Saarland State Theater

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Saarland State Theater
Front view of the State Theater on Tbilisi Square
location
Address: Schillerplatz 1
City: Saarbrücken
Coordinates: 49 ° 13 '51 "  N , 6 ° 59' 45"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 13 '51 "  N , 6 ° 59' 45"  E
Architecture and history
Construction time: 1937-1938
Opened: October 9, 1938, reopened in 1946
Spectator: 1132, after renovation 875 (large house)
  • 240 (old fire station)
  • 100 (division 4)
  • 1918 (large concert hall, congress hall) seats
Architects: Paul Baumgarten ,  Gottfried Boehm
Internet presence:
Website: Staatstheater.saarland
State theater on the banks of the Saar at night
Saarland State Theater, position in the city model

The Saarland State Theater is a multi-branch theater in the Saarland capital of Saarbrücken with around 30 premieres and new productions, over 700 events and more than 200,000 visitors every year. In the venues State Theater (Big House), Old Fire Station, Congress Hall and sparte4 are operas , plays , ballets and concerts listed.

History of the Saarland State Theater

Ancien Régime

Before the French Revolution, there were three different venues for theater performances in Saarbrücken : the Schlosstheater in Saarbrücken Castle , the Komödienhaus on Ludwigsplatz, which was newly built in 1786, and the open-air theater on the Malstatter Ludwigsberg ( former park of Ludwigsberg Palace ).

The Komödienhaus on Ludwigsplatz was based on the shapes of modern French theaters. If theaters were previously integrated into existing rows of houses, they have now been designed as monumental structures. Theater facades, which previously leaned on residential buildings in terms of design, now took up the architectural forms of dignity of high-ranking building projects. Temple fronts with colossal columns identified the new theaters as ancient temples and quasi sacred homesteads of Apollo and the Muses. The interiors were designed as monumental auditoriums. The Saarbrücker Komödienhaus corresponded in its design completely to this reform idea and quotes in simplified forms the architecture of the Parisian Théâtre de la Comédie-Française (today Odéon - Théâtre de l'Europe ), which King Louis XVI. commissioned in 1779.

At this time, August Wilhelm Iffland was the theater director . The city of Saarbrücken granted him honorary citizenship on February 5, 1790. The stage construction was the responsibility of the Saarbrücken court architect Balthasar Wilhelm Stengel . The members of the court society acted as actors. With the French Revolution, the courtly theater system collapsed and the comedy house, built in the classical style, was demolished in 1800.

Prussian time

Saarbrücken-St. Johann, Apollo Theater, around 1900

In the Prussian period that followed, civil associations, miners' bands and military music corps took over the music and theater life on the Saar, which was promoted by several visits by the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. And the Prince or Prince Regent Wilhelm , who later became the German Emperor. However, at that time there was no own theater building, so performances took place in the former princely riding school next to the Hofbräuhaus in Talstraße. An attempt to build a new theater in 1849 failed. Since the arena was increasingly used for military purposes from the 1850s onwards, people managed to rent dance halls. In 1859 the Wilhelmssaal was built, which served the theater associations “Thalia” and “Ibicus” as venues. Since 1819, theater ensembles from all parts of the German-speaking area and abroad have performed annually in the summer, making use of the play-free time in their own houses. In the second half of the 19th century, numerous private restaurants with large theaters, such as the Apollo Theater in Kohlwaagstrasse, were built in the two Saar cities.

Urban hall construction

Saarbrücken, The hall building on Neumarkt , built in 1897, the market hall on the left

Saarbrücken's musical life experienced an upswing with the construction of the municipal hall at Saarbrücken Neumarkt in 1897 with its 1400 seats. From 1884 onwards, regular guest appearances were held by the Darmstadt court theater . On a private initiative, the Thalia Theater / Stadttheater Saarbrücken was built in the old casino garden near Eisenbahnstrasse in 1897. For the first time, it maintained a permanent ensemble.

In 1922, on the initiative of Saarbrücken's mayor Hans Neikes, the “non-profit theater and music society” was founded, which largely transferred the previous civic private initiatives into municipal hands. The society was sponsored by the city of Saarbrücken, the German Theater Association , the Theater Association, the owners of the theater building, the Bühnenvolksbund and the Freie Volksbühne association. The theater business received grants from the city as well as considerable funding from the Reich government in Berlin in order to position Saarbrücken as a bastion of German cultural policy and to seal off the Saar region against efforts to Frenchize the government in Paris and the government commission of the Saar region. The two visitor organizations Bühnenvolksbund (founded in 1920) and Freie Volksbühne (founded in 1921) recruited almost 10,000 members at that time.

City theater on Stengelstrasse

Saarbrücken, City Theater in Stengelstrasse

The central venue was the theater building in Stengelstrasse, where the rear part of the Saarland State Chancellery is now. The theater building was built in 1897 by Hans Peter Weszkalnys in a historical mixed style of Gothic and Renaissance forms and had 500 seats. The new theater building was officially opened on February 18, 1897 with the opera Mignon by Ambroise Thomas . From 1899 the Saarbrücken theater was named Thalia-Theater after the ancient Greek muse of happiness and festivals, Thalia . Technical and spatial deficiencies soon arose in the building, so that in 1906 plans began for the first time to build a new theater. There were disputes regarding the location issue: the city of Saarbrücken wanted to build a new building between Ludwigsplatz and the Saar, the city of St. Johann an der Saar preferred a location at what would later be Beethovenplatz, while the local association of the Association of German Architects preferred the location of today's State Theater on the suggested old St. Johanner Bleiche . After the unification of the three previously independent Saar cities Saarbrücken , St. Johann a. d. Saar and Malstatt - Burbach in 1909, architect Hans Peter Weszkalnys expanded his theater building from 500 to 700 seats. From 1919 to 1922, Heinz Tietjen was director of the Saarbrücker Theater. With the opening of the Baumgartenschen Gau-Theater on St. Johanner Saarufer, the Thalia-Theater / Stadttheater in Saarbrücker Stengelstraße was rededicated as a variety theater from 1938 .

Influence of the NSDAP

Concerts took place in the Städtisches Saalbau on Neumarkt. After the NSDAP increasingly attacked ensemble and orchestra members as well as the artistic director Georg Pauly and the general music director Felix Lederer because of their Jewish origin, they left their positions. In 1935, after the Saar was annexed to the German Reich, Lederer had to leave Saarbrücken like all other Jewish theater members. In the commemorative publication for the opening of the Saarbrücker Theater in 1938 it says:

“Another unpleasant phenomenon was the advance of Judaism into theatrical art. It was like that (sic) at times the artistic director, the general music director and some of the staff were Jews. That (sic) this fact rubbed off on the game board is evident. From the moment that National Socialism took over power in the Reich, the Saar area marched in spirit with the national comrades in the Reich. "

In addition to his dismissal, Lederer received an occupational ban from the Reich Theater Chamber . Only his marriage to his “Aryan” wife Dora enabled him to survive the Nazi persecution of Jews in Berlin under difficult conditions. In 1952, at the age of 75, Felix Lederer finally conducted the anniversary concert for the 40th anniversary of the Saarbrücken orchestra.

On May 1, 1935, the day the Saar area was annexed to the German Reich, Adolf Hitler had promised to build a new theater in recognition of the “loyalty of the Saar people”. He commissioned Paul Baumgarten to implement the company .

Dessau, Anhaltisches Theater, side view, NS “parallel building” of the Saarbrücken theater

The Baumgarten theater building in Saarbrücken and the Dessau theater are the only new theaters built during the so-called Third Reich . Both were planned, built and opened at the same time and have a very similar design language. However, the round shapes of the Saarbrücken theater building in Dessau have been reshaped into rectangles. In Dessau, too, the slate roofs are missing, which integrate the Saarbrücken theater in an almost sedate Biedermeier manner into the old-town surroundings of St. Johann.

The venues

The State Theater

New building of the Gautheater Saarpfalz
State theater, view from the castle rock

The building of the current Saarland State Theater in Saarbrücken was in the years 1937 to 1938 on behalf of Joseph Goebbels designed by Paul Otto August Baumgarten , one of the favorite architect of Adolf Hitler , in the neoclassical built style. The building site was the newly filled area of ​​the former Bleichwiese in St. Johanner Gewann "Brückwiese", southeast of the Old Saar Bridge from the 16th century.

According to his own admission, when building the Saarbrücker Theater, Baumgarten brought the experience he had gained in 1935 with the renovation of the German Opera House in Charlottenburg , which was regarded as a representative stage for the Nazi regime. With more than 1,100 seats, the Saarbrücker Theater von Baumgarten was designed as a medium-sized theater compared to the large theaters around the world. Baumgarten's local representative was the young architect Heinz Petrall.

The stage equipment of the Saarbrücker Theater received it from Kurt Hemmerling . The platform's plateaus could be raised or lowered up to three meters in height and depth with the help of the hydraulics. With regard to its stage technology with revolving stage , the new building was one of the most modern stages in Europe at the time. Officially, the "Gautheater Saarpfalz" (also called " Grenzlandtheater Saarbrücken" or "Westmarktheater") was a gift from Hitler for the result of the Saar referendum of 1935 in the Saar area . More than half of the stated construction costs of 3,500,000 Reichsmarks had to be financed by the city of Saarbrücken itself. According to the will of the Nazi rulers on the border of the German Reich, the theater should be a cultural “bulwark of German culture in the western border region of the Reich” (against France), as Joseph Goebbels wrote in the commemorative publication for the inauguration of the new theater. The Saarbrücken NS mayor Fritz Schwitzgebel even classified the Saarbrücken theater as a center of "cultural propaganda activity" in the sense of a quasi National Socialist influencing machine, in which one wanted to train the "fanatical will to be operational". The hopeful Saarbrücken theater tradition under Prince Ludwig von Nassau-Saarbrücken and the artistic life on the Saar were destroyed for decades by the "wave of destruction of the French Revolution". Only "after the expulsion of the French after the wars of freedom and after the annexation (sic!) Of the Saar cities to Prussia" were the creative forces awakened again. After a time of harmful foreign influences, corrosive liberalism , a time of unbridled lack of style, the separation of the Saarland from the Reich under the regime of an anti-German international government commission, Adolf Hitler finally ushered in a new era of German cultural activity for the Saarland with the construction of the Saarbrücken theater , through which the borderland Germany is effectively protected. The new theater is an expression of the self-assertion of the Saarland borderland population, which is now being welded together to form a front-line community and a cross-class national community.

Baumgarten was officially named as an architect by Interior Minister Joseph Goebbels on December 4, 1935 on the occasion of the inauguration of the Saarbrücken Reichsender . On December 12, 1935, Baumgarten visited the construction site on St. Johanner Bleichwiese on the right bank of the Saar for the first time. On March 23, 1936, he submitted the construction plans for review. The steel structure was installed on the foundation from April 1937. The assembly work progressed quickly, so that the topping-out ceremony could already be celebrated on September 16, 1937.

On October 9, 1938, the new theater was inaugurated in the presence of Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels and Heinrich Himmler with a performance of Richard Wagner's opera The Flying Dutchman in a glamorous setting. In the morning of the day, Joseph Goebbels, in his function as minister of the department, invited to a National Socialist consecration hour, in which he named the new theater building the Gautheater Saarpfalz . The opening was preceded by the so-called "Gaukulturwoche Saarpfalz", which took place from October 1st to October 9th, 1938. National Socialist celebrations took place in larger and smaller towns in the Palatinate from Ludwigshafen to Saarbrücken, and culminated with the opening of the Saarbrücken theater. A special focus was on the integration of cultural groups and artists from the newly connected Ostmark .

The first director of the Saarbrücker Theater was Bruno von Niessen , who said on the occasion of the theater opening:

“The completed construction of the new theater demands its interior design: a dedication increased to fanaticism from all those involved in the work. Curtain up in the Gautheater Saarpfalz! Heil our Führer. "

General music director was Heinz Bongartz . The stage design for the first performance was designed by the Dresden set designer Adolf Mahnke (1891–1959). The actors were not allowed to bow after the performance on the instructions of the artistic director, but had to respond to the first applause from the audience with the so-called German greeting .

Deutsche Reichspost, 1938, Gautheater Saarpfalz

On the occasion of the inauguration, 30 special trains with Nazi party comrades were ordered to attend the mass rally with a speech by Hitler broadcast throughout Germany by the Reichsender Saarbrücken in bright weather on the flag-adorned so-called Liberation Field (between the Straße des 13 January and Bismarckstraße) joined the whole of Saarland. A few days after the signing of the Munich Agreement to profitable Hitler the occasion in his Saarbrücken speech in rüdem sound the British government under Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to provoke and British appeasement to ridicule added by branded the foreign policy of London as aggressive and challenging stressed that the government of the German Reich wanted peace, but would no longer allow itself to be humiliated. In this context, Hitler announced the expansion of the Siegfried Line with the “Aachen-Saar Program” . The new theater in Saarbrücken was staged as a visible cultural bulwark of Germanness in the west, as a “castle in the west”. In an emphatic prologue, Kurt Kölsch , the Gau culture warden of the Gau Westmark , called on the theater professionals to be enthusiastic about the National Socialist idea:

“One called us to quarrel, to fight and to win, look, and one of us walks forward ourselves. Dash, you eagle, over the slopes of home, dash from west to east and back to the banks of the Saar! See, we happily sacrifice ourselves to the future peace and our play becomes work and our work becomes singing. "

The main Nazi politicians, the fascist Italian cultural politician Nicola de Pirro, the directors of the theaters of the German and the newly affiliated Austrian theaters such as Heinz Tietjen , Clemens Krauss , Wilhelm Rode , Wilhelm Hanke , Lothar Müthel , Eugen Klöpfer , Heinz Hilpert , Heinrich Karl Strohm , Hermann Abendroth , Carl Schuricht , Friedrich Bethge , Eberhard Wolfgang Möller , Hans Severus Ziegler , Rudolf Krasselt , Hans Knappertsbusch or Walter Bruno Iltz as well as other cultural workers such as Franz Lehár , Elly Ney , Theo Mackeben , August Hinrichs , Josef Wenter , Juliane Kay , Sigmund Graff , Hans Knudsen , Artur Kutscher , Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari , Norbert Schultze or Nico Dostal sent greetings for propaganda purposes that were also addresses of devotion to Hitler. For example, Ulrich Bettac from the Vienna Burgtheater wrote :

“If the Burgtheater can look back on 162 years as the German National Theater, it also happens in the grateful awareness that, especially in a border region, the theater is able to increase the size of its broadcast to the highest degree of fulfillment. In this sense, the Vienna Burgtheater, as an outpost of German theater art in the Ostmark, sends its greetings to the new Führertheater in Saarbrücken, which has been given the same task, and assures it of its cordial solidarity in the goals set by our Führer. "

Karl Böhm , director of the Saxon State Opera Dresden ( Semperoper ) , said in a similar way :

“The entire Greater German theater and music world will be able to thank our Führer deeply that (sic) he has created a new home for German art with his gift to the Saarland, the new theater in Saarbrücken. In this act, the spirit of our new Germany and its founder is again reflected most impressively (sic). After the internal and external liberation and protection of our homeland, art, whose care and loving care National Socialism sees its highest task, is now moving into the people in order to work on their spiritual renewal through the mediation of old and new valuable cultural assets. May the Theater zu Saarbrücken, which, as the outermost outpost in the west, still has the particularly honorable task of forming a bulwark of German culture, be allowed to develop freely and undisturbed for the sake of German art and art. "

On the occasion of the inauguration of the new theater, the Deutsche Reichspost issued postage stamps with the motif of the new theater building with the values ​​12 + 8 in red and 6 + 4 pfennigs in green, the surcharges of which went to the "Führer Kulturfonds", founded in 1937. This was at Hitler's personal disposal and was not subject to any control whatsoever. The sum thus received did not have to be taxed and its use was not subject to any justification. It is estimated that up to 1945, around 60 million Reichsmarks from postage stamps benefited Hitler personally.

architecture
Forecourt

To create a spacious forecourt in front of the theater, several houses on Schillerstrasse were demolished at the beginning of 1936 and several arches of the Old Bridge were filled in. To this day, this has fatal consequences when, when the Saar floods, the masses of water at the bridge have to pass a bottleneck and can no longer expand into the area of ​​the old bleaching meadow. At Hitler's request, the baroque building of the Kablé School was not torn down, but restored, and optically served to ensure that the viewer perceived the downright graceful school as a dwarf-like scale of the large, astonishing new theater building. The Kablé School was founded in 1888 by Amalie Kablé (1857–1934) on St. Johanner Futterstraße and in 1896 it was moved to the current Theaterplatz. The two baroque houses with mansard roofs were connected in the 19th century by a classical central wing with triangular gables to form a castle-like property. From 1920 the French mine administration was housed in the building, from 1935 the Reich finance administration. The building was largely destroyed in the Second World War. After the rubble has been cleared, there is a green area here.

Exterior
  • Architectural sources of inspiration for the Saarbrücker Theater

  • Theater Mainz, Mollerbau before the renovation in 1910

  • Semper's first opera house in Dresden as an architectural model for the Saarland State Theater

  • Rome , model of the Marcellus Theater

  • Stuttgart Opera House with colossal column facade

  • German Opera House Berlin-Charlottenburg with colossal columns

Plans to build a new theater, which had been in existence since 1906, led in 1908 to the renowned Cologne architect Carl Moritz designing plans for a new theater on the Saar. However, the implementation in the run-up to the First World War failed due to a lack of money. So it was not until 1925 that plans were redeveloped by the municipal building officer, Walther Kruspe . The model for the new theater was the Royal Court Theater Dresden , which had been built by Gottfried Semper from 1838 to 1841, burned out completely in 1869 and was subsequently replaced by the current Semper Opera . However, even before Gottfried Semper, the Darmstadt court architect Georg Moller had used the semicircular auditorium as a structural design element at the Grand Ducal National Theater in Mainz from 1829 to 1833, based on the Colosseum in Rome . The design of the Saarbrücken semicircular theater with colossal columns could be inspired by the entrance facade design of the Stuttgart State Opera , which was designed by Max Littmann between 1909 and 1912 . However, Littmann had used pairs of columns based on the model of the east facade of the Louvre in Paris . Architect Baumgarten, according to his own admission, when drawing up the plans for Saarbrücken, oriented himself towards the German Opera House in Berlin-Charlottenburg, which he converted and which was originally built according to plans by Heinrich Seeling between 1911 and 1912. The colossal columns of the Charlottenburg theater facade could thus also have served as a source of inspiration for the external design of the Saarbrücken semicircle. However, Baumgarten had already used colossal columns to frame high rectangular windows as facade design in 1909 when the Liebermann villa was built in the Alsen villa colony . Baumgarten was referring to the central wing of the JC Godeffroy country house built in 1790 by Christian Frederik Hansen , a classicist country house on Elbchaussee in Hamburg-Nienstedten . The colossal column facade of the Volksbühne Berlin, which was built between 1913 and 1914 according to plans by Oskar Kaufmann, is also conceivable as a source of inspiration for Baumgarten.

Baumgartner's architectural cubature in the 1930s was based on the Knuspes model for the new Saarbrücken theater. The monumentally isolated Baumgarten building, which stands on a 2.50 m thick iron-reinforced concrete slab, was painted in a reddish color with regard to its plastered surfaces, while the originally fluted columns of the semicircle made of light Saarland sandstone remained stone-visible. The steel frame construction was carried out by the Saarbrücken company Seibert Stahlbau, the stone work was carried out by the Saarbrücken branch of the Hochtief construction company in Essen . The square stage tower with its pyramid roof rises in the center of the facility. The top of the pyramid, used as an exhaust air vent, at a height of over 31.50 m with the sculpture of a dancing naked woman by the sculptor Carl / Karl Nacke from Hanover can be raised 1.50 m. The figure, whose veil billows in the wind, is 1.65 m high and represents Terpsichore , the muse of choral poetry and dance . In front of it is the U-shaped auditorium with its foyer. The U-shape motif of the spectator wing of the Saarbrücken theater was also used in the prestige project of the congress hall on the Nuremberg Nazi party rally grounds by the two Nuremberg architects Ludwig and Franz Ruff , construction of which had started in 1935. Ultimately, Semper, Baumgarten as well as Ludwig and Franz Ruff refer with their U-shape to the ancient Marcellus theater in Rome , which was built around the year of the birth of Christ on behalf of Emperor Augustus .

The side wings are attached asymmetrically and house workshops, magazines, cloakrooms and side stages. The subdivision of the side buildings by different roofs visually integrates the building into the angled roof landscape of St. Johann's old town. In contrast, the outside staircase that runs around the front of the entrance and the 18 originally fluted columns of Doric order made of light sandstone give the building an imperious character. Originally, a metal sculpture of the imperial eagle with widely spread wings and the swastika in an oak wreath was in its claws on the now empty frieze band between the surrounding cornice and the eaves in typical National Socialist manner . In the remaining tracts, this frieze band is broken through by small windows. This happens similarly on the stage tower. Here, however, the windows are lined up in rows.

Auditorium

Overall, the clad steel skeleton building with its peep box stage (height: 8 m, width: 12 m), the tiers and the central leader's box with its lush velvet drapery was strongly inspired by the design of baroque or classical court theaters . The Fiihrer's box was flanked by five smaller, recessed boxes. However, the interior with its pillarless, swinging balconies is also inspired by the modern theater architecture of the 20th century, such as the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées by Auguste Perret and Henry van de Velde (1911 to 1913), as well as by the interior design of the Cinema palaces of the 1930s.

Baumgarten refused to structure the auditorium as a steeply rising amphitheater. For him this seemed acoustically disadvantageous and not representative enough. In his article “New Theater Buildings in Saarbrücken and Berlin” in the Nazi art newspaper “ Die Kunst im Third Reich ” he also writes that this seating arrangement “embodies the democratic principle, as it were, because all seats are supposed to have equal rights”. Thus at a time was the dictatorship, which branded the democratic form of government as an era of chaos and social decay vehemently, the strongest argument against the conceptual design of the auditorium as steeply rising amphitheater, as has been observed in the years 1900-1901 by Max Littmann built Prinzregententheater in Munich had come to fruition. The Baumgartensche Führerloge in Saarbrücken with its swastika-decorated parapets, the red velvet drapery, the baroque-style, velvet-covered armchairs and its upstream box salon could not have been brought into harmony with a democratically intended amphitheatrical arrangement of the auditorium. Baumgarten designed the windowless Saarbrücken box salon similar to the one in Berlin with crystal chandeliers, fabric-covered wall surfaces in high-gloss wood frames and Baroque upholstered furniture in the manner of intimate séparées or baroque rabbits.

stage

  • Proscenium box relief, allegory of music, dance and opera

  • Proscenae box relief, allegory of text poetry and drama

The stage floor of the Saarbrücker Theater is 56 m wide and 38 m deep. It is 34 m from the Schnürboden under the stage dome down to the podium. The right side stage has an area of ​​257 m², the left side stage 256 m². The back stage is 208 m². The turntable has a diameter of 16 m. The total area of ​​the stage is 1315 m². The entire stage wing is three times larger than the stage area that the audience can see.

The gold-colored reliefs of the proscenium , framed by four colossal columns, show on the left - as an allegory of music, dance and opera - a lying naked woman with a harp, who is handing a putto three flowers. In the right relief - as a personification of the text poem and the drama - a lying naked man can be seen, to whom a putto hands a manuscript. The two flanking proscenium boxes are currently filled with lighting fixtures and no longer serve the stage-related viewing of the performances.

"Hall of Honor"

In the "Ehrenhalle", known as the "Hall of Honor", where velvet-curtained, strongly rectangular lattice windows alternated with vertically arranged lattice mirrors, there was a larger-than-life painting of Adolf Hitler by Franz Graf, above it the bronze sculpture of the Nazi imperial eagle. Numerous crystal chandeliers on the ceilings and walls gave off a brilliant shine. The motif of the combination of high-gloss parquet and stone, light-emitting windows and reflecting mirrors - both in rung subdivision - as well as glittering crystal chandeliers is clearly inspired by the famous mirror hall in the Palace of Versailles . The foyers surround the horseshoe-shaped auditorium with parquet flooring and two tiers . Baumgarten clad the walls of the stairwells and vestibules with highly polished limestone . The floors were covered with panel parquet . In the center of the dome of the auditorium, Baumgarten had a large-scale lead crystal chandelier installed, which was backed with reflective silver-colored metal. In order to improve visibility, Baumgarten reduced the usual elongated pear shape of classicist chandeliers to the lower hemisphere. The all-round ceiling cornice of the auditorium is equipped with concealed lighting fixtures that make the ceilings appear to float. Baumgarten had the chairs covered in warm red, the wall paneling was made from red tropical mahogany wood . The balcony parapets were colored ivory and gold. The walls of the first and second tier were painted a light brown. The ceiling was originally bright white. The numerous sculptures and reliefs on the parapets with their gilded fluting corresponded to the social significance of the ranks. In terms of decoration, the balustrade of the first tier was much more luxurious than that of the second tier, which contained the favorable seats. During the restoration of the theater after the destruction of the Second World War, the decorative plastic ornamentation of the parapets was dispensed with and only the fluting was restored.

Building infrastructure

As a consequence of the devastating fire of the Vienna Ring Theater in 1881 with its high number of victims, the architect Paul Baumgarten decided not to have a central staircase at the Saarbrücken theater building for safety reasons and assigned separate staircases to the individual tiers. Two more elaborately designed stairwells for the first tier and the former Führer Lodge as well as two simpler ones for the second tier divide the flow of visitors according to the arrangement of the seats in the hall. In addition, Baumgarten installed sprinkler systems, emergency power generators, an emergency lighting network, panic lighting, electro-acoustic systems, a fresh air intake on the Saar side, a ventilation system under the seats and an acoustic transmission system for the hearing impaired.

Plan of a Nazi forum
Saarbrücken-St. Johann, NS forum on the banks of the Saar with a connection to the St. Johanner Markt , on the far left the semicircle of the State Theater, next to the bell tower the old Saar Bridge , (State Capital Saarbrücken, Lower Monument Protection Authority)

A large National Socialist forum with a bell tower on the Alte Brücke and Großer Halle was to be built between the Saar and St. Johanner Markt , which would have stretched from today's State Theater to Dudweiler Strasse. A representative gate with an imperial eagle would have been created as an architectural link between the St. Johann market and the Nazi forum. The Second World War and the collapse of the Nazi regime made it impossible to implement the forum plan.

Effects of war

44 premieres had been announced for the 1939/1940 season, but due to the complete evacuation of Saarbrücken between the start of the war in September 1939 and the end of the Western campaign in June 1940, which was victorious for the German Reich . The fund was brought to Berlin in five railroad cars and was kept there by the local government. Only in July 1940 did the first trains return to Saarland with the residents of the so-called Red Zone who had been evacuated into the Reich . The theater building was not damaged during the evacuation period. After the successful campaign in the west, the "Gautheater Saarpfalz" was renamed in April 1941 in "Gautheater Westmark". In order to re-Germanize Lorraine, Gauleiter Josef Bürckel opened the "German Theater" in the neighboring city of Metz in his function as head of the civil administration of Lorraine and Reichsstatthalter in Westmark on December 22, 1941, which was also performed by the Saarbrücken ensemble through guest appearances.

In the British air raid on Saarbrücken on the night of July 29th to 30th, 1942, the Saarbrücken theater, especially the auditorium and the fund, was so badly affected that it was no longer playable. The daily newspaper NSZ Westmark wrote in this regard:

“Until yesterday noon the flames smoldered in the magnificent building of our Gautheater (...) Now the flames have done their work of destruction, now the cowardly attack has destroyed Adolf Hitler's gift to the Saar, ugly blackness has sullied the shining white of the building, ours all pride was. It is as if the Briton wanted to meet our Fuehrer himself with the incendiary bombs he threw on the Gautheater, his love of art, his efforts to make Germany a temple of culture that was never more beautiful. "

By the summer of 1944, they moved into the hall building on the old Saarbrücker Neumarkt as alternative accommodation. In the period that followed, numerous performances had to be interrupted or canceled entirely due to air raids in the Second World War. On May 27, 1944, the historicist hall building was also damaged in an air raid. During the great air raid on June 28, 1944, the actors and the audience were just able to take refuge in the basement of the hall. With the end of the season on July 30, 1944, all German theaters, including the Gautheater Westmark, were closed in order to make their artistic members available to strengthen armaments production and the Wehrmacht.

In the meantime, architect Baumgarten had restored the theater building, which was badly damaged at the end of July 1942, on Hitler's personal orders. The auditorium and the large crystal chandelier that had been made in Dresden had been restored and a new ventilation system had also been installed. As a result of the closure of the theater, however, these measures were ineffective and the subsequent air raids, especially the heaviest attack on the city on October 5, 1944, as well as the artillery bombardment by the US Army when taking Saarbrücken in 1944/1945 damaged the theater again. Debris removal began after the city of Saarbrücken was taken by the US Army on March 21, 1945. Due to its proximity to the Saar, after the Second World War, at the turn of the year 1947/1948, water damage was caused by flooding. In addition, the needy population led to multiple looting operations.

Resumption of acting after the Second World War

On September 7th, the Saarland government president Hans Neureuter called on all cultural workers to report to the cultural department and new artistic director Willy Schüller in the Saarbrücken town hall in order to organize cultural events for the first time after the end of the war. The former employees of the Saarbrücken theater were first deployed to drain and clear the theater. The reconstruction was led by architect Heinz Petrall, who had already acted as site manager under Baumgarten, and Peter Paul Seeberger . With the play Das Großes Welttheater by Hugo von Hofmannsthal , whose works were ostracized during the Nazi era, the theater was resumed on May 9, 1946 on the left side stage (400 seats) of the provisionally repaired theater. As a result of the war damage, however, theater operations in the immediate post-war period were relocated to the Protestant parish hall "Wartburg" (opera performances) and the Catholic parish hall Johannishof (plays). The first major spoken theater performance in the Johannishof was on June 21, 1946 Horace by Pierre Corneille . The Paris Comédie-Française took care of the performance . The first post-war opera played in the “Wartburg” was Werther by Jules Massenet . The performance on July 20, 1946 was performed by the ensemble of the Paris Opéra Garnier . The first opera performance by the Saarland ensemble was Orpheus and Eurydice by Christoph Willibald Gluck on January 15, 1947 and took place on the side stage of the theater.

Premabüba

Since the fund had been lost due to war-related relocation, bombing, artillery fire and looting, the theater organized the Premabüba ( acronym for “PREsse-MAler-BÜhnen-BAll”) for the first time during the carnival season in 1948 , the proceeds of which were used to purchase the new fund. The ball took place in all accessible rooms of the Saarbrücken theater building and was a great success.

Redesign in the immediate post-war period

All symbols of Nazi rule on the theater building as well as the fluting of the columns have been removed. The so-called "Standard of the Führer and Reich Chancellor" (swastika emblem in an oak wreath with two wings spread and two wings lowered Nazi Reich eagles) of the former Führer Lodge was marked on the occasion of the annual commemoration of the coming into force of the Saarland constitution by the Saarland flag (white cross with two blue and two red color fields). The foyer of the first tier was provided with wooden marquetry paneling composed of diamonds . The head ends of the hall decorating high rectangular stick carpets originating from Munich textile artist Ella Broesch, the then lecturer in the 1950s tapestry and paraments at the National School of Arts and Crafts of Saarland was. Before that, there was a large chimney mirror on one side and a large painting of Adolf Hitler in party uniform with an imperial eagle sculpture above it. The theme of the one tapestry that replaced the earlier fireplace mirror is "apple harvest". Ella Broesch depicted in abstract forms a young woman on a meadow of flowers who picks apples from a tree with her right hand and collects them in a bowl held by her left. Birds flying over the top of the apple tree establish the connection to a star-swept, winged angel figure in the upper area of ​​the tapestry. The celestial figure holding a star in her right hand with long, star-shimmered hair, carries a burning candle in her left hand.

On the other tapestry entitled “Harvest Time”, which replaced the Hitler painting and the Imperial Eagle, Ella Broesch shows two young women in long robes in the midst of lush vegetation. While the figure lying in the lower right area is collecting round stylized crops with her left hand, she is holding a sheaf of corn with her right arm. The female figure on the left in a flower-embroidered robe is picking flowers. A tree rises between the two women on a suggested hill, in the crown of which twelve circles with the zodiac signs of the year float in ornamental swirls. Ella Broesch was supported in her work on the embroidery pictures by the students Gertrud Kessler and Brigitte Altmeyer. In keeping with the depictions of trees on the tapestries, the large brass chandeliers in the hall are designed as stylized treetops with light bulbs symbolizing the fruit. Wolfram Huschens created a brass wall sculpture with the masks of tragedy and comedy . A bronze sculpture depicting Eva with the forbidden fruit of paradise from the tree of knowledge was created by the artist Fritz Claus (1885–1956) from Zweibrücken . In the 1950/1951 season, six windows seven meters high were built into the rear of the theater over a width of 16 meters for better lighting.

French influence

Guest appearances by Edith Piaf , the Paris Opéra-Comique , which staged a whole series of operas and operettas in Saarbrücken, the Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris as well as numerous other well-known French theater companies were intended to reconstruct the Saarland after the collapse of National Socialism serve, but also contribute to strengthening France's position on the Saar.

On March 6, 1948, the theater was reopened under the name Stadttheater Saarbrücken with the opera Die Zauberflöte by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the presence of the French military governor and high commissioner Gilbert Grandval and the Saarland Prime Minister Johannes Hoffmann . The first play was Wolfgang Borchert's homecoming drama Outside the Door . The chamber stage set up in the former choir room offered 221 seats in addition to the 1132 seats in the Great Hall. At the end of June 1952, the Saarbrücker Theater performed with Leonie Rysanek and Rudolf Großmann as part of the 1948 cultural agreement between Saarland and France at the Paris Théâtre des Champs-Élysées with the two operas Arabella by Richard Strauss and Peer Gynt by Werner Egk . Rysanek, who sang the title role of the opera “Arabella” in Paris, was unanimously celebrated in the French press and the Saarland guest appearance became the artistic highlight in the history of the Saarbrücken theater.

Incorporation of the Saarland into the Federal Republic

On January 1, 1957, the state act for the political integration of the Saarland into the Federal Republic of Germany took place in the theater in the presence of Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and the Saarland Prime Minister Hubert Ney .

Change of ownership

In 1971 the Stadttheater Saarbrücken became the responsibility of the Saarland. Since then it has been called the Saarland State Theater . The Saarbrücken State Theater has been a listed building since 1983.

Reconstruction by Gottfried Böhm in the 1980s

The State Theater originally had 1,132 seats. After the renovation in the 1980s, the seats were enlarged to improve the comfort of the audience and provided with ventilation systems so that the theater only offers 875 seats (510 seats in the stalls, 185 seats in the 1st tier, 180 seats in the 2nd tier).

A renovation between 1985 and 1989 was planned and supervised by Gottfried Böhm and the Saarbrücken office Krüger und Rieger. The Berlin painter Peter Schubert designed the dome over the auditorium with colorful, blazing eddies and waves, which are based in an abstract manner on Giovanni Battista Tiepolo's baroque frescoes, for example in the stairwell of the Würzburg Residence . When the lighting of the large dome chandelier is switched on, the ceiling now looks like a colorful explosion with a crystal core and bits of paint flying around, which contrast the originally intended coolness and rigidity of the neoclassical Nazi building with a contrasting counterweight. The walls of the walkways were provided with mirrors and designed with wall joints. The parts of the tree horticulture that were formerly exposed to stone were painted gray, the plastered surfaces were painted in Schönbrunn yellow to set the building apart from the traditional light gray of the Stengel baroque facades.

  • Entrance front with evening lighting

  • Auditorium, view from the second tier into the stalls

  • View of the stage

  • Walkway in the first tier with a view of the former "NS Hall of Honor"

  • Foyer with post-war paneling and embroidered wall hangings

  • Ceiling with chandelier

  • Door to the former Chancellor's Lodge on the first tier

  • Big refreshment room

  • Small refreshment room

  • Entrance hall

  • First tier stairwell

  • Second tier stairwell

Renovation after 2000

Another renovation was completed in 2014. Here the Saarland State Theater was faced with the need to generally and sustainably renovate its now very outdated and unreliable stage technology. The aim was to modernize the most important functional facilities of the upper and lower machinery while largely preserving the existing permanent fixtures in the steel and supporting structure. At that time, the “Le Carreau - Scène Nationale de Forbach et de l'Est mosellan” theater in the neighboring French town of Forbach , the Alte Schmelz in St. Ingbert and the Völklinger Hütte World Heritage Site served as substitute venues .

In January 2019, new outdoor lighting made of LED floodlights was installed on the entrance facade of the Saarland State Theater, which makes it possible to illuminate the theater in all colors to match the respective performances.

Old fire station

Old fire station, built in 1896/1897 by the St. Johann city master builder Wilhelm Franz

The by architect William Francis to 1897 built in 1896 Old Fire Station , second largest venue of the Saarland State Theater, was originally the gymnasium of the Gymnastics Federation of St. Johann, as well as in the basement of the warehouse of urban Spritzenwagen the fire department. Since January 1982 it has been a theater venue with a maximum capacity of 240 seats in variable seating. Mainly used for drama, but ballet evenings are also held there. In addition to guest performances, the introductory matinees and soirees are the most important special events that are added to regular game operations. The venue was designed by the architect Lu F. Kas.

  • Old fire station, stairwell

  • Old fire station, stage area

  • Old fire station, upper foyer

Congress hall

Not far from the State Theater on the Saar, the Congress Hall provides the setting for the symphony concerts of the Saarland State Orchestra. Since the 1994/1995 season the concerts have been held regularly in this hall. In the early summer of 2007 it was extensively renovated and acoustically optimized and has had very good concert acoustics ever since.

saved4

Opened in November 2006 in Alt-Saarbrücken , the sparte4 offers up to 100 guests a multifunctional space for theater, concerts, readings and performances. Direct contact with the artists should be made possible after each event. Sparte4 is designed as a forum for local, national and international cultural creation.

Development of the theater and the branches

Hermann Wedekind

The Saarland State Theater was opened in 1938 by Adolf Hitler as "Gautheater Saarpfalz" with the opera Der fiegen Holländer by Richard Wagner. After its destruction in 1942, it was rebuilt under French occupation after the Second World War and resumed theater operations as the Saarbrücken City Theater . After the Saarland was finally re-incorporated into the Federal Republic in 1959, it flourished under its then director Hermann Wedekind . During his tenure (1960–1975), Wedekind showed pieces by foreign artists, especially from France and Georgia, under the motto “Art knows no borders”. The city partnership between Tbilisi and Saarbrücken arose from a “Georgian week” at the house that was promoted to the state theater in 1971 .

In 1988 the state took over the entire sponsorship, and Martin Peleikis, general manager since 1975, became the founding manager of the planned Staatstheater GmbH. A year later, in 1989, the legal form of the State Theater was changed to "GmbH" and the Saarland State Theater was taken over by the State Theater GmbH. From 1991 to 2006, the Swiss actor and director Kurt-Josef Schildknecht was general director and managing director of the theater, which, under his leadership, was able to catch up with the ranks of important German-speaking houses. In 2006 he left the theater after a protracted dispute with the then Saarland minister of education Jürgen Schreier about budget cuts.

His successor was Dagmar Schlingmann from the 2006/07 season. In its first season, a fourth branch was added (to drama, music theater, ballet): the "sparte4", which has found its performance location on Eisenbahnstrasse; the artistic direction of the "sparte4" is incumbent on the director Christoph Diem. Dagmar Schlingmann will move to the Braunschweig State Theater at the end of the 2016/17 season . It will be followed by Bodo Busse from the 2017/18 season .

The Saarbrücker Dreispartenhaus with its 430 employees is very successful with well-known cooperation partners such as the English National Opera London, the Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, the Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen, the Finnish National Opera Helsinki, the Théâtre National du Luxembourg, the Festival Perspectives and the Saar Music Festival networked. Dagmar Schlingmann has come closer to her goal of positioning the house on an international level with the EU-supported TOTAL THEATER network: With this project, which connects six theater partners from the Greater Region from Luxembourg, France, Belgium and Germany, the European idea becomes sustainable in Anchored in the theater's program. The focus of the cooperation is on networking, capacity building, writing and directing competitions, theater festivals and the realization of international theater projects. Guest performances have taken the theater to Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, Belgium, France, Italy, Romania and Asia.

The Saarland State Orchestra , founded in 1912, not only participates in the music theater, ballet and musical productions of the Saarland State Theater. In addition, eight symphony concerts and numerous special concerts are an integral part of the program each season. In the course of its 100-year history, conductors such as Siegfried Köhler , Christof Prick , Jiří Kout , Jun Märkl , Laurent Wagner and Toshiyuki Kamioka have led the orchestra; Nicholas Milton has been General Music Director since the 2014/15 season . From the 2018/2019 season, the French Sébastien Rouland will take over the position of GMD.

Since the 2015/2016 season, the opera division has been provisionally headed by David Greiner and Stefanie Pavel. Brigitte Heusinger was previously the opera director (2012–2016), who succeeded Berthold Schneider (2006–2012) in this position. Stijn Celis has been ballet director at the Saarland State Theater since the 2014/15 season ; he is the successor to Marguerite Donlon , who filled this position between 2001 and 2013.

Since it was founded by Dagmar Schlingmann in the 2006/07 season, the Saarland State Theater has had a youth club (U21) under the direction of Jörg Wesemüller. Interested young people between the ages of 12 and 21 can play free theater here under professional supervision. At the end of each year there is a staging in the old fire station. The youth club shows its own piece developments (e.g. “Call Home” 2013) as well as productions based on literary models (e.g. “Being Macbeth” 2008, “Wir Wellen” 2015).

Divisions, festivals and networks

Opera

play

The play has been directed by Bettina Bruinier and Horst Busch since 2017. Many different director's manuscripts form a committed game plan.

Under the direction of Kurt Josef Schildknecht, the play was under his direction until 2006; from 1991 to 1998 Gerhard Weber was senior game manager at the house. Before that, from 1989 to 1991 Martin Peleikis was the founding director of the Saarländisches Staatstheater GmbH ; Lothar Trautmann held the office of theater director from 1981 to 1989. From 1976 to 1980 Günther Penzoldt was artistic director and theater director at the same time, from 1960 to 1976 Hermann Wedekind was general director and director. 1953–1960 Günther Stark artistic director, from 1946 to 1953 Willy Schüller.

saved4

Saarland State Ballet

The ballet has been directed by Stijn Celis since the 2014/2015 season . In addition to his own choreographies, pieces by important contemporary choreographers can also be seen. Celis continues the tradition that the dancers of the ensemble try their hand at choreography at SUBSTANZ at the end of a season. Since the opening of the new theater in Saarbrücken over 75 years ago, the house has maintained a ballet ensemble. It was written by Hans Preus (1938–41 and 1949–64), Gerda Laschinski (1941–44), Herbert Juzek (1964–68), Hrvoje Ježić (1968–70), Jutta Giesecke / Klaus Zimmer (1970–72), Roberto Trinchero (1972–76), Rainer Köchermann (1976–81), Thomas Fletcher (1981–83), Pierre Dobrievich (1983–87), Philip Lansdale (1987–91), Birgit Scherzer (1991–99), Bernd Roger Bienert (1999–2001) and Marguerite Donlon (2001–13).

Saarland State Orchestra

Saarland State Orchestra after a concert in the State Theater
Concert hall of the Congress Hall Saarbrücken

The Saarland State Orchestra, which was founded as the "Orchester der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde" under the direction of Viktor Cormann in 1912, takes part in the opera, ballet and musical productions of the Saarland State Theater. In addition, the distinguished A-Orchestra can be experienced in various concert formats in and outside Saarbrücken. Each season, eight symphony concerts with well-known soloists and conductors take place in the concert hall of the Congress Hall and are partly broadcast by Saarland Radio and Deutschlandradio Kultur. In the 2015/2016 season, a new series of concerts was launched for the orchestra: the so-called "Inspiration Concerts" in the Alte Feuerwache, which is very popular with the audience. With the composer and clarinetist Jörg Widmann , the project "artist in focus" started at the same time, for which a well-known artist has been invited to Saarbrücken every season since then. The special concerts include the traditional New Year's concerts, the film concerts in which the State Orchestra accompanies well-known silent films live in cooperation with the European Film Philharmonic, as well as the children's concerts and the summer open-air promenade concert at the beginning of the season. International guest concerts have recently taken the orchestra to Saint-Malo, France, and to the Philharmonie Luxembourg in 2017. The Moselle Music Festival opened for the first time in the summer of 2017 with a concert by the Saarland State Orchestra. In addition, the musicians of the State Orchestra are involved in various concert and theater educational projects, as well as in the chamber concerts of the State Theater. The French Sébastien Rouland has been General Music Director at the Saarland State Theater since the 2018/2019 season.

General music directors since 1974

Primeurs - Festival for Francophone Contemporary Drama

In 2007 the Primeurs Festival was set up to introduce French playwrights to a German audience. The organizers are the four partners Saarländisches Staatstheater, Saarländischer Rundfunk - SR2 KulturRadio, Le Carreau - Scène Nationale de Forbach et de l'Est mosellan and the Institut Français Saarbrücken. In the meantime, the festival has developed into a platform that has brought authors from all over the francophone-speaking area to Saarbrücken, including France, Belgium, Switzerland, Québec, Togo, Tunisia, Lebanon and the Republic of the Congo. Primeurs has paved the way for many authors on German-speaking stages and in nationwide radio play programs through numerous translation jobs.

In addition to live radio plays, staged readings and workshop productions, the program also includes discussions with the authors and the audience. Together with the Saarland Broadcasting Corporation, the Association of Friends of the Saarland State Theater is donating the “Primeurs” author award of 3,000 euros. The heart of the festival is the direct exchange with the authors and the inspiring atmosphere, which is transmitted to the auditorium every year, not least because of the enthusiasm of the actors involved.

Dance Festival Saar

Network Total Theater

The collaboration that began in 2004 between the Théâtre National du Luxembourg (L), the Théâtre de la Place in Liège (B), the Saarland State Theater, Saarbrücken (D) and the Center Dramatique National de Thionville Lorraine (F) initially served as preparation of the Total Théâtre project as part of Luxembourg and the Greater Region, European Capital of Culture 2007. It will be permanently continued and intensified under the same name. Chudoscnik Sunergia from Eupen and the Agora Theater in St. Vith (B), two stages in the German-speaking community of Belgium, have joined as new partners. The Stadttheater Trier (D) participates in selected projects. All partner theaters carry out their own productions. They each represent their own theater culture in different stage traditions. What brings them together is a common situation on the borders.

Thanks to European co-financing (Interreg IV A Greater Region) approved for the period from 2012 to 2014, the partners were able to create a basis for intensified and sustainable cooperation.

Association of Friends of the Saarland State Theater e. V.

On June 29, 1967, the “Association of Friends of the Saarland State Theater e. V. ". With around 300 members, it supports the work of the State Theater through donations, e.g. B. of musical instruments. Further funding applies to performances of the various disciplines, the “Tanzfestival Saar”, the annual Festival Primeurs authors' prize and the work of the “Young State Theater”.

literature

  • Paul Baumgarten: New theater buildings in Saarbrücken and Berlin. In: Art in the Third Reich. Munich 1938, pp. 94–111 and pp. 117–124.
  • Paul Baumgarten among others: The Gautheater Saarpfalz in Saarbrücken. In: Siemens magazine. Year 1939, issue 1, pp. 1–4.
  • Baumgarten's construction plans for the state theater: Saarbrücken city archive, inventory G 2426.
  • Castle in the west - an act of peace by the Führer. Ceremony for the opening of the Gautheater Saarpfalz. Saarbrücken, October 9, 1938. (Special edition of the Saarbrücker Zeitung, October 9, 1938).
  • Marlen Dittmann: The building culture in Saarland 1904–1945. (= Saarland booklets. 3). ed. from the Institute for Regional Studies in Saarland. Saarbrücken 2004, pp. 65-68.
  • Gautheater Saarpfalz Saarbrücken. Festschrift. October 9, 1938, special issue of the `Blätter des Gautheater Saarpfalz´, ed. by the director of the Gautheater Saarpfalz, Saarbrücken 1938.
  • Susanne Heidemann: The Theater zu Saarbrücken, its planning and construction history (1906–1938). In: Saarheimat. 6/7, Saarbrücken 1988, pp. 138-145.
  • Susanne Heidemann: The Fuehrer's Gift. In: Ten instead of a thousand years, The time of National Socialism on the Saar (1935–1945). Catalog for the exhibition of the Regional History Museum in Saarbrücken Castle, ed. from the Saarbrücken city association. 2nd, corrected edition. Merzig 1988, pp. 89-97.
  • Paul Peters: Saarland State Theater. ed. from the Ministry of Culture, Education and Science of the Saarland and the Saarland State Theater, Saarbrücken 1989 (commemorative publication for the reopening of the Great House of the Saarland State Theater on April 29/30, 1989).
  • 100 years of the Saarland State Orchestra. ed. from the Saarland State Theater, Saarbrücken 2012.
  • Dagmar Schlingmann, Harald Müller (ed.): No limits, 75 years of the Saarland State Theater. Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-943881-57-8 .
  • Armin Schmitt: From the cultural “bulwark” to the “bridge between the peoples” - Das Stadtthater Saarbrücken. In: Regionalgeschichtliches Museum Saarbrücken (ed.): From "Zero Hour" to "Day X", The Saarland 1945–1959. Merzig 1990, pp. 273-288.
  • Hildegard Schorr: The history of the Saarbrücker Theater from the beginning to the present. Dissertation. Mainz 1952.
  • On the historical stage technology of the theater: Siemens & Halske, Siemens & Schuckert-Werke: Special print from the Siemens magazine H, 1, 1939.

Web links

Commons : Staatstheater Saarbrücken  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Michael Hesse: Classical architecture in France; Churches, castles, gardens, cities, 1600–1800. Darmstadt 2004, p. 141.
  2. ↑ Peter Burg: Saarbrücken in revolutionary change (1789-1815). In: Rolf Wittenbrock (ed.): History of the city of Saarbrücken. Volume 1: From the beginnings to the industrial awakening (1860). Saarbrücken 1999, pp. 455-518, here: pp. 504-505.
  3. ^ Peter Burg: Saarbrücken on the rise to the center of a Prussian industrial region (1815–60). In: Rolf Wittenbrock (ed.): History of the city of Saarbrücken. Volume 1: From the beginnings to the industrial awakening (1860). Saarbrücken 1999, pp. 519-616, here: pp. 596-600.
  4. ^ Karl August Schleiden: Illustrated history of the city of Saarbrücken. Dillingen / Saar 2009, p. 357.
  5. ↑ Rolf Wittenbrock: The three Saar cities in the time of accelerated urban growth (1860-1908). In: Rolf Wittenbrock (ed.): History of the city of Saarbrücken. Volume 2: From the time of rapid growth to the present. Saarbrücken 1999, pp. 11-130, here: pp. 105-107.
  6. ^ Paul Burgard and Ludwig Linsmayer: From the union of the Saar cities to the voting campaign (1909-35). In: Rolf Wittenbrock (ed.): History of the city of Saarbrücken. Volume 2: From the time of rapid growth to the present. Saarbrücken 1999, pp. 131–242, here: pp. 225–227.
  7. ^ Paul Burgard and Ludwig Linsmayer: From the union of the Saar cities to the voting campaign (1909-35). In: Rolf Wittenbrock (ed.): History of the city of Saarbrücken. Volume 2: From the time of rapid growth to the present. Saarbrücken 1999, pp. 131–242, here: pp. 225–227.
  8. ^ Paul Peters: Saarland State Theater. ed. from the Ministry of Culture, Education and Science of the Saarland and the Saarland State Theater, Saarbrücken 1989 (Festschrift for the reopening of the Great House of the Saarland State Theater on April 29/30, 1989), p. 36.
  9. ^ Karl August Schleiden: Illustrated history of the city of Saarbrücken. Dillingen / Saar 2009, pp. 337-340.
  10. ↑ Festschrift Gautheater Saarpfalz Saarbrücken. October 9, 1938, special issue of the `Blätter des Gautheater Saarpfalz´, ed. from the director of the Gautheater Saarpfalz, Saarbrücken 1938, p. 29.
  11. ^ Paul Peters: Saarland State Theater. ed. from the Ministry of Culture, Education and Science of the Saarland and the Saarland State Theater, Saarbrücken 1989 (Festschrift for the reopening of the Great House of the Saarland State Theater on April 29/30, 1989), p. 36.
  12. ↑ Festschrift Gautheater Saarpfalz Saarbrücken. October 9, 1938, special issue of the `Blätter des Gautheater Saarpfalz´, ed. from the director of the Gautheater Saarpfalz, Saarbrücken 1938, p. 29.
  13. ↑ Ursula Thinnes: Aufbruch nach 1945. In: Dagmar Schlingmann, Harald Müller (Hrsg.): Grenzenlos. 75 years of the Saarland State Theater. Berlin 2013, pp. 50–57, here p. 53.
  14. ^ Hans-Walter Herrmann: Saarbrücken under the Nazi rule. In: Rolf Wittenbrock (ed.): History of the city of Saarbrücken. Volume 2: From the time of rapid growth to the present. Saarbrücken 1999, pp. 243–338, here: pp. 318–320.
  15. ^ Marlen Dittmann: The building culture in Saarland 1904-1945. ed. from the Institute for Regional Studies in Saarland (Saarland-Hefte 3), Saarbrücken 2004, pp. 65–68, here p. 65.
  16. ^ Paul Baumgarten: New theaters in Saarbrücken and Berlin. In: Art in the Third Reich. Munich 1938, pp. 94–111 and pp. 117–124, here p. 94.
  17. ↑ Armin Schmitt: From the cultural “bulwark” to the “bridge between the peoples” - the Saarbrücken city theater. In: Regional History Museum Saarbrücken (Ed.): From "Zero Hour" to "Day X". The Saarland 1945–1959. Merzig 1990, pp. 273-288, p. 275.
  18. ^ Paul Baumgarten: New theaters in Saarbrücken and Berlin. In: Art in the Third Reich. Munich 1938, pp. 94–111 and pp. 117–124, here p. 94.
  19. ↑ Festschrift Gautheater Saarpfalz Saarbrücken. October 9, 1938, special issue of the `Blätter des Gautheater Saarpfalz´, ed. by the director of the Gautheater Saarpfalz, Saarbrücken 1938, pp. 8–9.
  20. ^ Paul Peters: Saarland State Theater. ed. from the Ministry of Culture, Education and Science of the Saarland and the Saarland State Theater, Saarbrücken 1989 (commemorative publication on the reopening of the Great House of the Saarland State Theater on April 29/30, 1989), pp. 6-7.
  21. ↑ Festschrift Gautheater Saarpfalz Saarbrücken. October 9, 1938, special issue of the `Blätter des Gautheater Saarpfalz´, ed. from the director of the Gautheater Saarpfalz, Saarbrücken 1938, pp. 68–70.
  22. ↑ Festschrift Gautheater Saarpfalz Saarbrücken. October 9, 1938, special issue of the `Blätter des Gautheater Saarpfalz´, ed. from the director of the Gautheater Saarpfalz, Saarbrücken 1938, p. 14.
  23. ^ Paul Peters: Saarland State Theater. ed. from the Ministry of Culture, Education and Science of the Saarland and the Saarland State Theater, Saarbrücken 1989 (commemorative publication on the reopening of the Great House of the Saarland State Theater on April 29/30, 1989), pp. 7-10.
  24. ↑ Alexander Jansen: Look into the dark. Facets of the Führertheater 1938 to 1944. In: Dagmar Schlingmann, Harald Müller (Hrsg.): Grenzenlos. 75 years of the Saarland State Theater. Berlin 2013, pp. 20–38, here p. 27.
  25. ^ Karl August Schleiden: Illustrated history of the city of Saarbrücken. Dillingen / Saar 2009, pp. 514-515.
  26. ↑ Alexander Jansen: Look into the dark. Facets of the Führertheater 1938 to 1944. In: Dagmar Schlingmann, Harald Müller (Hrsg.): Grenzenlos. 75 years of the Saarland State Theater. Berlin 2013, pp. 20–38, here p. 26.
  27. ↑ Alexander Jansen: Look into the dark. Facets of the Führertheater 1938 to 1944. In: Dagmar Schlingmann, Harald Müller (Hrsg.): Grenzenlos. 75 years of the Saarland State Theater. Berlin 2013, pp. 20–38, here p. 26.
  28. ↑ Alexander Jansen: Look into the dark. Facets of the Führertheater 1938 to 1944. In: Dagmar Schlingmann, Harald Müller (Hrsg.): Grenzenlos. 75 years of the Saarland State Theater. Berlin 2013, pp. 20–38, here p. 26.
  29. ↑ Festschrift Gautheater Saarpfalz Saarbrücken. October 9, 1938, special issue of the `Blätter des Gautheater Saarpfalz´, ed. from the director of the Gautheater Saarpfalz, Saarbrücken 1938, p. 31.
  30. ↑ Kulturfonds des Führers In: philapedia.de , accessed on January 20, 2019.
  31. ^ Paul Peters: Saarland State Theater. ed. from the Ministry of Culture, Education and Science of the Saarland and the Saarland State Theater, Saarbrücken 1989 (Festschrift for the reopening of the Great House of the Saarland State Theater on April 29/30, 1989), p. 5.
  32. ^ Karl August Schleiden: Illustrated history of the city of Saarbrücken. Dillingen / Saar 2009, pp. 513-517.
  33. ↑ Christoph Trepesch: Saarbrücken, series archive images, from the holdings of the old collection of the Saarland Museum, Erfurt 1999, p. 64.
  34. ^ Marlen Dittmann: The building culture in Saarland 1904-1945. (= Saarland booklets. 3). ed. from the Institute for Regional Studies in Saarland, Saarbrücken 2004, pp. 65–68, here p. 65.
  35. ↑ Martin Laiblin: Theater, Building, Effects! - the architect Max Littmann and Munich during the time of the Prince Regent. Catalog for the exhibition in the Deutsches Theatermuseum Munich from May 13th to October 3rd, 2016, Leipzig 2016, p. 67.
  36. ^ Paul Baumgarten: New theaters in Saarbrücken and Berlin. In: Art in the Third Reich. Munich 1938, pp. 94–111 and pp. 117–124, here p. 94.
  37. ↑ Birgit Pflugmacher: Max Liebermann - his correspondence with Alfred Lichtwark, dissertation Universität Hamburg 2001, footnote 18 in part II.
  38. ^ Paul Baumgarten: New theaters in Saarbrücken and Berlin. In: Art in the Third Reich. Munich 1938, pp. 94–111 and pp. 117–124, here p. 94.
  39. ↑ Festschrift Gautheater Saarpfalz Saarbrücken. October 9, 1938, special issue of the `Blätter des Gautheater Saarpfalz´, ed. from the director of the Gautheater Saarpfalz, Saarbrücken 1938, pp. 71–72.
  40. ↑ The oldest dancer in the State Theater. In: Saarbrücker Zeitung, July 19, 2016.
  41. ↑ Alexander Schmidt: The Nazi Party Rally Grounds in Nuremberg. 5th, completely revised edition. Nuremberg 2017, pp. 35–61.
  42. ↑ Dieter Bartetzko: From the state of affairs. The architecture of the Saarland State Theater. In: Dagmar Schlingmann, Harald Müller (Ed.): Limitless. 75 years of the Saarland State Theater. Berlin 2013, pp. 11–17, here p. 14.
  43. ^ Marlen Dittmann: The building culture in Saarland 1904-1945. ed. from the Institute for Regional Studies in Saarland (Saarland-Hefte 3), Saarbrücken 2004, pp. 65–68, here p. 67.
  44. ^ Paul Baumgarten: New theaters in Saarbrücken and Berlin. In: Art in the Third Reich. Munich 1938, pp. 94–111 and pp. 117–124, here p. 104.
  45. ↑ Susanne Heidemann: The gift of the leader. In: Ten instead of a thousand years, The time of National Socialism on the Saar (1935–1945). Catalog for the exhibition of the Regional History Museum in Saarbrücken Castle, ed. from Stadtverband Saarbrücken, 2nd, corrected edition, Merzig 1988, pp. 89-97, p. 96.
  46. ↑ Festschrift Gautheater Saarpfalz Saarbrücken. October 9, 1938, special issue of the `Blätter des Gautheater Saarpfalz´, Saarbrücken 1938, p. 3.
  47. ^ Marlen Dittmann: The building culture in Saarland 1904-1945. ed. from the Institute for Regional Studies in Saarland (Saarland-Hefte 3), Saarbrücken 2004, pp. 65–68, here p. 67.
  48. ^ Paul Baumgarten: New theaters in Saarbrücken and Berlin. In: Art in the Third Reich. Munich 1938, pp. 94–111 and pp. 117–124, here p. 99.
  49. ↑ Susanne Heidemann: The gift of the leader. In: Stadtverband Saarbrücken, Regional History Museum (ed.): Ten instead of a thousand years, National Socialism on the Saar (1935–1945). Catalog for the exhibition of the Regional History Museum in Saarbrücken Castle, Saarbrücken 1988, pp. 89–97, here p. 93.
  50. ^ Hans-Walter Herrmann: Saarbrücken under the Nazi rule. In: Rolf Wittenbrock (ed.): History of the city of Saarbrücken. Volume 2: From the time of rapid growth to the present. Saarbrücken 1999, pp. 243–338, here p. 307.
  51. ↑ Alexander Jansen: Look into the dark. Facets of the Führertheater 1938 to 1944. In: Dagmar Schlingmann, Harald Müller (Hrsg.): Grenzenlos. 75 years of the Saarland State Theater. Berlin 2013, pp. 20–38, here pp. 36–37.
  52. ^ Armin Schmitt: From the cultural "bulwark" to the "bridge between the peoples" - Das Stadtthater Saarbrücken. In: Regional History Museum Saarbrücken (Ed.): From "Zero Hour" to "Day X". The Saarland 1945–1959. Merzig 1990, pp. 273-288, p. 274.
  53. ^ Susanne Heidemann: The Theater zu Saarbrücken, its planning and construction history (1906-1938). In: Saarheimat. 6/7, pp. 138-145, Saarbrücken 1988, p. 145.
  54. ↑ Alexander Jansen: Look into the dark. Facets of the Führertheater 1938 to 1944. In: Dagmar Schlingmann, Harald Müller (Hrsg.): Grenzenlos. 75 years of the Saarland State Theater. Berlin 2013, pp. 20–38, here p. 37.
  55. ↑ Dagmar Schlingmann, Harald Müller (ed.): No limits, 75 years of the Saarland State Theater. Berlin 2013, pp. 144–147.
  56. ^ Paul Peters: Saarland State Theater. ed. from the Ministry of Culture, Education and Science of the Saarland and the Saarland State Theater, Saarbrücken 1989 (Festschrift for the reopening of the Great House of the Saarland State Theater on April 29/30, 1989), p. 10.
  57. ^ Hans-Walter Herrmann: Saarbrücken under the Nazi rule. In: Rolf Wittenbrock (ed.): History of the city of Saarbrücken. Volume 2: From the time of rapid growth to the present. Saarbrücken 1999, pp. 243–338, here: pp. 318–320.
  58. ^ Paul Peters: Saarland State Theater. ed. from the Ministry of Culture, Education and Science of the Saarland and the Saarland State Theater, Saarbrücken 1989 (commemorative publication on the reopening of the Great House of the Saarland State Theater on April 29/30, 1989), p. 11.
  59. ^ Armin Schmitt: From the cultural "bulwark" to the "bridge between the peoples" - Das Stadtthater Saarbrücken. In: Regional History Museum Saarbrücken (Ed.): From "Zero Hour" to "Day X". The Saarland 1945–1959. Merzig 1990, pp. 273-288, p. 274.
  60. ^ Armin Schmitt: From the cultural "bulwark" to the "bridge between the peoples" - Das Stadtthater Saarbrücken. In: Regional History Museum Saarbrücken (Ed.): From "Zero Hour" to "Day X". The Saarland 1945–1959. Merzig 1990, pp. 273-288, pp. 274-275.
  61. ^ Paul Peters: Saarland State Theater. ed. from the Ministry of Culture, Education and Science of the Saarland and the Saarland State Theater, Saarbrücken 1989 (commemorative publication on the reopening of the Great House of the Saarland State Theater on April 29/30, 1989), p. 11.
  62. ↑ Dagmar Schlingmann, Harald Müller (ed.): No limits, 75 years of the Saarland State Theater. Berlin 2013, pp. 147–148.
  63. ^ Fritz Claus In: institut-aktuelle-kunst.de , accessed on January 3, 2019.
  64. ↑ Dagmar Schlingmann, Harald Müller (ed.): No limits, 75 years of the Saarland State Theater. Berlin 2013, p. 151.
  65. ^ Armin Schmitt: From the cultural "bulwark" to the "bridge between the peoples" - Das Stadtthater Saarbrücken. In: Regional History Museum Saarbrücken (Ed.): From "Zero Hour" to "Day X". The Saarland 1945–1959. Merzig 1990, pp. 273-288, here pp. 283-284.
  66. ^ Hans-Christian Herrmann: From reconstruction to the state capital, European city and border metropolis (1945-74). In: Rolf Wittenbrock (ed.): History of the city of Saarbrücken. Volume 2: From the time of rapid growth to the present. Saarbrücken 1999, pp. 339-452, here: pp. 440-441.
  67. ^ Paul Peters: Saarland State Theater. ed. from the Ministry of Culture, Education and Science of the Saarland and the Saarland State Theater, Saarbrücken 1989 (commemorative publication on the reopening of the Great House of the Saarland State Theater on April 29/30, 1989), p. 11.
  68. ↑ Hans Krajewski and others: Saarbrücken, yesterday – today – tomorrow. Saarbrücken 1966, p. 164.
  69. ↑ Dagmar Schlingmann, Harald Müller (ed.): No limits, 75 years of the Saarland State Theater. Berlin 2013, p. 152.
  70. ^ Armin Schmitt: From the cultural "bulwark" to the "bridge between the peoples" - Das Stadtthater Saarbrücken. In: Regional History Museum Saarbrücken (Ed.): From "Zero Hour" to "Day X". The Saarland 1945–1959. Merzig 1990, pp. 273-288, here p. 284.
  71. ↑ Volksstimme of July 2, 1952.
  72. ↑ New German newsreel 362/1957. (WebM / MP4) In: German Federal Archives. Retrieved July 13, 2017 (video).
  73. ^ Paul Peters: Saarland State Theater. ed. from the Ministry of Culture, Education and Science of the Saarland and the Saarland State Theater, Saarbrücken 1989 (commemorative publication on the reopening of the Great House of the Saarland State Theater on April 29/30, 1989), p. 23.
  74. ↑ Dieter Bartetzko: From the state of affairs. The architecture of the Saarland State Theater. In: Dagmar Schlingmann, Harald Müller (Ed.): Limitless. 75 years of the Saarland State Theater. Berlin 2013, pp. 11–17, here p. 16.
  75. ^ Paul Peters: Saarland State Theater. ed. from the Ministry of Culture, Education and Science of the Saarland and the Saarland State Theater, Saarbrücken 1989 (commemorative publication on the reopening of the Great House of the Saarland State Theater on April 29/30, 1989), p. 19.
  76. ↑ Dieter Bartetzko: From the state of affairs. The architecture of the Saarland State Theater. In: Dagmar Schlingmann, Harald Müller (Ed.): Limitless. 75 years of the Saarland State Theater. Berlin 2013, pp. 11–17, here p. 12.
  77. ^ Paul Peters: Saarland State Theater. ed. from the Ministry of Culture, Education and Science of the Saarland and the Saarland State Theater, Saarbrücken 1989 (commemorative publication on the reopening of the Great House of the Saarland State Theater on April 29/30, 1989), pp. 27-30.
  78. ↑ Sire, give freedom to build. In: FAZ . July 9, 2014, pp. 16-17.
  79. ^ Rehabilitation of stage technology Saarland State Theater, Saarbrücken. In: wsv-ingenieure.de. Retrieved July 26, 2018 .
  80. ↑ Tonia Koch : State Theater Saarbrücken in the renovation fever. Series “On the cultural construction site”, part 10. In: Deutschlandfunk . August 12, 2013. Retrieved July 27, 2018 .
  81. ↑ Staatstheater.saarland , accessed on February 8, 2019.
  82. ^ Paul Peters: Saarland State Theater. ed. from the Ministry of Culture, Education and Science of the Saarland and the Saarland State Theater, Saarbrücken 1989 (commemorative publication on the reopening of the Great House of the Saarland State Theater on April 29/30, 1989), pp. 26-27.
  83. ^ Ministry of Culture, Education and Science of the Saarland + Saarländisches Staatstheater GmbH (Ed.): Saarländisches Staatstheater . Saarbrücker Zeitung GmbH, 1989, p. 31 ff .
  84. ↑ 100 Years of the Saarland State Orchestra, ed. from the Saarland State Theater, Saarbrücken 2012.
  85. ^ Sébastien Rouland | Saarländisches Staatstheater In: Staatstheater.saarland . accessed on January 29, 2019.
  86. ^ Festival Primeurs. In: saarbruecken.de. Retrieved February 7, 2018 .
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