Hans Otto Theatre

[1] Its headquarters and main venue is in the Großes Haus am Tiefen See in Potsdam's cultural district on Schiffbauergasse.

Other regular venues are the neighbouring historic Reithalle and occasionally the Palace Theatre in the Neues Palais.

After 1933, the repertoire was changed: In addition to little classical music, they played light fare and National Socialist drama.

In its place, the Landtag Brandenburg opened in January 2014 in historicised facades of the City Palace, Potsdam, which was damaged in World War II and demolished in 1960.

A temporary theatre building was erected at the Alter Markt, which was to serve as the central venue for five years and was soon nicknamed the "tin can" by the Potsdam public.

To bridge the construction phase until the opening of the New Theatre, the then artistic director of the Hans-Otto-Theatre, Uwe Eric Laufenberg (2004-2009), invited his audience for two seasons under the motto "on the road" to various, sometimes exotic, alternative venues in the city.

exotic alternative venues in the city, such as the Orangery Palace in Park Sanssouci, the pavilion on Freundschaftsinsel, the Palais Lichtenau or the Französische Kirche.

Plays also continued in the "Blechbüchse" – it was the main venue of the Hans Otto Theater GmbH for fourteen years until its final closure in June 2006.

In 2009, she took over the directorship of the Rheinisches Landestheater Neuss, which she led to national attention with her high artistic standards.

Guest directors since then have been or are: Frank Abt, Jörg Bitterich, Marc Becker, Nicole Erbe, Kathrin Filler, Manuela Gerlach, Esther Hattenbach, Sascha Hawemann, Mario Holetzeck, Anna Franziska Huber, Bettina Jahnke, Jan Jochymski, Malte Kreuzfeldt, Steffi Kühnert, Konstanze Lauterbach Bernd Mottl, Ulrike Müller, Milena Paulovics, Nina de la Parra, Moritz Peters, Katrin Plötner, Mike Priebe, Annette Pullen, Tobias Johannes Erasmus Rott, Katharina Schmitt, Petra Schönwald, Caro Thum, Alexandra Wilke, Sebastian Wirnitzer, Angelika Zacek.

The parent building and main venue of the Hans Otto Theatre was built from 2003 to 2006 on the cultural and commercial site Schiffbauergasse (house number 11).

On the Tiefen See side, a former chicory mill, also a listed building, adjoins the theatre structure; it now houses a restaurant.

The upper foyer and stage hall have glass window fronts that look out over the Havel River to Park Babelsberg.

[3] At a ceremony attended by Federal President Horst Köhler and Brandenburg's Prime Minister Matthias Platzeck, the cultural and economic importance of the new theatre location for the city of Potsdam was acknowledged and reference was made to the hoped-for signal effect for the new federal states.

In the 2015 film documentary Die Böhms - Architektur einer Familie by Maurizius Staerkle-Drux, the new building of the New Theatre occupies an important place.