The Pomeranian Arts House is a building of cultural and historical significance located at 20 Gdańska Street in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
[2] The building was designed by architect Gustav Reichert, in the style of German Historicism, referring to classicism forms.
The builder was Emil Haydemann, master bricklayer: on the ground-floor the extension comprised a brick wing with its own entrance, covered with a lean-to roof.
[2] The activities in the Society House were run until June 1939, focused on the organization of social and cultural life (art and science) of German elite.
In December 1904, the Jubilee celebration of the Bromberg Horse Grenadier Regiment was held in the Society House, attended personally by Emperor Wilhelm II.
[8] The building (then Civil Casino) housed the first official concert inaugurating the Bydgoszcz Music Society created at the initiative of Ludwik Regamey on 5 December 1922.
Anti-Polish activity by the German minority was re-aroused by the decision of the Polish municipal authorities on 15 June 1939 to close the Society House and rename it to "Social House" (Polish: Dom Społeczny): the announcement was met with violent protests in Bydgoszcz by German and Nazi partisans.
Polish art expert Jerzy Remer, on behalf of the Commission for Reconstruction supervised the work on the building.
Architects planned to build a scene with the necessary elements, an auditorium for 600 people and to create a moat for the orchestra, by extending the Arts House the East, on a plot from the Park Casimir the Great.
Thus emerged the idea of erected an independent, modern opera house building in the bend of the Brda river.
Since 2008, the facility is being modernized to fit the needs of the Academy of Music:[11] The edifice is a detached, two-storey building with basement, and has got the characteristics of classicism.
Upstairs, the building housed a small auditorium on the first floor, a library, club rooms, a restaurant and wine cellar.