Stages in the city of Gera

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Theater Gera, Großes Haus, 2007

The stages of the city of Gera (also Theater Gera ) are a multi-branch theater in the city of Gera that belongs to the Altenburg Gera Theater . The main venue and one of three theater buildings in this city is the Great House . It has a theater hall with 552 seats and a concert hall with 812 seats. The management consists of Kay Kuntze (general manager and artistic director, opera director) and Volker Arnold (commercial director).

history

Origin and early years

The Princely Court Theater, around 1908 ( colored picture postcard)
1977: Inauguration of the new concert organ
1999: The theater before the complete renovation in the color scheme from 1976
Genius ("Goddess of Truth") by the sculptor Achim Meißner

Court theater

The first theater building was the Komödienhaus, located at today's Johannisplatz, from 1616 to 1741. At today's Puschkinplatz on the road to Untermhaus , a new wooden building followed in 1787 and the first really massive theater building in 1822, which, after renovation and expansion, was completed by 1902 was used.

Although the theater offered a spacious stage, it was not a suitable concert hall for the Reussische Hofkapelle - a circumstance that led to the fact that a new theater was ultimately sought. Most of the financial resources required for the construction were raised by donations from the citizens of Gera; Prince Heinrich XIV contributed the missing sum and the building plot in the kitchen garden . In total, the construction costs amounted to 1,103,760 marks , which today would correspond to an amount of over 10 million euros.

New Princely Theater

The architect Heinrich Seeling was commissioned with the construction in 1899 ; Hereditary Prince Heinrich XXVII acted as the client . The inauguration as the Princely Court Theater took place on October 18, 1902. The Art Nouveau theater was one of the most progressive of its time when it opened in 1902, as it combined theater and concert hall in one building. It had a contemporary mixed construction of reinforced concrete , steel framework and wooden beam construction and had modern lighting, technical equipment and fire protection precautions.

If you look at the exterior design of the building, the striking entrance side with its symbolic representations stands out. In addition to the busts of Friedrich Schiller and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , as well as the Latin script Musis Sacrum (dt. Consecrated to the muses), these are mainly representations from Greek mythology : Genius on Sphinx, head of Medusa , the muse Melpomene and a bacchante .

In the years 1914 to 1921, the concert hall foyer and mirror foyer were further artistically designed and the theater café was expanded.

Reussian theater

The Princely Reussian Theater was unique among the theaters of the 1920s: in republican times it was a stage under the princely protection of what Ernst Barlach called the "theater prince " Heinrich XLV. from the Princely House of Reuss and received neither support from the city nor the state. However, the theater was not a “private-style palace stage”, but a state stage with opera, drama, and operetta, and it offered space for 1100 visitors.

From 1924 to 1927 Walter Bruno Iltz was general manager of the Princely Reussian Theater. Iltz became known, open-minded and enthusiastic as a modern young director, he played numerous new authors such as Ernst Barlach ( Die Sündflut , 1925, in his own production, as well as Die gute Zeit , 1925 and Der arme Vetter , 1927), Bertolt Brecht ( man is man ), Arnolt Bronnen , Walter Hasenclever ( A Better Man ), Georg Kaiser (3 pieces), Carl Zuckmayer and Fritz von Unruh , but also the German premiere of Anton Chekhov's “ Platonow ” (staged by Heinz Hilpert ). Iltz and his wife Helena Forti were threatened with shooting in 1925 on the occasion of the performance of Arnolt Bronnen's war drama "Katalaunische Schlacht" . Numerous premieres took place under Iltz's direction, including by Alexander Lernet-Holenia ( Saul ), André Gide ( The Return of the Prodigal Son ), Karl Röttger ( The Homecoming , 1926), Denis Diderot ( Is he good? Is he bad? ) , Rosso di San Secondo ( The Staircase , 1927), Bert Schiff and Kiesau, operas by Johann Staden , Handel ( Otto and Theophano ), Manuel de Falla ( A Short Life , 1926), Vittorio Gnecchi ( Rosiera , 1927) and Roderich Mojsisovics von Mojsvár ( The Magician , 1926), and in the ballet Darius Milhaud , Felix Petyrek , Adrien Raynal and the Persian Ballet by Egon Wellesz (1925) in the choreography Yvonne Georgi . In the classical repertoire, the focus was on pieces by Schiller ( Die Jungfrau von Orléans ), Shakespeare ( The Merchant of Venice ), Kleist , Lessing ( Nathan the Wise ) and Goethe's Clavigo as well as Calderon , Chekhov and Büchner .

In the 1925/26 season, the modern solo dancer Yvonne Georgi was employed in Gera as the second youngest dance and ballet master in Germany (after Vera Skoronel ). She opened her work with a dance evening consisting of the Arabic Suite by Felix Petyrek (with Georgi as soloist), Saudades do Brazil by Darius Milhaud and the Persian Ballet by Egon Wellesz . Shortly before , Vittorio Rietis came out as a New Year's Eve premiere of Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes dance comedy Barabau . The performance even lured Berlin critics to Gera and made guest appearances at the Leipziger Schauspielhaus and the Berliner Volksbühne . In 1926 Georgi choreographed Igor Stravinsky's Pulcinella . Nevertheless, the dance troupe was dismissed “because of a lack of public interest”, and Yvonne Georgi moved to Hanover.

The actors Bernhard Minetti , Hans Otto , Paul Hoffmann and Friedrichfranz Stampe , the director Oscar Fritz Schuh and the actress Dorothea Neff , who later hired Iltz at the German Volkstheater in Vienna , were employed at the theater in Gera .

In the season 1925/1926 the theater in Gera reached its highest attendance with 240,832 spectators.

War and Post War

On August 6, 1944 the theater was closed due to the war and on April 6, 1945 during the heaviest Allied bombing raid of the war on Gera u. a. the theater's set house was also destroyed. But on September 15, 1945, by decision of the Soviet city commandant, theater operations were resumed with Mozart's Marriage of Figaro .

Stages in the city of Gera

In November 1945, the Reussian Theater was renamed as Bühnen der Stadt Gera .

In July 1951, the reconstruction of the scene house, which was destroyed in the bombing, began. After the stage was damaged in a fire on April 16, 1963, it was decided to renovate the theater. On September 10, 1963, after renovation and redesign of the ticket hall, foyer, theater hall and technical systems, the reopening took place.

In June 1976 the theater was given a new coat of paint in the colors green, white and dark red. On 21 December 1977, the new, the VEB Orgelbau Sauer -made organ , inaugurated the concert hall. It replaced the organ built in 1911.

In 1995 the concert hall was renovated and in September 1999 the seating in the theater hall was renewed. The number of seats decreased from 670 to 550.

In the years 2005 to 2007 a comprehensive overall renovation, restoration, reconstruction and modernization took place. The theater was given the sand ocher-colored paint based on the original color scheme. Likewise, all rooms accessible to the public were redesigned, a new revolving stage, a new sound studio and a new electro and room acoustic system were installed.

In June 2013, as a result of the increased groundwater level as a result of the flood disaster in 2013 and the associated water levels in the basement, damage to the building and stage technology amounted to around 400,000 euros.

Directorships

The directors of the Gera Theater from the opening of the New Princely Theater in 1902 to the merger with the Landestheater Altenburg in 1995.

  • 1895 to 1908 Georg Kurtscholz, board member
  • 1903 to 1918 Freiherr von der Heyden-Rynsch, general manager
  • 1908 to 1913 Oskar Borcherdt , director
  • 1913 to 1915 Max Reitz, director
  • 1915 to 1924 Paul Medenwaldt, director
  • 1924 to 1927 Walter Bruno Iltz , general manager
  • 1927 to 1928 Max Berg-Ehlert , general manager
  • 1928 to 1934 Karl Rosen, director
  • 1934 to 1936 Paul Smolny, general manager
  • 1936 to 1938 Friedrich Siems, director
  • 1938 Heinrich XLV. Hereditary Prince Reuss, acting director
  • 1939 to 1944 Rudolf Scheel, director
  • 1944 to 1945 Reinhard Lehmann, director
  • 1945 to 1948 Walter Brandt, general manager
  • 1948 to 1951 Hans-Georg Rudolph , director
  • 1951 to 1956 Karl Eggstein, director
  • 1956 to 1963 Otto-Ernst Tickardt, director
  • 1963 to 1967 Wolfgang Pintzka , director
  • 1967 to 1989 Heinz Schröder, director
  • 1989 to 1992 Eberhard Kneipel, director
  • 1992 to 1995 Michael Schindhelm , general manager
  • 1996–2000 Michael Grosse
  • 2000–2004 René Serge Mund
  • 2004–2006 Eberhard Kneipel
  • 2006–2011 Matthias Oldag
  • Since 2011 Kay Kuntze

actor

Many well-known actors had their place of work at the Gera Theater or made their theater debut here, including:

World premieres

The following premieres took place at the theater:

Poster for the premiere of Raskolnikow on April 9, 1913

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klaus Brodale, Heidrun Friedeman: That was the 20th century in Gera , Wartberg Verlag 2002, p. 6, ISBN 3-8313-1273-7
  2. ↑ a b c Ulrich Bubrowski (Ed.), Ernst Barlach's drama The Poor Cousin . Admission, criticism. Effect. Piper, Munich 1988
  3. ^ Horst Koegler, Yvonne Georgi. Theater Today series, Friedrich Verlag Hannover 1963
  4. ↑ OTZ.de: A lot of art objects in Gera could be saved , accessed on June 8, 2013
  5. ↑ MDR.de: Severe flood damage to cultural sites in Gera and Weimar ( Memento from June 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on June 8, 2013
  6. ^ Theater Altenburg-Gera (ed.): MUSIS SACRUM - 100 years of the Gera theater . Gera 2002.
  7. ↑ Archive of Theater & Philharmonic Thuringia

literature

  • Theater Altenburg-Gera, Dagmar Kunze (ed.): Musis Sacrum: 100 Years of Theaterhaus Gera 1902–2002 , Gera 2002
  • City of Gera, Lower Monument Protection Authority (ed.): Theater in Gera , Gera 2007

Web links

Commons : Theater Gera  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 50 ° 53 ′ 0.6 ″  N , 12 ° 4 ′ 27.2 ″  E