Palace Park Theater

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The Schlosspark Theater in Berlin-Steglitz

The Schlosspark Theater is a theater in the Berlin district of Steglitz in the Steglitz-Zehlendorf district . The traditional theater has been operated as a private theater by Dieter Hallervorden since 2008 .

history

The history of the renowned theater goes back to the year 1804. In 1921 the theater found new accommodation in the service wing of the Wrangelschlösschen ( Steglitz manor ). This house, built in the classical style, was specially converted for this purpose and held 440 places.

After the Second World War , Boleslaw Barlog ran the theater for 27 years until 1972. Hildegard Knef , Klaus Kinski and Martin Held were part of the ensemble . His successor was first Hans Lietzau and then Boy Gobert .

In the post-war period , German-language premieres by famous contemporary dramatists premiered here. Samuel Beckett staged his famous play Waiting for Godot in the house . Hildegard Knef made her theatrical debut in the Schlosspark Theater. The theater ensemble was awarded the German Critics' Prize in 1953 for the premiere of Max Brod's version of Das Schloss by Franz Kafka .

View from the Steglitz roundabout to the Schlosspark Theater, 1972

In 1950 the Schlosspark Theater was named a State Theater as part of the Schiller Theater and was its smaller venue. After the closure of the Berlin State Drama Theater in 1993, the Schlosspark Theater was operated as a private theater with state subsidies. Heribert Sasse took over the Schlosspark Theater as a private theater from the bankruptcy assets of the state theaters that were wound up after the political change . But Sasse, who was responsible for the theater as general manager of the State Drama Theaters as early as the 1980s , was unable to make the venue economically successful. The reason for this was seen as the dignified but uninspiring game plan. The managing director Wisniewski negotiated with Ezard Haußmann and Wolfgang Rumpf with the aim of taking over the management of the house - possibly together -, but no agreement could be reached.

The management of the house was put out to tender again in 2003 by the Senate. In a selection process with 15 applicants, the actors Andreas Gergen and Gerald Michel with the TOYS musical production were awarded the contract for the performance of the traditional house from October 2004. During this time the Schlosspark Theater was mainly used for musicals and drama productions. The first premiere of the stage directed by Gergen and Michel was the Broadway hit Pinkelstadt , in which Ilja Richter and Tilmann von Blomberg participated, among others . In addition to the drama version of the Berlin operetta As once in May with Mathias Freihoff , among others, Gergen and his team also brought Die Drei von der Gasstelle (with Dieter Landuris , Monty Arnold , Axel Herrig and Katharine Mehrling among others ), the German-language premiere of Rolf Hochhuth's night music and his own non (n) sens production on the stage of the Schlosspark Theater.

The entertainment group Stage Entertainment , which also operates the Theater des Westens and the Theater am Potsdamer Platz in Berlin , became a financially strong partner of the Schlosspark Theater in 2006. However, even under the new management, the audience numbers did not reach the level hoped for. From the summer of 2006, no more theater performances were shown in the Schlosspark Theater, it was only used as a broadcasting location for a television casting show.

Since 2008

In December 2008, the comedian and actor Dieter Hallervorden rented the Schlosspark Theater from the city of Berlin for ten years and had basic renovation work carried out with his own funds amounting to 1.2 million euros. Auditorium, foyer and stage technology were refurbished, for which Hallervorden was granted a rental cost exemption for a period of five years by the Berlin Senate . On September 1, 2009, the theater resumed theater operations. Hallervorden operates it as a spoken theater without a permanent ensemble in semi-stagione and guest performance. Every year there are around six in-house productions (many of them German premieres), which are supplemented by guest performances. The theater recorded its greatest success so far under Hallervordens direction with the play Achterbahn by Éric Assous, the biggest flop with Under the Stairs by Charles Dyer , directed by Alfred Kirchner . In the 2011/12 game year Hallervorden shot up 600,000 euros from private funds. The lottery foundation paid the same amount in each of the following two years.

At the end of 2011 / beginning of 2012 there were racism allegations on the part of Bühnenwatch against Hallervorden and Joachim Bliese , after the blackface Midge Carter was cast in the play Ich bin nicht Rappaport . From October 6, 2012 the play The Little King December should be performed for the first time. Since the main actor Dirk Bach died unexpectedly on October 1st, the premiere had to be postponed to October 27th. The role was taken over by Gustav Peter Wöhler .

Financing and visitor numbers

Since 2011, the Schlosspark Theater has received public grants as part of the institutional funding from the Stiftung Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin (DKLB Foundation; so-called lottery funds) and since 2013 subsidies directly from the State of Berlin.

According to his own information from 2018, Hallervorden initially invested 1.7 million euros from his private assets in the renovation. Since then, he has been spending around 100,000 euros a year in private funds to run the deficit theater.

In 2017, the theater received a total of 883,000 euros in public grants, of which 283,000 euros were institutional funding from the Berlin State Department of Culture and 600,000 euros from the DKLB Foundation . In 2016 the theater had 89,705 paying visitors at 339 performances, in 2017 79,919 paying guests attended 358 performances, the occupancy rate was 48%.

literature

  • The castle park. Published by the Schloßpark-Theater, Berlin-Steglitz. Schloßpark-Gesellschaft 1921/1922 (magazine).
  • Yearbook of the Schloßpark-Theater. Zieger, Berlin 1924.
  • Ten years of theater: the Schlosspark-Theater Berlin 1945–1955. With contributions by Friedrich Luft, Samuel Beckett, Jean Cocteau… Rembrandt-Verlag, Berlin 1955.
  • Theater in Berlin 1951–1961: 10 years Schiller-Theater, Schlosspark-Theater, Schiller-Theater Werkstatt. Published by the director of the Schiller Theater. Rembrandt-Verlag, Berlin 1962.
  • Georg Zivier: Schiller Theater, Schlosspark Theater Berlin. Stapp-Verlag, Berlin 1963.
  • Biography of a theater: half a century Schloßpark-Theater Berlin. With contributions by Boleslaw Barlog, Samuel Beckett… Rembrandt-Verlag, Berlin 1972. ISBN 3-7925-0176-7 .
  • Boleslaw Barlog: Theater for Life. Universitas-Verlag, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-8004-1003-6 .

Web links

Commons : Schlossparktheater Berlin  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Beatrice Vierneisel: The Castle Park Ensemble in Steglitz 1880–1949 , in: Before. After that. Contributions to the history of National Socialism and the post-war period in Steglitz and Zehlendorf. Ed. from the Steglitz-Zehlendorf Cultural Office. Berlin 2008, pp. 11–33
  2. ↑ a b c d Schlossparktheater receives money from the state budget for the first time . In: Berliner Woche , August 28, 2012
  3. ↑ Schlosspark-Theater: Didi has to stay outside . In: Der Tagesspiegel , July 8, 2009
  4. ↑ Anniversary for the Steglitz stage: Schlosspark Theater starts its 10th season with a political play . In: Berliner Woche , September 3, 2018
  5. ↑ Racism in the theater “A racist exclusion tool” . In: Die Tageszeitung , January 11, 2012.
  6. ↑ Controversial production: Hallervorden rejects allegations of racism . In: Spiegel Online , January 10, 2012.
  7. ^ Theater and Racism: Black on White . In: Der Tagesspiegel , January 11, 2012.
  8. ^ Berlin theater surprised by bitter dispute over blackface actor . In: Deutsche Welle , January 13, 2012.
  9. ↑ A new “Little King”: Dirk Bach's successor at the Schlossparktheater has been confirmed . In: Der Tagesspiegel , October 10, 2012.
  10. ↑ Gustav Peter Wöhler becomes Dirk Bach's successor. In: Hamburger Morgenpost , October 10, 2012.
  11. ^ Dpa: Dieter Hallervorden celebrates theatrical anniversary . In: welt.de , August 29, 2018, accessed on December 29, 2019.
  12. ↑ Boris Buchholz: Concern for the Schlosspark Theater: only 48 percent full. In: Der Tagesspiegel , March 15, 2018, accessed on December 29, 2019.

Coordinates: 52 ° 27 ′ 17 ″  N , 13 ° 19 ′ 5 ″  E