater Theater ).
history
The beginnings
The Prenzlauer Berg district, which today belongs to the Pankow district of the city of Berlin, owes its history to the first mills. At the beginning of the 19th century, the farmland between Pankow and Berlin was increasingly populated and soon there were over thirty windmills, so that the city center began to grow. In addition to the mills, other buildings were built. Streets, schools, churches and many small businesses were built and more life came up. Not to be ignored here is the establishment of localities such as pubs or restaurants for the workers and journeymen , the clerks and small craftsmen who have settled in Prenzlauer Berg.
In 1837 a certain Porath at Kastanienallee 7 started serving beer in a shack. At that time, the avenue laid out by Griebenow with chestnut trees was developed on a loamy field path, which was overgrown with grass and weeds on both sides.
The head of the family, Johann Friedrich Adolph Kalbo, bought the beer bar, which had been enlarged after several renovations, in 1852, and the actual history of the Berlin Prater began.
An important factor for the “Berlin Prater” was the development of Berlin from a residential city to an industrial and working-class metropolis. This fact helped the Prater to a secure existence and popularity. The period in which there were many contradictions in economic, social and demographic development led to a complete restructuring in all areas. Also in people's everyday life, because Berlin developed into a big city metropolis . Women took a new place in the public eye, mainly because of changes in working conditions. So it came about that women also showed up in restaurants. At first only on Sundays, later also on all other days of the week.
In 1867, JFA Kalbo applied for a license to perform merrymaking at the Royal Prussian Police Headquarters and named his company "Café chantant" in his cover letter. This was understood to be a "singing café", which was a mixture of café and pub. However, a note was already made on Kalbo's processing letter that this bar was popularly known and by the police as the “Berliner Prater”. It is assumed that the name is based on the “ Wiener Prater ”, although the resemblance was most likely in the leisure needs of its visitors.
It wasn't until 1869 that the application was approved, and JFA Kalbo was appointed an acting entrepreneur. Now the “Prater” was no longer just any other beer garden, but instead invited to entertaining hours with a summer garden stage. In addition, the house was enlarged piece by piece so that a program could also be offered to the public in the winter season.
In the same year the concession was granted, the brewery “ Brauerei Pfefferberg ” legally became the owner of the “Berliner Prater”. The Kalbo family remained the operator. By selling the “Prater”, the company was able to invest the money in the further expansion of the hall. This was of great importance because people wanted to be entertained even in winter. After all, the number of cafés and pubs had risen considerably in recent years and as an entrepreneur you had to focus firmly on the needs of the visitor, offer variety and keep coming up with new ideas. Thus the Prater became a pub, excursion restaurant, variety theater, folk theater, ballroom, garden and meeting place at the same time . The audience was quite diverse and colorful, but it was mainly the “lower class” that made up the visitors. The “Berlin Prater” was very different from the elegant, pompous theater in the city center and the atmosphere was always exuberant.
"Typical for this was the small Café Chantant in the north of Berlin, which was fashionable at the time, with wreathed busts of the old emperor, Bismarck and Moltke in bright red and green lamplight, with Heil dich in the wreath, hurray and mendacious shreds of lust-filled hoarse throats with Lorelei, Zoten and Suff, a patriotically sentimental brothel substitute, for evening prayer for students, trainee lawyers and officers, for the prosperity of the nation, so that the shy young merchant in the back rows could calm his conscience by looking at this exemplary company. That was, so to speak, the other side of the Butzenscheibe lyric, its night side. "
Turn of the century
The “Berlin Prater” reached its climax around the turn of the century . From Pentecost to September 15, “specialty performances” and smaller theater performances, singing games, antics , operettas , pantomime and puppet shows were offered daily . The performing artists were bourgeois people who lived near the “Berlin Prater”. Pieces like The Hermit's Bell , Golden Hearts, and Little Women Weep were popular with audiences at the turn of the century and performed frequently. Pieces from Schubert's Rosamunde were particularly popular . Since no lectures may violate morality and decency in the plays , it was the task of the actor to check the spoken contributions of the artists and to register them with the Prussian theater police and have them approved.
The variety show, in which various programs were performed, was also very popular. There were, for example, the "musical transformation pantomimes" and acrobatic power balance acts. Artists from this group were for example Fred Seylon, La belle Georgette, the Russian artists of the "Barsikow Group" and the "Funny Sculptor" Terras.
Political meetings also took place in the “Berlin Prater”, but these had to be held in the building, as political meetings in the open air were forbidden at that time. The first political meeting was the foundation festival of the “ General German Workers' Association ” and took place on July 29, 1871. Several political events followed. The 6th Berlin Reichstag constituency held a social democratic matinee on December 26, 1904. A popular assembly on the revolution in Russia in February 1905 was also held in the Prater.
A special feature of the “Berliner Prater” was the possibility of bringing home-made bread and having coffee brewed on site. There was also a variety of alcoholic beverages. The offer ranged from a simple glass of wheat beer to red and white wine to expensive Erlangen beer and champagne . In order to advertise the Prater, many program leaflets were found on the walls of houses, advertising pillars and shop windows in the city center . Since the program was very appealing and the company's prices were significantly lower than those of cafes and bars in the city center, many went to the “Berlin Prater”.
A new idea of the entrepreneur came up: showing films. The first "cinematographic presentations" took place here on March 5th and 6th, 1903. “The Passion Story”, “Aladin and the Magic Lamp in 45 Pictures”, “Kaiser Wilhelm II” and “Eruption of the Mont Pelé volcano in Martinique” were shown.
Since her husband had died (Paul Kalbo, 1861–1901, buried on November 15, 1901 in St. Elisabeth's cemetery), Martha Kalbo took over the company a little later and applied for a concession for multi-act plays, which she finally received. The “Theatrical Associations of Berliner Volksbühnen” performed with the play M aria Magdalena and the Rose Theater . But Martha Kolbo's goal was to have her own theater. So she began with a renovation of the “Berlin Prater” and celebrated the reopening in 1906 with Schiller's Kabale und Liebe . However, the new image of the “Berlin Prater” missed the taste of its audience and the regular audience demanded more variety, sociability and entertainment. Since Martha Kalbo was a good business woman, she decided to give the “Berlin Prater” its old profile.
World War I to World War II
The “Berliner Prater” recorded a major break in business through the First World War . People now went to institutions that were individually tailored to specific needs and increasingly preferred film. As a result, Martha Kalbo's income continued to decline and soon she could no longer pay the artists' fees. In 1923 Martha Kalbo gave back her theater license. After the first crisis was overcome, the entertainment business continued. Lotte Werkmeister, for example, a popular artist at the time, was a welcome guest and performed in the “Berlin Prater” as well as in the “Rose Theater”. Soon afterwards, a new administrative system was introduced, in which a general tenant was responsible for the establishment and Martha Kalbo thus only represented the post of a licensee. In 1932 the Berliner-Kino-Betrieb GmbH acquired the “Berliner Prater” as general tenant and the Kalbosche tradition was drawing to a close. The provincial theater director Vack took over the planning of the events in the Prater. In order to get money quickly, the new tenant showed many equipment and monumental film presentations, which were often attended by many stars. So it came about that Hans Albers and Rudolf Platte were now often guests in the “Berlin Prater” and in 1935 they conducted Paul Lincke's large orchestra .
With the announcement of the “ total war ” during the Second World War , the “Berlin Prater”, like many other theaters, variety shows and cabarets , finally closed its doors.
Post war until the end of the GDR
Since the Prater survived the devastating bombing raids of World War II , it was able to reopen as a leisure and entertainment restaurant in the summer of 1945 . So after a long time dancers and chansonniers were on the program again. In 1946 the Volksbühne Berlin moved into the “Berliner Prater” because its theater on today's Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz was completely destroyed. In addition to Maxim Gorki's play “Nachtasyl” , Berlin antics by Glasbrenner and Amgely were also brought to the stage.
In this building, which was subsequently also used as a cinema, which operated as DEFA-Filmtheater Kastanienallee from 1949 until the renovation of the Pratergarten , numerous DEFA films were premiered in the 1950s. The “Berlin Prater” soon regained its original flair. From the sixties on there were also showmen with stalls and carousels. Music afternoons, dance events and children's parties also shaped the image of the well-known excursion restaurant.
In 1967 the “Berliner Prater” was finally named the district culture center of the city district. In 1973, on the occasion of the World Festival for Young Berlin Artists, the “Galerie am Prater” was a new place for art. Over the years the number of events in the Prater has increased continuously. In 1984 alone there were 3,000 events.
turn
The city council and thus also the district culture houses dissolved with the change . The “Berliner Prater” was initially run by a brewery, but in 1991 the area was finally closed by the district office. The property was given to the Senate for free cultural use for the next 30 years. In 1992, 3.2 million DM flowed into the beer garden from the construction east program so that the property could be reconstructed. However, complications arose: the budget was too exhausted, although the construction phase had not yet started and the danger spots could not all be removed at first. But in 1996 the “Berlin Prater” celebrated its reopening. Since then, with its 600 to 800 seats in the beer garden and the colorful program of the Volksbühne, it has attracted Berliners and tourists alike. The listed restaurant has also been completely renovated and is now a much-visited place again.
Volksbühne in the Prater
From 1992 the Volksbühne on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz operated the traditional Alt-Prater as a second venue. The Pratergarten was also used regularly for demonstrations and activities, including a. in 1998, when the director Christoph Schlingensief built a big top (the electoral circus ) there for election campaign happenings of his art party Chance 2000 .
From the 2001/2002 season onwards, the “Berliner Prater” developed under the direction of René Pollesch into an innovative theater location that offered around 100 events per year. The game was stopped in the spring of 2010 in favor of an extensive renovation. This should be completed in summer 2011, but had to be interrupted due to unresolved property claims. An interim use of the Prater by the Theater an der Parkaue planned from 2013 onwards was therefore also rejected.
Today (2018) the Volksbühne assumes that the registered restitution claims will be rejected and that the renovation can continue. A decision on this is still pending. Meanwhile, the Prater - in its unrenovated condition - is only used to a very limited extent for cooperation projects with various artist groups.
Theater an der Parkaue in the Prater
In the 2015/2016 season, the Prater will be used as the main venue of the Theater an der Parkaue . The reason for this is the renovation of stages 1 and 2 of the building in Berlin-Lichtenberg. Five premieres and numerous classics from the repertoire, such as Nathan the Wise and Peter and the Wolf , are shown. In addition, the new series of events “Fridays in the Prater” will ask the question “What is German?” And be an experimental space for a wide variety of formats and artists.
Gallery in the Prater
The "Galerie im Prater" is one of the oldest municipal galleries in Berlin. From 1973 it was located at Kastanienallee 100 and at the end of April 2005 it resumed its exhibition operations in the former Prater Café. Around 10 exhibitions are shown in the gallery each year.
Bastard Club
The Bastard Club was a privately operated nightclub located in the foyer of the theater.
See also
literature
- Thilo Zantke: The Berlin Prater - grazing lights from the history of a leisure and entertainment center . Published by Kreiskulturhaus Prater, Berlin 1987, DNB 870784846 .
- Martina Howaldt: The “Berlin Prater”. On the history of a traditional entertainment establishment in Prenzlauer Berg between 1831 and 1918 . In: Jürgen Wetzel (Ed.): Berlin in Geschichte und Gegenwart , yearbook of the Berlin State Archives 1994, pp. 133–151. Siedler, Berlin 1994; Table of contents, p. 9. (PDF; 41 pages)
Web links
- Website of the Prater in Berlin
- Website of the Volksbühne Berlin
- Events in the Prater Gallery
- Prater
- Theater on the Parkaue
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hermann Bahr: Self-Portrait. Berlin: S. Fischer 1923, 190.
- ↑ schlingensief.com
- ↑ goethe.de
- ↑ neue-deutschland.de
- ↑ parliament-berlin.de (PDF)
- ↑ bz-berlin.de
- ↑ prenzlauerberg-nachrichten.de
- ↑ volksbuehne-berlin.de ( Memento of the original from March 26, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ morgenpost.de
- ↑ parkaue.de
Coordinates: 52 ° 32 ′ 25 ″ N , 13 ° 24 ′ 34 ″ E