Schaubühne

The Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz is a famous theatre in the Wilmersdorf district of Berlin, located on the Kurfürstendamm boulevard. It is a conversion of the Universum cinema, built according to plans designed by Erich Mendelsohn in 1928.

History

The cinema then was the centrepiece of the wider WOGA housing complex, designed by Mendelsohn in a New Objectivity styled urban development ensemble, with a shopping walkway, apartment blocks, lawns, and a tennis court in the back. It possibly was the first Modernist cinema built in the world, as opposed to the Moorish, Egyptian and baroque styles that predominated. Mendelsohn wrote a short text on his cinema, declaring 'no Baroque palaces for Buster Keaton'. The cinema would become very influential on Streamline Moderne cinema design in the 1930s.

Heavily damaged in World War II, it was rebuilt and re-opened as a cinema, from 1969 as a dance hall and for musical theatre. The building's current use as a lyric style theatre dates from the late 1970s, when the Schaubühne ensemble around Peter Stein, formerly residing on Hallesches Ufer in Kreuzberg, searched for a new venue. From 1978 to 1981 the interiors have been completely changed, centered around a theatre hall with adjustable spaces and no separation of audinece and performers.