Waidspeicher Theater (building)
The Waidspeicher Theater is a listed building on Mettengasse in the “Große Arche” complex in Erfurt . It houses the two ensembles Theater Waidspeicher and the cabaret “Die Arche” .
history
Between 1540 and 1560 the building was built as a warehouse. Since it was a farm building, there is no documentary evidence of its construction. Matching stonemason's marks in the Waidspeicher and in the surrounding residential buildings, which are mentioned in a document, suggest the aforementioned period. The building was originally used to store and process woad . There were many such storage buildings in medieval Erfurt, because the town owed its prosperity to the woad trade. Over the centuries there have been changing owners and uses: A widow Regine Seber can be traced back to 1639, who owned the property "... Rote Lauengasse with the back buildings". In 1643, the safflower and beer brewer Andreas Gompracht acquired the property “Zum Großen und kleine Siebenbürgen” (Große Arche 17 and 18) and the granary for storing and drying woad. Hugo Lavay probably set up a shipping warehouse for woad in today's puppet theater in 1671. The paintings on the beams are evidence of this. The lawyer, Oberzweiermann und Biereigen Wilhelm Josef Strake is registered as the owner for 1751. In 1762 the woad dealer Johann Bernhard Müller bought the neighboring warehouse "Haus zum Roten Löwen" ( Marktstrasse 21). Around the "milk fountain" in the inner courtyard, which was already documented in 1321, he created a green courtyard with trees and a wall covered with putti, which existed until 1960. The merchant and tobacco manufacturer Johann Bernhard Hoffmann founded the "Hoffman und Triebel" factory in 1797. He used the Waidspeicher together with the property "Haus zum Goldenen Stern" (Markstrasse 50) and the tobacco mill that still exists there. The woad store was used for tobacco drying and processing until the recent past. Around 1960 it was used as a storage room for gardening supplies and for storing furniture parts.
In 1978 the city council purchased the property from the Hoffmann family. From 1983 to 1986 the listed building was completely restored under the direction of Gerhard Schade and converted into a permanent theater venue (interior design: Lothar Krone , production of the main curtain in the puppet theater: Klaus-Dieter Klotz ). From the point of view of monument conservation, masonry and beam constructions as well as parts of their representative painting from the 17th century have been preserved. 1986 saw the opening of the “Theater Waidspeicher” as the third venue of the Erfurt Municipal Theaters with halls for puppet theater (142 seats) and cabaret (95 seats). The functional rooms are located in the attic. The residential building at Domplatz 18 was later attached to the theater building. The box office, the studio and a rehearsal room are located in it. In summer 2001 the lower foyer was redesigned under the direction of interior designer Lothar Krone . In summer 2002 the hall of the puppet theater was equipped with new chairs with the support of the Friends of Theaters Waidspeicher eV .
literature
- Gerhard Schade: From Waidspeicher to Erfurt puppet theater . In: Color and Space, periodical of the Institute for Urban Development and Architecture of the GDR, Berlin . No. 4 , 1998.
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 58 ′ 36.8 ″ N , 11 ° 1 ′ 32.7 ″ E