So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye – Berlin is saying tschüßi to the Colosseum, one of the oldest movie theatres in town.
From a distance, life here looks pretty normal.
Taking photos of the empty displays moved me a lot more than I expected.
Admittedly, this was the cinema we went to the most, which makes it so much sadder. That’s what people are like, once you are actually involved …
A Short History
The Colosseum in Berlin Prenzlauer Berg opened its doors in 1924, but parts of the historic building even date back to 1894. The movies offered seats for 1000 people and showed silent films as well as variety shows. It had to close during WWII and served a few purposes in between, until it was reopened in 1957. In the GDR it was also one of a few theatres to host movie premiers.
After the reunification, the Colosseum had been acquired by the famous Jewish producer Artur Brauner, who described this as the capstone of his lifework. Renovations now allowed up to 2800 people in the movies. I have many fond memories of this place. Be it Berlinale films or sitting alone at the movies …
Brauner passed away in July 2019, shortly before he would’ve turned 101.
Why is Colosseum Cinema Closed?
If you made it this far, your probably still wonder why the Colosseum closed its doors. What followed the passing of Brauner is a great example of Berlins political Ping-Pong; as nobody seems ever really responsible for anything. The heirs of Brauner applied for a building licence for Schönhauser Allee 123 in fall of 2019 and apparently the city didn’t check the adress or failed to realize those offices were supposed to be in some heritage listed movie theatre.
Are you still with me?
Due to the lack of income during the first lock down, the Colosseum filed for bankruptcy in May 2020. Worked out well for the trust fund kids, didn’t it? Imagine the cinema manufactured cars …
A few protests and a petition followed, you know, that cute stuff, while we all know that there is nothing to be done in cases like this.
Shame on everybody involved. If you take away our culture we are nothing but mammals.
This blog is supposed to write about kitschy fluffy stuff. Common 2020 offer me some content here.
Adieu, adieu, to yieu and yieu and yieu!
Sources – in German – Wiki RBB Tagespiegel & Tagesspiegel
Weekend Movie – The Sound of Music
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Sad, sometimes, the history and evolution of cinema. The future will probably have all motion pictures satellited to our home screens and the social enthusiasm of the old theaters gone forever.
Art
… and replaced by Netflix and beamers …
It’s always sad when places like this are unnecessarily demolished.
Money makes the world go around …
Spent several hours there. As a boy, with school, later as young man and father. It was a very nice atmosphere and even it was managed by a bigger Cinema Company the last years, there was still the flair of a historic Berlin, an artful Berlin full of creativity (…. instead of just streaming block busters and sell popcorn). Verry said, no one knows how to bring that back some day
I really liked the place, too. Not like those liveles multiplex ones. (Altough the ones on Potsdamer Platz don’t seem to do too well…) I don’t know if you can get that feeling back. Wait a few years, no one might miss it …
:´(
What a shame. Such a cool building with lots of history. “If you take away our culture we are nothing but mammals.” Great comment!
Thanks hun! I never wanna get too political but sometimes that’s hard … The inside was buitiful as well. It must’ve had a courtyard that they later put under glass. Lots of red bricks … ahhww, and you should’ve seen the carpets … Sigh
That is so very sad – and yes, it does make one angry. It is such a beautiful building. Thank you for taking the time to take them and for the brief history.
Didn’t we also see Germany win Eurovision in there? I’m a little stunned, that this fact didn’t make it into your post, considering …
That is pretty unacceptable; see how mad I am about this? — There’s nostalgia left for us now … It was pretty funny when nobody at the movies could believe Germany was actually winning 😉 Good times …