Theater Duisburg
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The Duisburg Theater in downtown Duisburg was built between 1911 and 1912 in neoclassical style based on a design by the architect Martin Dülfer and has 1,117 seats. It is a venue of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein , a theater association founded in 1956 by the cities of Duisburg and Düsseldorf .
The theater does not have its own theater ensemble, but works closely with regional theaters such as the Schauspielhaus Bochum or the “Theater an der Ruhr” in Mülheim an der Ruhr , which is only a few kilometers away .
The Philharmonic Orchestra located in the theater, the Duisburg Philharmonic , has existed since 1877 and is currently directed by Axel Kober.
history
From 1887 on, theater performances that previously took place in different halls were held in the then newly built Duisburg “Tonhalle”. In the same year a cooperation was formed with the Düsseldorf City Theater.
At the suggestion of Duisburg's Lord Mayor Karl Lehr , a theater building association was formed in 1902, which was able to collect sufficient capital for a theater building within five years. In 1909 an architecture competition was held that was limited to a few architects with practical experience in theater construction. The jury saw the two designs by Martin Dülfer and Carl Moritz as equivalent, so that both were asked to revise them. Finally, Dülfer received the order because of a better urban integration of his design.
On May 11, 1911, the groundbreaking ceremony took place on the building site on Neckarstrasse, and the foundation stone was laid on June 27, 1911 - in pouring rain. For Martin Dülfer, who taught at the Technical University of Dresden and had already built three highly regarded theaters (in Meran, Dortmund and Lübeck), his colleague Jakob Baudrexl was in charge of construction . After a year and a half of construction, the theater was officially opened on November 7, 1912. Regular game operations started the following day.
The existing partnership with the Düsseldorfer Stadttheater was terminated in 1921 in favor of a merger with the Bochum Stadttheater , which existed until the 1934/1935 season.
The theater building was badly damaged by the bombing raid on Duisburg on December 20, 1942, and the theater had to move to various stages in the surrounding area. At the request of the Duisburg city administration, a move to Prague was organized in 1943 with the Reich Propaganda Ministry and the German administration of the Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, where further performances were shown until July 1944.
After the war ended in 1946, the ruins were first secured from further deterioration by a temporary roof, and the main foyer of the theater was provisionally repaired and used for theater performances, but mainly as a cinema. In 1949/1950 the auditorium and proscenium were restored to such an extent that they could be used for concerts and scenic performances. In a third phase, the stage was restored in 1951/1952, whereby the full functionality of the theater was achieved. In 1954 the foyer, ticket office and walkways were renovated. In 1959/1960 the facades were renovated. After controversial discussions, they were given an intense red color, which was replaced in later years by today's white paint. The entire reconstruction of the theater was under the direction of the architect building director Siegfried von Tiling († 1953), with the assistance of Friedrich Leykauf, Hermann Adolphi and others; The prominent Düsseldorf architect Emil Fahrenkamp was brought in as artistic advisor . The facades remained largely unchanged; the interiors, which in contrast to many other theaters had apparently only been changed little since 1912, were rebuilt according to contemporary ideas and equipped with modern equipment.
In 1956, the Duisburg and Düsseldorf theaters merged again - under the name Deutsche Oper am Rhein , which still exists today .
The front gable of the city theater is adorned with a quote from Friedrich Schiller's " Homage to the Arts ": With all its depths and heights, I roll life before your gaze. When you have seen the great game of the world, you return to yourself richer.
literature
- Dieter Klein: Martin Dülfer. Pioneer of German Art Nouveau architecture. (= Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation, workbook 8th ) 2nd edition, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-87490-531-4 , pp. 91–97.
- Dörte Schmidt / Brigitta Weber (eds.): No experimental art. Musical life at municipal theaters in the Weimar Republic. JB Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 1995, ISBN 3-476-01265-4 , p. 47ff.
- Christoph Heuter: Emil Fahrenkamp (1885-1966). Architect in the Rhenish-Westphalian industrial area. (= Workbook of the Rhenish Monument Preservation , Volume 59.) Michael Imhof, Petersberg 2002, ISBN 3-935590-37-7 , pp. 543f.
Web links
- City Theater Duisburg
- Video on the history of the theater (Youtube channel of the city of Duisburg, 5:47 min)
- Photo of the city theater around 1960 (digit.wdr.de)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Volker Mohn: Nazi cultural policy in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia: concepts, practices, reactions . Essen: Klartext, 2014 ISBN 978-3-8375-1112-3 Zugl .: Düsseldorf, Univ., Diss., 2011, pp. 334–337
Coordinates: 51 ° 26 ′ 5.5 ″ N , 6 ° 46 ′ 14.6 ″ E