Discover history: Theatre Square
From Anger to Theatre Square
Theatre Square is considered one of the most beautiful squares in the city. Originally laid out around 1800 as a "Kommunanger", it occupied a considerably larger area at the time. The first major building was erected in 1888 with St Peter's Church. The square in front of it was now called "Neustädter Markt". With the construction of the King Albert Museum and the New Municipal Theatre in 1906-1909, it became "Königsplatz" and later "Theaterplatz". In 1992, the underground car park under the square was completed and later the circular shape of the "Theatron" was built.
St Peter's Church
The neo-Gothic St Peter's Church was the first large single building on the square, built in 1888 to a design by Leipzig architect Hans Enger. With 1,200 seats, it was the largest church building in the city at the time. The colossal brick building with richly structured sandstone ornamentation is 59 metres long and 36 metres wide. At 82 metres, the tower is still the tallest church tower in the city today. Environmental influences and a lack of funds for building maintenance in the 1980s led to the church being closed in 1987. From 1992 onwards, the monument was renovated in stages with the help of federal and state subsidies. The large Ladegast organ was restored in 2007/2008 thanks to the commitment of the Friends' Association.
The "Chemnitzer Hof" hotel
In the "Golden Twenties", the demand for the construction of a large, elegant hotel for business travellers and guests of Chemnitz's major industrial companies grew ever stronger. In 1925, the city organised a competition among architects. The hotel was finally built according to plans by Chemnitz-born architect Heinrich Straumer, who was awarded 2nd prize. Characterised on the outside by modern, functional architectural forms, the guest rooms and lounges inside the hotel, which opened in 1930, were very elegantly furnished. Spared from bombing in March 1945, the hotel still retains much of its originality today.
At the beginning of 1906, construction began on the two cultural buildings on what was then Neustädter Markt: the museum and the new municipal theatre. The buildings were planned and realised under the direction of Richard Möbius (1859-1945), Chemnitz city planning officer and head of the building construction department.
Art collections on Theatre Square ("King Albert Museum")
It was an unusual task to house five very different collections in one building - from natural history to art. Combined with the narrow plot of land, this only allowed for a very elongated structure with a total length of 113 metres. The building makes discreet use of historicist forms and has its own unique character thanks to the Elbe sandstone building material. It houses the municipal art collections, which were founded in 1920 "in the morning light of the Republic". After being destroyed in the Second World War, the building was functionally repaired; a comprehensive reconstruction of the original state of the interior began in 1994. Today, the museum is one of the largest and most important municipal art collections in Germany, with a focus on international modernism.
The opera house
The old municipal theatre from 1838 no longer met the demands of the rapidly growing industrial city. It was therefore decided to build a "New Municipal Theatre" (from 1922 "Opera House").
The magnificent interior was completely lost due to bombing on 5 March 1945. The theatre was rebuilt between 1949 and 1951 in a partially simplified form, particularly in the interior. Due to heavy wear and tear and inadequate functional and technical equipment, the interior was completely remodelled in 1988-1992, resulting in one of the most modern stages in Germany.