Lichtburg
[1] It was designed by Oskar Rosendahl, a local architect who the following year published an influential article in Der Kinomatograph in which he laid out guidelines for cinema design such as an inviting foyer with cloakrooms through which the public would be drawn rapidly into the auditorium, an equally good view from all seats, achieved by a raked floor and a screen raised at least 2.5 metres off the floor, and toilets within easy reach to minimise disturbances.
[1] Throughout its years as a cinema, the façade retained a stone archway over the doorway and a group of small windows above.
The semicircular canopy bore the name Lichtburg in large letters, changing position and script slightly over the years.
Immediately after World War II, it was an AKC cinema for American and British occupying forces, with only limited access for locals.
[11] The Lichtburg Studio Theater, a cellar arthouse cinema opened in 2005, revived the name[12][13] but was itself forced to close in 2009.
[15] The exterior was designed by municipal planner Ernst Bode in a stark New Objectivist style without surface adornment; the interior by the local company of Heydkamp und Curt Bucerius [de] based on designs by the city architect, Lothar Kaminski.
The cinema opened on 18 October 1928: evening dress was requested from those attending the multi-part gala, which included a concert performance and a ballet by a Parisian troupe from the Folies Bergère before the featured film, Marquis d'Eon, der Spion der Pompadour.
[19] Under the Third Reich, the Lichtburg's operator, Karl Wolffsohn, a Berlin publisher and entrepreneur, was forced as a Jew to sell it in 1933/34 for a tenth of its value to Universum Film AG (UfA).
It reopened on 23 March 1950;[22] the mayor, Hans Toussaint [de], gave a speech and Gustav Heinemann, later to be President of the Republic,[23] and Willi Forst, the director of the featured film, Wiener Mädeln, were both present.
[24] After advocacy by cultural and political figures including Wim Wenders, Wolfgang Niedecken und Gerhard Schröder, the city council passed a resolution in 2000 to retain it as a cinema.
The small secondary auditorium below ground level seats 150 and is named for the Indian-American actor Sabu.
It seated 2,000 and was part of an entertainment complex which also contained spaces for dancing and banqueting, meeting rooms, restaurants, bars, cafes, shops and a bowling alley.
It consisted of two horizontally defined wings, 5 and 4 storeys high, between which the main body of the cinema was located.
A 22.5 metre high rotunda positioned at the street corner contained the foyer and event spaces and was topped by a glass roof pavilion; the cinema was given pride of place.
[35] The new building received praise in the architectural press for its innovative and successful technical realisation and use of space, including two-sided access to the cloakrooms so that entering and leaving people did not hinder each other.
[41] The night-time appearance of the cinema was widely depicted and probably influenced Cecil Clavering's striking design for the Odeon in Kingstanding, with its tall central fins on which the architect originally intended a searchlight to be mounted.
[29] It is now commemorated in the Lichtburgforum, which is named for it and attempts to replace some of its functions in the community,[50] and the Lichtburg-Stiftung (Lichtburg Foundation), which was founded to finance cultural activities in the Gartenstadt Atlantic.
