Venus (cinema)
The cinema Venus was a movie theater in the villa district on Orankesee in the Berlin district of Alt-Hohenschönhausen . It existed as a demonstration facility from 1947 to 2004.
history
The building
In Degnerstrasse near Berliner Strasse (from 1985 Konrad-Wolf-Strasse ) a depot for the north-eastern Berlin suburban railway was built at the end of the 19th century . The terminals of these "electrical" were in old Berlin at today's level of Büschingstrasse and in Hohenschönhausen in front of the village school. In addition to the car shed, there was also an administration building for the railway and an electricity company for power supply.
The building was used in its original function until 1929, after which the entrepreneur Carl Bresin leased it and set up a food factory in the hall. The factory lasted until World War II . When the Allies dropped bombs in 1942/1943, the hall was badly damaged and could no longer be used.
Opening a cinema
Shortly after the war, Anna and Georg Reichardt bought the ruins , rebuilt them with rubble and set up the Uhu cinema with 586 seats, later referred to as the Uhu Filmbühne . The facility owes its name to such a night bird that nested in the former depot during the reconstruction work. In 1959, the Reichardts had to sell the cinema to the Berlin magistrate due to nationalization measures. He renamed the film theater in 1966 after a major renovation and technical modernization in Kino Venus . This description can be found in a newspaper from 1966: “… The old bird-name cinema is turning into a modern film palace, soon to be called“ Venus ”. From September 1, after ten months of renovation, the screen of this small movie theater in Degnerstrasse will flicker again. The director of the VEB Berliner Filmtheater Kiehl recently showed us the soon-to-be-finished cinema. - The former "postage stamp format" of the white wall no longer exists. The new projection surface is 3.76 m high and 9.65 m wide. The technically perfect ventilation ensures good ozone. A spacious foyer and the spacious ticket hall were added. The steeply rising auditorium guarantees a good view from all seats. The 14 rows of golden brown folding chairs stand in a room paneled with fine wood, which is separated from the stage by a red plush curtain. - With live seafood products , a DEFA - Total Vision movie , the new movie theater "plans, such as the renovation of the façade were opened not subsequently implemented..
In the 1970s and 1980s, this cinema was also the second venue for the Berlin cabaret Die Distel , whose performances were almost always sold out at the time.
In 1979, the cinema came under the responsibility of the Bezirksfilmdirektion (BFD) Berlin, which reduced the number of seats to 337 by increasing the row spacing. After the fall of the Wall , however, the facility was privatized again. The new owners were the Peter H. Vollmann Filmtheaterbetriebe, which maintain other cinemas in Berlin districts. For a few years, the venue was the only movie theater in the entire Hohenschönhausen district at that time . In 1998, in the meantime the facility had been resold, it faced competition from the Cinemaxx multiplex cinema at the Hohenschönhausen S-Bahn station ; the Venus closed on August 1, 1998. For a second attempt, the cinema owner arranged for a division into two venues, Venus 1 and Venus 2 with 295 (the former cinema hall) and 48 seats (the former thistle hall). In 2004 the operator had to shut down for good because of economic difficulties and the technology that is now out of date. The front annex on the street (former ticket hall) served as an occasional cultural meeting point for some time. The building has been empty since then.
There is a plaque on the building to commemorate the first tram to Hohenschönhausen.
Planned conversions
The head of urban planning for the responsible district of Lichtenberg was already interested in a sale or a general new use or even a demolition in 2004, he said: “It would be nice if it stayed with the cinema, but we can also use other uses or after demolition Introduce the new building. ”After the property fund had sold the building for around 260,000 euros to the investor Elan Technologie Berlin GmbH, the“ Venus ”lettering and the windows and ticket booths in the foyer were removed in summer 2007 . Then new windows were installed and a note was hung up stating that a café should be built in the anteroom and offices and loft apartments in the rest of the space . The large hall should be used for the development of a city hybrid vehicle. There was also minor renovation work, but the planned new use did not materialize (as of July 2016).
description
The footprint of the one-story building with a monopitch roof , which stands across the street, is 29 m by 18.5 m, plus the glass foyer extension with a length of around 24 m and a width of around 4 m. The facades are plastered gray.
The building's character of a workshop has largely been retained, which can be recognized by the five windows behind the extension. There is handicapped accessible access on the northern side . The cinema Venus recently had a large auditorium with 295 seats and a small hall with 48 seats.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Uhu-Filmbühne In: Fernsprechbuch Berlin (East), edition 1957/58
- ↑ “Uhu” becomes “Venus”. In: Berliner Zeitung , August 19, 1966, p. 11.
- ^ Christiane Peitz: Die Kinos in Berlin , In: Der Tagesspiegel , 2001; accessed on July 21, 2016.
- ^ Cinema Venus on Degnerstrasse closed In: Berliner Morgenpost, November 22, 2004; accessed on July 21, 2016.
- ^ Workshops, offices and lofts in the former cinema Venus , In: Die Welt , July 20, 2006, accessed on July 21, 2016.
- ↑ Dimensions of the building roughly determined with the tool from Google Earth .
- ↑ Venus-Filmtheater on KinoWiki.de
Coordinates: 52 ° 32 '46.6 " N , 13 ° 29" 39.8 " E