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The Theater Hof is a multi-discipline theater in the Bavarian town of Hof (Saale) . As a four-branch house, it covers the areas of music theater , drama , ballet and young theater and is the main venue for the Hof Symphony Orchestra .

history

Up until 1811, Hof was visited by traveling theaters that rented the town hall. In 1822 the first “Stadttheater Hof” opened, which was co-financed by the city budget of the then 5000 inhabitants. Until 1894, the venue was the unheated former Franciscan Church in Theaterstrasse, which after its use as a warehouse had been converted into a theater with an orchestra pit and Schnürboden and seated 588 spectators. It was demolished in 1902.

In 1894, the Hofer Theater moved into a newly built and more comfortable concert, ball and theater hall on Schützenstrasse, which was named Pfaff's Colosseum after its financier and owner, the wickerwork dealer Adolf Pfaff, and was used for a wide variety of events. There were three divisions in this privately run establishment from the start. It remained the venue of the Hof Theater until 1994. The takeover of the central venue in private hands initially meant the end of the city's influence on the theater in Hof. Foreign theater ensembles and peasant theaters came as guests and an association of the Volksbühne movement gave its own performances until the beginning of the First World War .

During the war, the Plauen City Theater played in Hof. It was only after the general economic situation had improved in 1924 that Hof's own theater company was quickly re-established. In 1925 the city of Hof became the owner of the theater building and in the following years turned it into a branch of the Plauen City Theater. From 1929 to 1930 she renovated it because of the lack of economy, and the hall now held around 800 spectators.

Shortly after the start of the Nazi era , on September 12, 1933, the Bavarian state government decided to set up an independent theater, the "Grenzlandtheater", in Hof. It opened on October 18 with the premiere of Wiener Blut . In his opening address , the then Lord Mayor Richard Wendler emphasized the programmatic name of the theater, which, located in a “battleground for German customs and German culture”, was intended to reach the “German brothers beyond the border posts” and, under its directors Karl Kroll and Hanns Jessen Game schedules of the National Socialist ideology were adapted. From the beginning of the Second World War , operettas and entertaining plays were used to distract from everyday life in the war. The Grenzlandtheater gave guest performances mainly in today's districts of Hof and Wunsiedel and made guest appearances with the operetta Love in Lerchengasse in 1938, after the incorporation of the Sudetenland once in Aš . With the establishment of the Reichsgau Sudetenland in 1939, the designation as "Grenzlandtheater" was superfluous, but the renaming to "Städtebundtheater", which the Reich Ministry of Propaganda aimed at, did not materialize. Due to the war, the Grenzlandtheater and all German theaters closed in 1944.

After the war ended, the actor and director Kurt Lentz received a license from the American military government in autumn 1945 and founded the “New Theater”. It opened on February 8, 1946 with a potpourri of popular operetta melodies in the Hofer Bürgergesellschaft hall , since the Americans did not open the theater on Schützenstrasse until 1947. A few days later, the premiere of Nathan the Wise followed , a drama that, committed to enlightenment , offered a new beginning in terms of content. The difficult post-war conditions in the famine winters of 1947 and 1948, a dramatic decline in visitors as part of the currency reform and the withdrawal of the venue in Schützenstrasse by the city of Hof led to the end of Lentz's private theater.

Hofer Theater on Schützenstrasse, around 1985

On March 11, 1948, representatives of the cities of Hof, Marktredwitz , Rehau , Schwarzenbach an der Saale , Selb and Wunsiedel , as well as the districts of Hof , Münchberg , Naila , Rehau and the Bad Steben state bath established the North-East Upper Franconian City Theater Association . It has the status of a public corporation with state recognition and support. It was the endeavor of the cities and municipalities in northeastern Bavaria at that time to pool their forces under the difficult conditions of the post-war period and to offer their citizens high-quality theater performances. Contemporary and critical authors should now have their say.

End of April 1948, the current head dramaturge and director of the Municipal Theater Augsburg , Ulrich Lauterbach , the first director of the Hofer Städtebundtheater selected. Lauterbach took over a theater with technical problems and personnel gaps such as material problems. The City Theater was opened in 1948 with Shakespeare's As You Like It . The box office hit of the first season was Des Teufels General by Carl Zuckmayer . The drama, which focuses on the Second World War, attracted 17,500 spectators, this number of visitors in the drama category has not been exceeded since then. Zuckmayer's piece “ The Song in the Fiery Furnace ” about resistance and collaboration was no longer as successful in 1950 when it was first performed in Bavaria in Hof as in the rest of West Germany. The Bavarian premiere of Sartre's The Dirty Hands took place on May 5, 1949 in Hof . The program in the first few years consisted mainly of the drama productions. Only one opera per season was performed until 1952/53. However, there were already seven operettas in 1948/49 . The admission prices at that time were between 0.50 and 2.80 DM per ticket in the theater. In addition to his favorite “Theater of Time”, Lauterbach also brought tried and tested classics by Goethe, Schiller and Shakespeare to the stage. His preference was for spoken theater, but for business reasons he gave operetta a lot of leeway and limited the financially expensive opera productions. In the 1949/50 season, the theater with Hugo von Hofmannsthal's Das Große Welttheater made a free guest appearance with the refugees in the Moschendorf camp .

Ulrich Lauterbach prematurely terminated his contract with the city of Hof in order to become head of the radio play department at Hessischer Rundfunk . He was succeeded in June 1951 by Hanns Jessen, who had already been the director of the Grenzlandtheater and who made no secret of his positive attitude towards National Socialism. His denazification process was broken off in 1947 without giving any reason. At the beginning of 1951, the Hof city council initially voted unanimously against Jessen, but then elected him on June 22, 1951. Jessen himself argued that other artists, such as Gustaf Gründgens , had been rehabilitated after the end of the dictatorship. Allegations against the West German theater of the 1950s that it was a restorative cultural establishment that focused on representation, festivity and uncritical “classic theater” can be relativized for the federal theater under Jessen; the program included pieces by Tennessee Williams , Arthur Miller , the diary of Anne Frank in the version by Frances Goodrich and, since 1958, works by Bert Brecht . In 1956 and 1957, the Städtebundtheater was also able to give guest performances across the inner-German border in Plauen. Hans Jessen increased the number of opera premieres to three per year, while the number of operetta premieres fell, a genre that had competition from radio and film. Under Jessen's direction, the federal theater became the second largest state theater in the Federal Republic and the theater in Schützenstrasse was renovated. Jessen retired in 1963.

In the same year Hannes Kepler took over the management, who showed a preference for music theater, especially the operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, but also staged contemporary works such as Brecht's Threepenny Opera and the fairy tale musical Polaria in Africa . Like Jessen, he saw the musical branch as an integral part of musical theater. Toni Graschberger took over the management in the mid-1970s . He made a name for himself especially in the field of music theater. Horst Gnekow, who had previously worked in Lucerne and Münster, became his successor in 1977. He was followed in 1981 by Gerd Nienstedt, who had previously worked as an opera singer at the Vienna State Opera as well as in Bayreuth and at the Salzburg Festival. In 1987 Nienstedt moved to Detmold and his successor was Reinhold Röttger, who always opened the seasons with an opera. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Hofs and Plauens theaters renewed their collaboration and agreed on mutual guest performances.

New construction of the Hof Theater from 1994

Since the beginning of the 1980s, the theater has been increasingly discussed because of its dilapidation. The city center or the area opposite the Freiheitshalle were discussed as locations for a new theater . On July 1, 1990, the decision was made to build the new theater on Kulmbacher Strasse. 84 million DM were raised for the financing. It opened on September 23, 1994. With the new season in 1995, Uwe Drechsel took over the management, which he held until 2012.

The current average of 25 premieres per season also includes world premieres and first performances as an integral part of the program. The musical theater, drama and ballet divisions are supplemented by the Junge Theater Hof, which is active in the field of theater education, small mobile productions and theater clubs to bring kindergarten and school children and senior citizens into contact with theater. The Theater Hof Foundation, established in 1995, provides funding for the theater and its projects on the basis of a base of 350,000 DM at the time.

Many later stage greats began their careers in Hof, including Liane Hielscher , Peer Augustinski , Gudrun Landgrebe , Annemarie Wendl , Wolfgang Schmidt, the later Bayreuth “Siegfried”, or Franz Peter Wirth .

With the entry in the commercial register on March 31, 2010, the theater was transformed into a GmbH . The Theater Hof GmbH is 100% owned by the administration union Northeast Oberfränkisches Städtebundtheater . On September 1, 2010, the Zweckverband transferred gaming operations to its subsidiary.

Because of the Night of Lights campaign on June 22, 2020, the Hof Theater also shone in red light.

organization

The directors of Theater Hof GmbH are Reinhardt Friese and Florian Lühnsdorf with equal rights . Friese has been general manager since 2012 and thus successor to Uwe Drechsel, who has held this position since 1995. He is responsible for all artistic matters. In 2018, Friese was awarded the Silver Medal of Honor from the Upper Franconia district. This award recognizes the commitment of the Theater Hof and its artistic director Reinhardt Friese to the entire Upper Franconian region. The city of Hof appoints the artistic director. The chairman of the supervisory board is the Lord Mayor of Hof, Eva Döhla.

The theater is financed primarily through grants from the state and municipalities, from its own income, as well as donations and sponsor contributions.

There are two different collective agreements at the Theater Hof: the “normal contract stage” for the artistic employees and the collective agreement for the public service for all other employees, such as those involved in technology or administration.

The theater maintains its own drama, musical theater and ballet ensembles. There is also a separate women's and men's tailoring, the make- up , as well as a painting room and the carpentry, which work for the production of the sets.

architecture

The previous venue on Hofer Schützenstrasse, built in 1894, had such structural, technical and operational deficiencies in the 1980s that instead of renovating the building, it was advisable to move into a new building, with a focus on the working conditions of the employees who To lay functionality of the building and improved stage technical systems.

After an architectural competition by the city of Hof in 1986, Carlo Weber and Fritz Auer were commissioned to design the new building for the Hof Theater. The foundation stone was laid on July 6, 1991 and the new building was occupied in July 1994. The opening premiere took place on September 23 with Don Giovanni . One year later, the new building was awarded the German Architecture Prize. The building concept connects a linear production area, in the center of which is the main stage, with a concentric, radial audience area, which contains the foyer and the auditorium and is spanned by a glass arch. The stage tower is 28 meters high. At the bottom of the main entrance there is a 30 meter long neon sign installation by Joseph Kosuth .

There are two auditoriums within the theater building: the large house with 567 seats and the studio with 99 seats. a. as a dance floor for special events.

Publications and events

In addition to an annual brochure that guides you through the season and the usual work-related programs, the theater also publishes a monthly overview of performances as a leporello .

One week before each premiere, it offers a work-related matinee or, alternatively, a soirée and public rehearsals. The Hof Culture Night takes place every two years in cooperation with the Hof Freedom Hall. There are also “senior afternoons” for the older audience and special events such as the New Year's Eve gala.

Theater Hof has already hosted the Bavarian Theater Days three times (1995, 2003 and 2017) and in 2009 the 13th German State Stage Days.

Importance of the theater for the region

In addition to its headquarters, the theater also has productions at other venues in Bavaria and Hesse. Regular guest performances take place in Aschaffenburg, Bad Kissingen, Bayreuth, Fulda, Schweinfurt and Selb. The ensemble has also made guest appearances in France and the Czech Republic. Funded u. a. from the Ministry of the Interior and Municipal Affairs of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, guest performances of the mobile youth plays "Jihad One-Way" and "Kiwi on the Rocks" are taking place in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate. Since the 2014/15 season, the Junge Theater Hof has had a higher priority as the fourth division with its own management. Every year, as part of many morning performances for school classes and kindergartens, a Christmas fairy tale for children is offered on the stage in the Great House . As part of “mobile productions”, so-called “classroom pieces” are performed in school lessons. Productions of children's clubs FAWN (Children In Theater home) and explorers FAWN , youth and Musical Club, dance classes, the children's choir opera starter and the senior theater ripening period also offer amateurs ways to stand even on stage. As part of the school theater days, students from all types of schools in the region perform their productions in the theater. In addition, there are annual holiday workshops. Under the guidance of a theater pedagogue, preparation and follow-up work, theater tours, workshops, teacher training, material folders, school theater courses , dress rehearsal visits, internships and a voluntary social year are offered. Binding cooperation with schools in the region was introduced from the 2012/13 season.

In 1991, Hallek confirmed the regional importance of the Hof Theater, which was discussed at the time because of structural and safety-related deficiencies and then realized in 1994. It showed that the material and personnel expenses triggered economic effects, especially in the city of Hof, that the theater satisfied the existing cultural needs of the residents of various venues, contributed to the awareness of the city of Hof and was an important image factor.

Visitor numbers and funding

In the 2017 season, a total of 95,283 visitors, including the guest venues, were named. The total income from entry fees for 2017 was 1.16 million euros. Grants were generated in the amount of 9.98 million euros, resulting in a total income of 11.6 million euros. As a result, an average of EUR 12.17 was earned per visitor from entrance fees and each entrance ticket was subsidized with EUR 104.74 from taxpayers' money. In comparison, a ticket at the Berlin State Opera is subsidized with 257 euros.

According to a report by Frankenpost dated October 15, 2018, the Hof Theater, which opened 24 years ago, is to be completely refurbished in 2020 due to various construction defects for 22.6 million euros.

In the annex to the annual financial statements, Theater Hof GmbH points out that the “risk is to be seen as the further increase in audience numbers”. For demographic reasons, these are declining. It is feared that subsidies could also be lower and that no theater performances can take place in the Great House for several months during the renovation.

Directors

Awards

Prizes of the Bavarian Theater Days to the Theater Hof:

Prize winners of the award ceremony of the Theaterfreunde Hof eV (every year since 2000):

  • 2000 Ballet Company of the Hof Theater and Jerzy Graczyk, ballet director
  • 2001 Helga Fleig, director
  • 2002 Karsten Jesgarz, singer
  • 2003 Ralf Hocke, actor
  • 2004 Thomas Mogendorf, head of equipment and set designer
  • 2005 Hof Symphony Orchestra as opera orchestra
  • 2006 Jan-Hinnerk Arnke, actor
  • 2007 Claudia Wagner, culture and theater pedagogue
  • 2008 Wolfgang Kaiser, actor
  • 2009 Barbara Schwarzenberger, costume director
  • 2010 Polina Bachmann, actress
  • 2011 Stefanie Rhaue, singer
  • 2012 Arn Goerke, music director
  • 2013 Anja Stange, actress
  • 2014 Antje Hochholdinger, actress
  • 2015 Inga Lisa Lehr, singer
  • 2016 Marco Stickel, actor
  • 2017 Susanna Mucha, actress

Other prices:

  • In the 2007 author survey for the magazine Die Deutsche Bühne , Theater Hof was awarded 1st place in the category “ Most convincing overall performance of a house”.
  • Together with the other 23 German state theaters, the Hof Theater was awarded the President of the German Theater Association's Prize in November 2010 at the FAUST award ceremony in Essen . The German Theater Prize DER FAUST is a national, undoped theater prize.

literature

  • Cäcilia Hallek: Das Theater Hof: economic effects and regional importance . In: Lüder Bach, University of Bayreuth, Spatial Planning Department (ed.): Materials for urban and regional planning; Issue 6 . University of Bayreuth, Spatial Planning Department, Bayreuth 1991.
  • Axel Herrmann: Theater Hof: past and present; Documentation for the opening of the new theater building on September 23, 1994 . Ed .: Theater Hof - Stadt Hof. City of Hof, Hof 1994.
  • Ludger Stühlmeyer : Curia Sonans. The music history of the city of Hof . Bayerische Verlagsanstalt, Bamberg 2010, ISBN 978-3-89889-155-4 .

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ludger Stühlmeyer: The music history of the city court: The development of the theater play in court . Ed .: Bayerische Verlagsanstalt. Bamberg 2010, p. 286-299 .
  2. ^ Cäcilia Hallek: Das Theater Hof: economic effects and regional importance . In: Lüder Bach, University of Bayreuth, Spatial Planning Department (ed.): Materials for urban and regional planning; Issue 6 . University of Bayreuth, Spatial Planning Department, Bayreuth 1991, p. 67 f .
  3. ^ Axel Herrmann: Theater Hof: Past and present; Documentation for the opening of the new theater building on September 23, 1994 . Ed .: Theater Hof - Stadt Hof. City of Hof, Hof 1994, p. 19, 21, 22, 25-30 .
  4. ^ Axel Herrmann: Theater Hof: Past and present; Documentation for the opening of the new theater building on September 23, 1994 . Ed .: Theater Hof - Stadt Hof. City of Hof, Hof 1994, p. 31-33, 37 .
  5. ^ Axel Herrmann: Theater Hof: Past and present; Documentation for the opening of the new theater building on September 23, 1994 . Ed .: Theater Hof - Stadt Hof. City of Hof, Hof 1994, p. 39-42 .
  6. ^ Axel Herrmann: Theater Hof: Past and present; Documentation for the opening of the new theater building on September 23, 1994 . Ed .: Theater Hof - Stadt Hof. City of Hof, Hof 1994, p. 43-46 .
  7. ^ Axel Herrmann: Theater Hof: Past and present; Documentation for the opening of the new theater building on September 23, 1994 . Ed .: Theater Hof - Stadt Hof. City of Hof, Hof 1994, p. 47-52 .
  8. ^ Axel Herrmann: Theater Hof: Past and present; Documentation for the opening of the new theater building on September 23, 1994 . Ed .: Theater Hof - Stadt Hof. City of Hof, Hof 1994, p. 53-68 .
  9. ^ Ludger Stühlmeyer: The music history of the city of Hof: The development of theater play in Hof . Ed .: Bayerische Verlagsanstalt. Bamberg 2010, p. 286-299 .
  10. ^ Government of Upper Franconia: Upper Franconian Official Gazette of April 23, 2010, p. 36 ff .: Statutes of the Zweckverband in the version of March 10, 2010. (PDF; 207 kB) Retrieved on January 8, 2012 .
  11. ↑ Imprint of the website of the Theater Hof. Retrieved May 4, 2018 .
  12. ↑ 81 applicants for the directorship. In: Frankenpost. January 28, 2011, accessed January 13, 2012 .
  13. ^ Axel Herrmann: Theater Hof: Past and present; Documentation for the opening of the new theater building on September 23, 1994, pp. 187, 189–192 . Ed .: Theater Hof - Stadt Hof. City of Hof, Hof 1994.
  14. ^ Axel Herrmann: Theater Hof: Past and present; Documentation for the opening of the new theater building on September 23, 1994, p. 143 . Ed .: Theater Hof - Stadt Hof. City of Hof, Hof 1994.
  15. ↑ a b Report on the Hof University website, 2007. Retrieved January 6, 2012 .
  16. ^ Axel Herrmann: Theater Hof: Past and present; Documentation for the opening of the new theater building on September 23, 1994, pp. 161 f., 178 . Ed .: Theater Hof - Stadt Hof. City of Hof, Hof 1994.
  17. ↑ Text: "Strictly speaking, nothing is theatrical but what is symbolic for the eyes, an important act that points to an even more important one." (JW v. Goethe) Axel Herrmann: Theater Hof: history and present; Documentation for the opening of the new theater building on September 23, 1994, p. 200 . Ed .: Theater Hof - Stadt Hof. City of Hof, Hof 1994.
  18. ^ Cäcilia Hallek: Das Theater Hof: economic effects and regional importance, pp. 9, 12 f., 162, 166 f. In: Lüder Bach, University of Bayreuth, Spatial Planning Department (ed.): Materials for urban and regional planning; Issue 6 . University of Bayreuth, Spatial Planning Department, Bayreuth 1991.
  19. ↑ a b Annual financial statements of Theater Hof GmbH as of December 31, 2017 and management report in: Bundesanzeiger .
  20. ↑ 257 euros for a visit to the State Opera. In: tagesspiegel.de. January 12, 2014, accessed October 19, 2018 .
  21. ↑ “Theater has to be!” In: ostsee-zeitung.de. December 9, 2016, accessed November 12, 2018 .
  22. ↑ In the main role: money. In: frankenpost.de. October 15, 2018, accessed October 19, 2018 .
  23. ↑ a b From a called mouth - an excellent house. In: Frankenpost. November 28, 2009, accessed January 13, 2012 .
  24. ^ Theaterfreunde Hof: Prize of the Theaterfreunde Hof. Retrieved January 6, 2012 .
  25. ↑ Deutscher Bühnenverein: DER FAUST 2010. Accessed on January 6, 2012 .

Coordinates: 50 ° 19 ′ 10.5 ″  N , 11 ° 54 ′ 17.8 ″  E