Titania palace
The Titania-Palast is a traditional cinema in the Berlin district of Steglitz-Zehlendorf , which was known far beyond the borders of Berlin before the Second World War and until the 1960s. Today the building houses several shops and a modern cinema with seven halls of different sizes.
history
Opening ceremony
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The opening of the Titanium Palace took place on January 26, 1928 at 8:30 p.m. with a large festival performance. As a luxury cinema, the Titania Palace should have significance for the whole of Berlin. Even for Steglitz , the former largest village in Prussia , which became a district of Berlin in 1920 , the opening ceremony had the character of a major event. Surrounded by numerous onlookers, the stars of the opening film Der Sprung ins Glück , the Italian Carmen Boni and Hans Junkermann (a popular actor of the silent film era and a resident of Steglitz) as well as Martha Sonja , Otto Fee and Hans Brausewetter entered the building over wide red carpets.
architecture
The cubic , almost bulky building on the 2700 m² property, built in the style of New Objectivity by the architects Schöffler, Schlönbach & Jacobi and based on American models, represented a sensation with its almost completely unadorned facade at the time of construction, which also from that time The audience and the press were well received. On the corner of the two 16-meter-high wings of the building, there was a block-like tower, 24 meters high, offset to the rear. Particularly noticeable was the slim, 30-meter-high lighting tower on which there was still a seven-meter-high flagpole. With its 27 lighting rings, it was visible from afar. The tower itself rose from long strips of light that crossed the base.
As a representative large cinema with a stage, it had a large hall with 1920 seats. The representative entrance of the cinema was then directly on Schloßstraße on the corner of Guthsmuthsstraße. The entrance led to a large foyer - designed in the Art Déco style - in which there was also a café and which also contained the cloakroom for 1700 people.
Program and meaning
With its spacious, modern architecture and its diverse range of programs, the Titania Palace attracted many visitors in the period before the Second World War . Initially, silent films were shown, accompanied by an orchestra of up to 60 musicians and framed by a side program in the style of vaudeville theater . Just one and a half years after the opening of the building, it was the emerging sound films that cast a spell over visitors. The first sound film was shown on October 29, 1929 The Singing Fool .
The film program of the Titania Palace was determined by world premieres as well as mainly light entertainment films and comedies from the distribution of the National Film Society. Since the Titania Palace was also the premiere cinema for the National Film, the screenings for the cinema owners also took place here.
As intended, the house was also used as a stage. The large hall was used for various cultural events. In addition to the symphony concerts of the Philharmonic Orchestra , these were z. B. Art evenings of the Steglitz district office or a Richard Wagner memorial service.
The mixture of different film and cultural offers based on the model of American cinemas in the modern film theater was well received by the audience, so that the cinema corner of the Titania Palace was compared by the press in terms of circulation, traffic and influx with the cinema life of the Berlin inner city area.
Due to its size of 60 musicians, the house orchestra was able to be located in the top category of cinema orchestras . However, initially there were problems with the line-up and management of the orchestra, so that the quality of the orchestra was initially criticized.
National Socialism
The aim of the National Socialist cultural policy was to integrate all cultural areas as comprehensively as possible into their propaganda activities . The then management of the Titania Palace swung to the new, National Socialist line early on , be it out of anticipatory obedience, out of inner conviction or simply for economic reasons. Even before Joseph Goebbels on March 13, 1933 Minister was of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, ran at the Titania Palace from 9 March 1933, the "great national film" Dawn of Ufa . On October 10, 1933, the propaganda film Hitler Youth Quex came on the program. On October 31, 1933, the World War as it really was!
The film program of the Titania Palace was therefore a mixture of cheerful, harmless and apparently apolitical entertainment, dull nationalism and sturdy propaganda strips.
In 1942 the Titania Palace was expropriated along with a number of other cinemas . Together with Ufa, which came under state control as early as 1937, the entire film sector became completely a propaganda tool for the National Socialists . Since the house survived the Second World War almost unscathed, films could be shown until the end of the war.
post war period
After the entry of the western allies in July 1945, Berlin-Steglitz belonged to the American sector . Berlin was 40 percent destroyed. However, the Titania Palace had suffered only minor bomb damage. The lack of large halls on the one hand and the technical equipment of the house also as a stage on the other helped the Titania Palast to rise as the cultural center of Berlin in the post-war years . The Americans then confiscated the house for three years, but allowed selected events to use the house. After that it was released for German use again and a mixture of films, operettas , concerts and other special events formed the program. Musicals , cabaret , films, housewife afternoons and entertainment for children alternated. The well-known magician Kalanag and his wife and assistant Gloria also performed in the Titania Palace with a show that was characterized, among other things, by great illusions . Many world stars of the 1950s were guests in the Titania Palace. Hank Williams , Louis Armstrong , Marlene Dietrich , Zarah Leander , Josephine Baker , Yehudi Menuhin and Maurice Chevalier were the most famous among the numerous celebrities.
On May 26, 1945 the Berliner Philharmoniker were able to give their first concert here after the end of the war. Since the old Philharmonie was destroyed, the luxury cinema offered a welcome alternative and for a long time became the permanent venue for the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
Also the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin , the world's oldest mixed choir association, founded in 1791, the Titania-Palast became a temporary home after the severe damage to its main building on the fortress ditch in Berlin-Mitte in 1943.
Early on, the RIAS also organized entertainment evenings in the Titania Palace that were broadcast on the radio, including many performances by the famous cabaret group Die Insulaner . On December 4, 1948, the Free University of Berlin was officially opened with a festive event in the Titania Palace .
On April 18, 1950, Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer spoke at a rally in the Titania Palace. He asked his audience to sing the third stanza of the Deutschlandlied , which at that time - although not forbidden - was regarded as an expression of nationalist sentiments.
An outstanding event - meaningful in Berlin, which was destroyed by the war - was the first International Film Festival in Berlin (Berlinale) from 1951 under the direction of Alfred Bauer . Six years after the end of the war and two years after the start of the Cannes Film Festival , the Berlinale was the result of a cultural and political initiative by the American allies. It should give an impulse to rebuild the technically and culturally destroyed German film industry. This Berlinale opened on June 6, 1951 and only took place once in the Titania Palast. Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca was presented as the opening film ; the star guest was the American actress Joan Fontaine . A German jury awarded the first Golden Bear to four films.
The house was equipped with Cinemascope in 1953 .
This unprecedented bloom was followed by an equally rapid economic decline as the reconstruction of Berlin progressed, the Deutsche Oper , the Philharmonie , the Freie Volksbühne and many new cinemas were completed. Due to the construction of the wall and the development of television in the course of the 1960s, the number of visitors, as in other cinemas, was also increasingly declining. The last film was shown in December 1965 and the last operetta was played a month later. In 1966 the Titania Palace narrowly escaped demolition . The Berlin energy supplier Bewag prevented this by leasing part of the building. The great hall of the Titania Palace was rented to retail outlets . Other parts of the building were used as a rehearsal stage from 1972 to 1994 .
With the renaissance of the cinema in the mid-1990s, a new usage concept emerged. The building was completely gutted and rebuilt for this purpose. With the closure of the rehearsal stage, construction of the new cinema halls began, and on May 24, 1995, films were shown again in the building for the first time in almost three decades. In particular, the installation of several false ceilings, which was necessary for future economic use, irretrievably changed the character of the house with its impressive large cinema. The old splendor was lost forever.
Todays use
Today, the Titania Palace is no longer just used as a commercial building, but also as a cinema, albeit in completely new rooms on one of the new false ceilings. The name lives on, and the facade also reminds of the past of the once famous house on Schloßstraße.
Today's cinema entrance is no longer directly on Schloßstraße, but on the side of the building at Gutsmuthsstraße 27/28, opposite the Forum Steglitz shopping center . The cinema writing on the house wall and a large arrow show the way. Today's Titania Palace has only the name and the location in common with the historical cinema. Externally, however, many of the architectural features of the original building have been preserved. The house has seven screening rooms with a total of around 1100 seats and is a listed building .
literature
- Rolf Grünewald: The Titania Palace - Berlin cinema and cultural history. Edition Hentrich, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-89468-039-3 .
- Brigitte Hausmann (ed.): New, big, green - 100 years of modern architecture in southwest Berlin. Greater Berlin and the consequences for Steglitz and Zehlendorf , Berlin: Gebrüder Mann 2020, ISBN 9783786128441 , pp. 54–59.
Web links
- Showtimes in the Titania Palace
- Magician Kalanag and Gloria in the Titania Palace
- Titania-Palast on www.kinokompendium.de
- Rolf Grünewald: History of the Titania Palace (online version of his book)
Individual evidence
- ^ Vossische Zeitung of March 18, 1928, Film-Kurier of July 11, 1928
- ↑ Entry in the Berlin State Monument List
Coordinates: 52 ° 27 ′ 50 ″ N , 13 ° 19 ′ 36 ″ E