Thalia Theater (Wuppertal)
The Thalia Theater was an entertainment theater that existed from 1906 to 1967 in the center of what is now the Elberfeld district of Wuppertal .
Construction and opening
The theater was financed by the Theater- und Saalbau Aktiengesellschaft Berlin and Düsseldorf . A spacious area on the banks of the Wupper directly opposite the Elberfeld city center, on which a silk factory had previously stood, was purchased on the edge of the poor district of Iceland, which was demolished at the turn of the century . The Berlin construction company Boswau & Knauer , a company experienced with large-scale projects, which at this time also built the Kaufhaus des Westens in Berlin, was commissioned with the execution. The Berlin architect Otto Rehnig , who is associated with Boswau & Knauer, claimed the design authorship for himself. The building was completed in what was then an extremely short construction period of 219 working days. Under the direction of Martin Stein, the “Modern u. most elegant Variété u. Operetten-Theater des Continents ”opened on December 12, 1906 with a variety program with the participation of a thirty-member orchestra under Max Winterfeld . The end was a film showing about the suspension railway .
The theater building
The Thalia Theater was a typical Belle Époque building with some historicist ornamentation. The main portal faced the Wupper and, electrically illuminated, offered the Elberfeld city center as a viewing side. On the right-hand side was another two-story facade that emphasized the vertical in vertical lines with a flight of stairs to another entrance portal. An octagonal tower was enthroned on the high roof.
The theater, which had a capacity of around 2,000 spectators in the stalls and in the three tiers, had a 13.5 m deep and 21 m wide stage with an 8 × 4 m side stage, 36 prospectus, five lighting and four lattice hoists that required the quick conversions between the various forms of theater. Behind the main curtain was another white curtain that served as a screen for the film projector, which was built in from the start.
The auditorium was joined by foyers as well as various restaurants and ballrooms.
1906 to 1929
In the period up to the founding of Wuppertal, after Martin Stein's death in 1909, the house showed comedies, operettas, variety performances and set revues under numerous changing directorates. Among the successful productions were titles like the revue Donnerwetter, faultless! 1906 (conducted by the composer Paul Lincke himself), the singing antics Autoliebchen 1912 and almost all of the successful operettas of that time. The theater also caused various scandals in the city: Again and again, spicy or suggestive productions led to protests in the Elberfeld citizens. In 1927, Mayor Kirschbaum banned the guest appearance of a “Negerrevue” entitled Black People for nationalist and racist reasons, which led to a heated council debate. Numerous guest companies visited the house, among the guest artists were celebrities such as Sarah Bernhardt , Eleonora Duse and Asta Nielsen . In 1924, the Elberfeld City Council decided to buy a building and company. From this time on, the Thalia was owned by the city and preferably played full-length operettas.
In 1925 a radio transmitter was set up around the previous ballroom, which supplied the demilitarized zone in the occupied Rhineland , which began in the Vohwinkels area , with information and entertainment programs, and later also with live broadcasts from the theater. Max Ophüls was the speaker for this station. After just one and a half years, with the construction of the Langenberg transmitter and the relocation of the headquarters of the now Westdeutsche Rundfunk AG company, the Elberfeld location was shut down. The lack of rental income, the increasing competition from the cinema and the declining success of the productions made the Thalia increasingly unprofitable in the years that followed. In May the theater was closed and renovation work began.
1929 to 1943
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After the 1943 bombing
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The manager of the neighboring “Bavaria-Bühne”, Robert Riemer , was awarded the contract for the renovation and management of the Thalia . He had the building renovated in the simpler taste of the time and relied on a concept consisting of a cabaret section with a subsequent film showing, in which the Thalia was unrivaled due to its high number of seats in the city. A large cinema organ was installed, new dimmer technology brought the lighting up to date, lighting effects were even given their own role as pause fillers. The opening performance on August 30, 1929 was received just as enthusiastically as the inauguration of the house in 1906. In Riemer's time the theater played two times a day and three times on the weekends - around one percent of the Wuppertal population found their way to Thalia every day. The highlights of the Riemer era included spectacular animal training, a guest performance by actress Lil Dagover and clown Charlie Rivel . After the Nazis came to power in 1933, the Jew Robert Riemer and his international program were soon attacked, and in the summer of 1933 he was forced to sell his theater. Riemer moved via Vienna, Paris, Switzerland and Portugal to New York City , where he ran several cinemas in the 1940s. His 'Aryan' successor, the former Reich Minister of Transport Wilhelm Koch, took over a brilliantly organized house with two partners, Riemer himself had signed the contract with the Swiss clown Grock , who was a guest at Thalia in December 1933. Koch let the die-hard Riemers team continue to run the house and the success despite the restrictions from outside the industry due to the cultural policy of the National Socialists (for example a quotation for foreign artists). With the beginning of the war, the number of viewers continued to increase despite the increasingly limited schedule without foreign films and guest performances. During the bombing raid on Elberfeld on the night of June 25, 1943, the theater was hit and burned down; the 2,000 people survived in the protective bunker below.
1948 to 1967
In the destroyed Wuppertal, the reconstruction of the huge theater building was initially not in the foreground. The Hamburg merchant Robert Bartholomay, born in Elberfeld in 1903, offered the city to finance the reconstruction in 1948. Using the old north and west façades, some of which were preserved, a new theater building was built in 1950 in just six months, which was otherwise based on the old one. The architect was Rudolf Klophaus . The building soon owed the name "White House on the Icelandic Shore" to the white painted facade. Bartholomay was contractually appointed director of the company, who again had a gigantic organ with 5,080 pipes and an orchestra pit that was mobile at stage level. On September 29, 1950, the Thalia was opened in the tried and tested style with a colorful revue followed by a film screening. The famous artists of the post-war period on the stage of the Thalia Theater included Bruce Low , Josephine Baker , Heinz Erhardt , Vico Torriani , the Millowitsch Theater in Cologne and the Tiller Girls . The cinema screenings also brought stars to Wuppertal, including Winnie Markus and Hans Albers , who came to see the film premieres.
In 1953 Bartholomay sold the theater to the UFA . The organ was sold to the Archdiocese of Cologne; there it was installed downsized in St. Engelbert (Cologne) in Cologne-Riehl ; some pipes were used in Cologne Cathedral and the St. Gereon Basilica (Cologne) . Gradually the stage programs became fewer and shorter, the focus shifted more and more to the cinema. In 1959 the Variété operation was finally closed, musicians and sound engineers left the house. The number of viewers fell steadily and made the operation unprofitable.
During this time the city of Wuppertal began to plan to use the Thalia for the municipal Wuppertal theaters , which were housed in the provisional facility of the theater on Bergstrasse after the destruction of the Elberfeld city theater on Brausenwerth . The theater architect Gerhard Graubner was entrusted with planning the conversion into an “intimate” city theater, but confirmed the proponents of a new theater building in an expert opinion. The Stadtsparkasse Wuppertal was interested in the space to expand their too small buildings nearby. On February 15, the city council decided on a new theater building, the lease agreement that was still in place with Bartholomay was terminated on March 31 in exchange for DM 1,100,000, Gerhard Graubner with the new building of the theater on the Kluse, its current location, instructed. At the same time, the Sparkasse planned to build its new headquarters on the site. The demolition date, however, was delayed for years, initially the Thalia was still used for cinema screenings and concerts by German and international stars such as The Who , The Troggs , Paul Anka , Udo Jürgens and Rex Gildo . The demolition began on August 2, 1967, and the Sparkasse Wuppertal headquarters with its striking tower is on the site today.
Individual evidence
- ^ Theater ticket for the opening performance, December 12, 1906
- ↑ Philipp Koep: Thalia - A touch of the big city. The history of the Thalia Theater in Wuppertal, p. 102
literature
- Philipp Koep: Thalia - A touch of the big city. The history of the Thalia Theater in Wuppertal. Wuppertal 1994 (2nd revised edition), ISBN 3-928766-07-4
Web links
- Harald Dülfer: Splendor and decline of the Thalia theater series of the NRZ Neue Rhein Zeitung 1964–1965
Coordinates: 51 ° 15 ′ 18 ″ N , 7 ° 8 ′ 44 ″ E