Schiller Opera

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The Schiller Opera

The Schiller Opera is a listed circus theater in Hamburg-St. Pauli and namesake of the street at the Schiller Opera . The building, which is unique in Germany and officially located at Bei der Schilleroper 14/16/20, is currently empty.

history

19th century

The Schiller Opera belonged to the neighboring Prussian town of Altona / Elbe until the Greater Hamburg Act and its border shifts came into force . The round steel frame building, modified by war and wear and tear, was built for Circus Busch from 1889 to 1891 . It was opened in 1891 with a gala performance and held over a thousand visitors in its auditorium. In the outbuildings were u. a. Artist apartments, a prop pool and elephant stables. The circus moved from there in 1899 to a new permanent circus building on the Zirkusweg near the Reeperbahn .

Due to its original use, the 24 meter high main building of the Schiller Opera was given the round shape derived from a circus tent or a large tent theater. This rotunda is now surrounded by one and two-story extensions, the shape of which was changed several times in the course of the 20th century. So was u. a. the historical foyer and stage were only rebuilt in a simplified manner after being badly damaged by bombs in the Second World War. The land area is around 3050 m².

20th century

From 1904 the former circus building was converted into a theater according to plans by the architect Ernst Michaelis and reopened on April 19, 1905 with Schiller's " Wilhelm Tell ". At the same time, the building was named "Schiller Theater" on the occasion of Schiller's one hundredth anniversary of death. Operas and tragedies, revues and so-called "moral plays" were performed there. In the 1920s, numerous pieces with political and historical content - such as "Lifelong", "Pioneers in Ingolstadt", "Paragraph 218" or Brechts and Weill's " Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny " - were on the repertoire. Lay groups from the Hamburg labor movement also used it for their performances. Hans Albers had a number of stage appearances here as a member of the ensemble in 1939.

From 1927 onwards, the theater was on the verge of insolvency and was saved by subsidies from the Altona magistrate. At the beginning of 1933 the National Socialists used this to raise allegations of corruption against Lord Mayor Max Brauer and the responsible Senator August Kirch ; In fact, both had accepted gifts and payments from Intendant Max Ellen and were therefore on trial after the " seizure of power ".

After a renovation in 1932, the “Schiller Theater” became the “Opera in the Schiller Theater”, then the “Schiller Opera”. It was reopened on September 4, 1932 with a performance of "Freischütz". Neither the neo-baroque nor the art nouveau facade (architects: Lehmann and Hein), not even the expressionist modernism of the renovation of 1932 (architects: Esselmann & Gerntke) have survived.

In the epoch after 1933, the "Schiller Opera" quickly adapted to the new political conditions and, according to the program booklets that have been received, led among other things. a. the drama fragment “The Wanderer. A game in a prologue, eleven pictures and an epilogue ... ” , the author of which was the Nazi Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels . On the other hand, works of modern music by Hindemith or Krenek were performed, and in January 1939 Franz Lehár conducted the first performance of his operetta “ Giuditta ” here.

Shortly after the beginning of the Second World War , the theater ended with the last performance of the play "Sunbeam in the Backyard" on September 11, 1939, as there was no air raid shelter. During the war, the building was temporarily used as a camp for Italian prisoners of war, after the end of the war - like numerous other buildings that remained undamaged - as an emergency shelter for bombed out and refugees. Apparently the rotunda could still be used as an arena until at least 1951, because on August 21, 1951 two motorcycle artists demonstrated their skills while driving on the vertical inner wall of an iron drum erected for this purpose. After the Second World War, it was sold to Kurt Ehrhardt in a foreclosure sale in 1952. The building housed a hotel until 1963, after which it was used by migrant workers until the end of the 1970s. a. Workers from the Blohm + Voss shipyard, quartered before it was used as a warehouse by various companies.

The building had previously been badly damaged by a major fire in the early morning hours of March 10, 1975. There was already a small fire there in September 1974 after an arson attack. In both cases, no resident was permanently harmed, just as little as a defective heating system, which was responsible for smoke gas poisoning in February 1964.

Since the end of the 1960s, the sons of the buyer, Eberhard and Frank Ehrhardt, as spokesmen for a community of five-party heirs, repeatedly presented new plans for the building. According to a newspaper article from September 1979, this also included the return of the Busch-Roland Circus to a new arena for up to 2500 spectators with an attached hotel and a shopping mall. At the same time, in 1978 there was a report on a project by the Barum Circus to use the Schiller Opera permanently as a permanent circus building and for a so-called "winter circus".

The use of the theater was also considered again in 1979 when the Deutsches Schauspielhaus was looking for an alternative venue for the 1980/81 season, for which the building should be renovated and rebuilt. However, the plan failed because of the objection from the district office in the center, which cited the designation of the area as a green area in the development plan .

At the end of the 1970s the building was given over to the urban redevelopment area “St. Pauli-Nord S1 Schilleroper ”, which was formally completed in 2004, took its name. In this context, the Schiller Opera was temporarily considered as a location for a municipal district center, for which a particularly high need was seen as part of the so-called “poverty reduction program” of the urban development authority. Since then, it has been subject to special obligations and requirements of building law, which provide for modifications or demolition with additional approval requirements (so-called "redevelopment approval" according to Sections 144f. Building Code ). These conditions continue to apply, as the Schilleroper property was expressly not released from its redevelopment obligations.

In 1986 a new development plan (St. Pauli 24) was drawn up, which instead of the Schiller Opera provided a “public needs area” with a publicly accessible market area and shops for local supplies. At that time, a (partial) demolition or extensive renovation of the building was considered advantageous because it was expected to be revitalized as a theater or event center with unacceptable noise and traffic pollution for the highly dense, surrounding residential and commercial area. In addition, the Schanzenviertel to the north did not yet have the character of a nightlife and entertainment district known beyond Hamburg, so that a "new Schiller Opera" appeared as a foreign body without economically viable prospects.

In spite of this, the owners of the ensemble began to prepare for a new cultural use in 1988, initially in the form of a cultural association, which also operates the cinema in the nearby Bernstorffstrasse. 93-95 resumed. At the beginning of the 1990s, the owner and manager of the Hanseatische Mediengesellschaft Schilleroper mbH Eberhardt Ehrhardt, based on the development plan from 1986, brought further new plans for an event center, offices, restaurants and shops to the public: According to plans by the Hamburg architects BRT (Bothe, Richter, Teherani ), the central building was to be dismantled, renovated and rebuilt on a 5 meter high base as an event area for up to 800 people. However, this was rejected by the responsible district of Hamburg-Mitte on the basis of the following reason: "The core of the use, namely the multifunctional event area and office use, include music, theater, conferences and other events whose inadmissibility under planning law has already been determined by a court."

Since 1993 the owner has sued in several instances for exemption from the stipulations of the development plan and the renewal concept for the redevelopment area. This triggered a demand among local politicians to initiate expropriation proceedings against the owner because of the continued violations of the redevelopment goals.

In the 1990s, the accommodation of mainly Afghan asylum seekers in the building, which had already been severely “dilapidated”, led to violent political disputes. After the extensions had been used for asylum seekers for several years since January 1990, the district of Hamburg Mitte again rented accommodation in the building from the tenant from 1997 to 1999 at the instigation of the district office manager Rolf Miller (SPD) for approx. 1.5 million DM of the building, the "PR Beherbergungs-Betriebe GmbH (Norderstedt)", for around 70 refugees. These accommodations were classified as inhumane by the Hamburg Refugee Council because it rained in and bait had to be placed in various rooms to fight rats. There was also a lack of cooking facilities, sanitary facilities and even heating. Therefore, asylum seekers who had been asked to move protested from a neighboring accommodation on Schanzenstrasse. 2-4 violently against the official relocation orders. Even the responsible social affairs officer at the district office therefore refused to allow Afghan families to be forcibly detained. After the administrative court ruled that the district office in Mitte was unlawful, as initially planned, around 20 families were not quartered there, but mostly single men from Afghanistan and former Yugoslavia and homeless people. This prompted the owner to file a lawsuit for damages due to higher energy consumption, increased maintenance costs and alleged damage from vandalism.

At the same time, lawsuits and coercive measures against the owners unwilling to renovate were discontinued in order to enable them to initiate renovation according to the specifications of the renovation concept for the Schiller Opera area. However, an urban development contract that would have obliged the owners to renovate in return for renting the building was not concluded.

In May 1998, they again submitted a preliminary building permit application for the conversion according to the plans of the BRT office and financed by Hanseatica Property Development GmbH & Co. KG, which required the demolition of large parts of the ensemble in favor of new office, restaurant and retail space and an underground car park with 90 parking spaces.

While the demolition was still planned in 1998, the building (and here in particular the steel skeleton as an example of early industrial structural architecture) is now on the list of buildings worthy of monuments. However, so far (as of October 2011) it has not been listed as a registered cultural monument of the city of Hamburg (development plan identification “KD” with serial number), as has been erroneously reported on occasion.

The building appears today in the upper part as a rotunda (round building). The roof structure is formed by a so-called lantern, i. H. a lighthouse-like skylight. The one to two-storey lower part consists of low porches with windows and a two-storey, cubic, plastered entrance area (at times with the inscription “New Schiller Opera” and a Schiller portrait). In the two-storey foyer there was initially an Italian restaurant since 1990 and - after a lengthy renovation period - the bar-restaurant "Alte Schilleroper", which offered upscale gastronomy, since February 1994. Since this offer was apparently not appropriate to the location at the time, the restaurant was converted into a music club in February 1997.

21st century

In 2000, swing parties with music from the 1930s and 40s were held in the foyer , which are intended to tie in with the former use of the theater. The use of gastronomy and events in the foyer building was then continued. At the same time, the city of Hamburg and the owners continued the dispute over the building and its future that had been going on for decades.

First, however, in autumn 2001 a new structural concept for the preservation was presented. It comprised the "relocation" (relocation) of the rotunda, the renovation of the - previously completely dismantled - steel frame construction and an additional shell development, consisting of an approx. 21.5 meter high residential and commercial building in the south of the property and a maximum 10 meter high Connection. This concept, however, disappeared into a drawer for the entire following decade.

Its basis was a new, project-related development plan (St. Pauli 42 - Schiller Opera) by the renowned Hamburg city planner Jo Clausen-Seggelke, which had been drawn up by mutual agreement with the owners. It only includes the building block of the Schiller Opera between the streets of Bei der Schilleroper and Lerchenstraße. This plan was officially established on October 18, 2004.

Since July 2003, the subculture club “Schilleroper” has been operating in the porch of the rotunda as an interim use for two and a half years. National and international artists performed here in numerous concerts and readings, so that the “Schiller Opera” quickly became known beyond Hamburg and became a “hip location”. Numerous musicians and groups from the so-called “Hamburg School” also performed here.

On March 31, 2006, the club was closed again for contractual and financial reasons, thus joining a long series of club closings. After this last temporary or interim use , both the central building and the extensions have since been unused, while the surrounding area is becoming increasingly commercialized.

In 2008, Bernhard Paul (founder of Circus Roncalli ) and the operators of a neighboring cinema unsuccessfully tried to acquire or rent the Schiller Opera. At the beginning of 2011, a further settlement proposal for the preservation and renovation of the building on the basis of the current development plan was submitted to the owners by the court. It includes u. a. the relocation of the rotunda and a mantle development on the remainder of the property that was thereby rounded off.

Up until autumn 2011, there was just as little evidence of maintenance or renovation of the building as there was of alternative possibilities for temporary or permanent use. On October 1, 2011, activists occupied the vacant building, but were evacuated by the police after a few hours.

In 2018, the culture authority asked the owner to renovate the roof. If the owner does not comply with the request, the building will be renovated by the city at the owner's expense.

After further legal disputes, the owner now has the last opportunity to submit an application for restructuring by December 31, 2020. Otherwise the city will take coercive measures at the owner's expense.

reception

A detailed description of the history and use of the Schiller Opera up to the beginning of the 1980s, based on reports and biographies of artists and employees of the theater and entertainment companies, can be found in the paperback The Schiller Opera in Altona. An archeology of entertainment. by Horst Königstein . The different historical episodes are illustrated with numerous pictures. In addition to the book, the film Schiller Opera: A Forgotten Theater in Hamburg-Altona was made in the early 1980s .

literature

  • Programs 1932–1939 of the opera in the Schiller Theater / Schiller Opera <Altona> / Schiller Opera <Hamburg> (Location: University of Hamburg, Center for Theater Research / Hamburg Theater Collection.)
  • Paul Möhring : Schiller Theater and Schiller Opera: Hamburg-Altona; 1905-1939. Typescript (56 pages). Hamburg [approx.] 1940. (Location: University of Hamburg, Center for Theater Research / Hamburg Theater Collection.)
  • Paul Möhring: From Ackermann to Ziegel: Theater in Hamburg. Hamburg 1970.
  • SAGA : Urban renewal in Hamburg: preparatory study according to the urban development law; St. Pauli-Nord, Schilleroper / Thadenstrasse. Part A: Assessment of the need for renovation. Hamburg 1979, and Part B: Renewal Concept - Planning and Implementation. Hamburg 1980.
  • Horst Königstein : The Schiller Opera in Altona. An archeology of entertainment Frankfurt / M. 1983, ISBN 3-518-37332-3 .
  • Hermann Hipp : Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg , Cologne, 3rd edition 1996, ISBN 3-7701-1590-2 .
  • Anke Rees: The Schiller Opera in Hamburg: The last circus building of the 19th century in Germany , Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-00-032384-3 .
  • Anke Rees: The Schiller Opera 1889 to 1933. A forgotten testimony to Hamburg's entertainment architecture and German circus architecture of the 19th century. In: Dirk Hempel , Ingrid Schröder (eds.): Docking. Hamburg's cultural history from 1848 to 1933. Contributions to Hamburg history, volume 4. Hamburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-934632-43-1 , pp. 371-380.
  • Anke Rees: The Building as Actor - Architectures and Their Atmospheres , Zurich 2016, ISBN 978-3-0340-1362-8 .

Movie

  • Horst Königstein (director): Schiller Opera: A forgotten theater in Hamburg-Altona. , 1980, Festival dei Popoli, Florence; (TV film: 90 minutes. TV first broadcast: NDR-Fernsehen , 3rd program, January 2, 1981.)

Radio

  • NDR 90.3 - evening journal special: Schiller Opera; Author: Daniel Kaiser; Broadcast date: February 19, 2011, 8.10 p.m.; Duration: 33:36 minutes

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hamburg press on the examination of the monument, 2012
  2. ↑ Christa Fladhammer / Michael Wildt: Max Brauer in Exile. Letters and speeches 1933-1946. Christians, Hamburg 1994 ISBN 3-7672-1219-6 , pp. 24-27 and 196
  3. ↑ Olaf Bartels: Altonaer Architects - a city building history in biographies. Hamburg 1997, ISBN 3-88506-269-0
  4. ↑ Eberhard von Wiese: Franz Lehár had the puppets dance at the New Horse Market. In: Hamburger Abendblatt from March 1, 1980
  5. ↑ Death ride under the dome. In: Hamburger Abendblatt of August 22, 1951
  6. ↑ Circus as a "subtenant". In: Hamburger Abendblatt from September 17, 1977
  7. ↑ Michael Schweer: Even in winter the bears should dance in Hamburg. In: Hamburger Abendblatt from May 19, 1978
  8. ^ Page no longer available , search in web archives: map of the redevelopment area St. Pauli-Nord S 1 Schilleroper@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.hamburg.de , status : September 2008; accessed on October 30, 2011
  9. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: aerial photo of the redevelopment area St. Pauli-Nord S 1 Schilleroper@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.hamburg.de ; accessed on October 30, 2011
  10. ^ Page no longer available , search in web archives: plan illustration of the renewal concept for the redevelopment area St. Pauli-Nord S 1 Schilleroper@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.hamburg.de , status: January 2004; accessed on October 30, 2011
  11. ^ District redeveloped owners , taz Hamburg No. 5074 of November 9, 1996; accessed on November 8, 2011
  12. ^ Ade district center , taz Hamburg No. 5084 of November 21, 1996; accessed on November 8, 2011
  13. ^ Social City - Federal Transfer Office. Final report, section 9.3
  14. ↑ F + B research and advice for housing, real estate and environmental GmbH, evaluation of measures to combat poverty as part of social urban development. Results of the second project stage of the accompanying evaluation and overall assessment on behalf of the Hamburg City Development Authority, Hamburg 1997 (Annex to printed matter No. 15/7778 of the Hamburg Parliament)
  15. ↑ Schiller Opera : New Center or Historic Monument? , In: Hamburger Abendblatt of August 13, 1998
  16. ^ "Their ass goes on ice" , taz Hamburg No. 5228 of May 16, 1997; accessed on November 8, 2011
  17. ^ " Schmitzentheater" in the Schiller Opera , taz Hamburg No. 5232 from May 22, 1997; accessed on November 8, 2011
  18. ↑ Homeless in the Opera , taz Hamburg No. 5239 of May 30, 1997; accessed on November 9, 2011
  19. ^ Money or Men , taz Hamburg No. 5255 of June 18, 1997; accessed on November 8, 2011
  20. ↑ Courage to the memory gap , taz Hamburg No. 5208 of April 21, 1997; accessed on November 8, 2011
  21. ^ Supermarket instead of Varieté: The Schiller Opera in Hamburg is to be demolished , published on June 8, 1998; Retrieved October 23, 2011
  22. ↑ List of recognized monuments according to §7a Hamburg Monument Protection Act ..., Sections A - E (as of April 13, 2010) (PDF; 1.9 MB)
  23. ↑ Schiller Opera : District rejects demolition request , Hamburger Abendblatt dated September 29, 2007; accessed on October 23, 2011
  24. ↑ Fine food in the foyer. Schilleroper soon beckons with four-course meals. In: Hamburger Abendblatt from March 13, 1992
  25. ^ The Comeback of the Schiller Opera , Hamburger Morgenpost, October 15, 2001; accessed on October 23, 2011
  26. ↑ Schilleroper: This is their future (PDF; 189 kB) , Hamburger Abendblatt from October 11, 2001; accessed on October 23, 2011
  27. ↑ Ordinance on the development plan St. Pauli 42 of October 18, 2004 (PDF; 609 kB) , published on November 3, 2004 in the Hamburg Law and Ordinance Gazette (Part I), No. 46 (2004), page 391, from 3 November 2004 November 2004; accessed on October 30, 2011
  28. ↑ Development plan St. Pauli 42 from September 1, 2014 ; accessed on January 21, 2019
  29. ^ The "Schiller Opera" is closing time , Hamburger Abendblatt from March 16, 2006; accessed on October 23, 2011
  30. ↑ Hamburger Morgenpost online: Police end the occupation of the Schiller Opera , article from October 3, 2011 , accessed on December 4, 2012
  31. ↑ Schiller Opera falls apart: Now the city wants to force the renovation. January 3, 2019, accessed on January 3, 2019 (German).
  32. ↑ Circus Theater in Hamburg Trouble about Schiller Opera never ends - "Scandal". Mopo, June 30, 2020.
  33. ↑ The forgotten theater. In: The time of January 2, 1981
  34. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: NDR 90.3 radio ; accessed on October 31, 2011@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.ndr.de

Coordinates: 53 ° 33 ′ 29 "  N , 9 ° 57 ′ 42"  E