City Theater Wilhelmshaven
Stadttheater Wilhelmshaven was or is the name for various theater buildings in the Lower Saxony port city of Wilhelmshaven .
Even before the First World War , individual theater directors were given permission to name their establishment Stadttheater because they received municipal subsidies, such as Director Steingoetter, whose troupe made guest appearances in 1906 in the seaman's house on Bismarckstrasse. In 1938 the city of Wilhelmshaven took over the Neue Schauspielhaus der Jadestädte , which was also housed in the seaman's house and which Robert Hellwig, a former Austrian reserve officer, had run since 1926, initially privately and later with financial support from the municipality. Richard Gsell, who opened his first season with Carl Maria von Weber's romantic opera Der Freischütz , was appointed as the new director . In the years that followed, the aerial warfare repeatedly restricted theater operations. On March 22, 1943, the theater was completely destroyed by a bomb hit.
After the Second World War , the former naval directorate on Virchowstrasse, a building from 1904, was converted into the new Wilhelmshaven City Theater. In total, the construction work devoured 358,000 Reichsmarks and 1.1 million German marks . The theater was officially opened on October 19, 1952 with a ceremony and a performance of Shakespeare's play Hamlet . Since then, the city theater has been the venue and administrative headquarters of the Lower Saxony North State Theater . Musical productions by the Oldenburg State Theater are also shown regularly . In addition, the Stadttheater Wilhelmshaven was the venue for the Low German Stage Rüstringen, founded in 1932, and later Theater am Meer .
After renovations in 1983, the tiers in the city theater were saved and the foyer areas were modernized. At the beginning of the new millennium, following further renovations, the audience capacity was reduced from over 800 to 514 seats. The stage is 18 meters wide and 7 meters deep; the orchestra pit offers space for 52 musicians.
literature
- Wilhelmshavener Heimatlexikon , edited by Werner Brune, 3 vol., Wilhelmshaven 1986/87.
- German Stage Yearbook 2009 , published by the Cooperative of German Stage Members, Hamburg 2008.
Web links
Coordinates: 53 ° 31 '17.9 " N , 8 ° 7' 7.9" E