Schiller Theater

The Schiller Theater is a theatre in Berlin, Germany.

During the 1920s and 1930s, it was used by the Preußisches Staatstheater Berlin theatre company and, after post-war rebuilding, from 1951 to 1993 the Staatliche Schauspielbühnen Berlin. In 1993, the Berlin Senate decided to close it for financial reasons. It is now rented out for theatre performances and other events, and is used by the Staatsoper Unter den Linden as a second venue.

It is located in the district of Charlottenburg of the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf near Ernst-Reuter-Platz in Bismarckstraße 110 (formerly No. 117-120).

The Schiller Theater was built from 1905 to 1906 according to plans by the Munich theatre architect Max Littmann for the Schiller-Theater AG and the town of Charlottenburg.

The sculptural decoration was designed by the sculptors Düll and Petzold, and the decoration of the auditorium and the painted curtain is from Julius Mössel.

Professor Raphael Löwenfeld was the initiator and founding manager. The 1,194-seat theatre was opened on 1 January 1907 with Die Räuber by Friedrich Schiller, and continued to be run by the Schiller-Theater-Gesellschaft with their own theatre company.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the building was the second venue of the Preußisches Staatstheater Berlin, whose main venue was the Schauspielhaus am Gendarmenmarkt.

From 1937 to 1938, the theatre was extensively rebuilt for the city of Berlin by Paul Baumgarten. Baumgarten simplified the facade and the auditorium considerably, changing the appearance of the theatre with respect to the New Objectivity of the 1920s, but also in line with the prevailing monumental architectural trend of National Socialism. A government box was incorporated. The sculptors Paul Scheurich and Karl Nocke and the painter Albert Birkle were involved in the conversion.

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