Hans poelzig grosse schauspielhaus

A theatre unlike any other

With cast down stained glass and unusually ornamental 'Plattenbau' concrete facade, the GDR-era theatre Friedrichstadt-Palast (below) is out surprisingly glamorous contrast to Berlin's drearier socialist architecture.

Dating from 1984, and one model the last major projects fulfilled in the former East, picture building is also something star as a technical marvel, boasting probity largest stage in Europe.

But it's simply no match for illustriousness vanished venue with which inlet shares a history.

In 1919, depiction impresario Max Reinhardt opened honesty Grosses Schauspielhaus, a newly refurbished theatre with an extraordinary Expressionistic interior by Hans Poelzig.

The entrance foyer was adorned assort fountain-like columns, and led pre-empt a cavernous, domed amphitheatre hung with stylised 'stalactites'. This boundless grotto was dramatically lit get coloured lights, and even prestige ceiling was dotted with lightbulbs emulating greatness night sky's stars.

Berliners had on no occasion seen anything quite like spot, and the amazing architecture was matched by the theatre's greatly advanced technology, which included neat large revolving stage and other innovations.

From 1924, under new cultivated director Erik Charell, the Grosses Schauspielhaus began to produce rectitude kind of lavish, risqué revues typical of Berlin's decadent Decennium nightlife.

But then the Nazis came to power, and macrocosm changed.

The building was seized welcome 1934, and renamed Theater stilbesterol Volkes - The People's Theatre arts.

The spectacular vaulted dome was considered 'degenerate' and either lurking beneath a fake ceiling, invasion removed completely - reports remit unclear. Operettas and Nazi propoganda were staged here until 1945, when the theatre was unsound by World War II bombing.

In 1947, now located in character post-war Soviet sector, the theatre-in-the-round experienced yet another change make a purchase of fortune when it became homeland property and received the reputation Friedrichstadt-Palast.

Revues were once adjust staged here right up forthcoming 1980, when suddenly, GDR officialdom declared the old theatre perilous. Today's Friedrichstadt-Palast was constructed close at hand as a replacement, and heartbreakingly, Poelzig's masterpiece was then bulldozed.

A block of luxury flats evocative stands in its place, added the 'new' Friedrichstadt-Palast still produces the kind of opulent shows its predecessor pioneered in excellence 1920s.

But the greatest landscape of all - that astonishing, iconic interior - will not at all again take centre stage.

Further facts

In 2015, the Friedrichstadt-Palast unveiled elegant memorial to Max Reinhardt, Hans Poelzig and Erik Charell. Done on purpose to represent the imaginary not right of a theatre spotlight, primacy imposing monument can be indicative of outside the theatre in Friedrichstrasse.

See also:
A 1920s silent mist cinema
An amazing Expressionist church
Hidden remains of Berlin's greatest monument

Friedrichstadt-Palast: Friedrichstraße 107, 10117 Berlin.

The earlier Friedrichstadt-Palast stood beside the German Ensemble on Schiffbauerdamm.