Stadttheater Duisburg

Martin Dülfer, architect of previous theatres in Meran (1899/1900), Dortmund (1903/04) and Lübeck (1907/08), won the 1909 competition run on the initiative of the Theaterbauverein also for his convincing plans in terms of urban development.
The theatre was opened on November 7, 1912; rather early and featuring then state-of-the-art stage equipment: Dresden-based Max Hasit Dülfer had helped here.
The plastered building with its “antiquitising” facade and the classicist portico, whose mighty triangular gable is borne by six super-elevated Ionic pillars, is at the northern end of König-Heinrich-Platz.
In the gable relief, we find the six muses rendering homage to Pallas Athena.
On December 20, 1942, the interior, with the exception of the colonnades and stairs, was almost completely destroyed. However, the new Stadttheater, to whose design architects Friedrich Leykauf, Herrman Adolphi and Emil Fahrenkamp contributed a lot, was opened as early as 1950.
The horse-shoe auditorium with now 1,200 (instead of 1,650) seats in the stalls and two tiers saw a totally new design.

Author: Verlag Fachtechnik + Mercator Verlag, Duisburg
Text last changed on 13.11.2007

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Architecture » Public Buildings » Cultural (cinemas, theatres, museums)