Kolosseum

The former Colosseum stands in Erlangen’s Henkestraße as a four-storey Neorenaissance building topped by a pitched roof. Its brick walls are dressed with sandstone trim and framed by shallow side projections capped with an attic. Stone balconies with balustrades project from the second floor, while a small wrought-iron balcony sits above the central entrance. The façade is further enriched with ornate Neorenaissance detailing around the projections.

During the Third Reich the hall served as the local NSDAP’s main meeting place. Speakers included Joseph Goebbels and Julius Streicher, and Adolf Hitler delivered his first Erlangen address here in May 1923 before 2,000 listeners. After 1945 American forces used the building as a cinema for troops, then as a youth centre with English classes. In 1974 it became part of the Bayerischer Hof hotel complex.

Inside, the former theatre and cinema spaces now form the hotel’s foyer and function rooms. The vaulted Bockkeller, once the scene of popular beer festivals, survives as the hotel’s Hofgewölbe. The garden pavilion where open-air concerts were held has long since disappeared, but the building’s richly decorated exterior remains a reminder of its varied past.