Stadttheater Wilhelmshaven

The Stadttheater Wilhelmshaven stands in the port city of Wilhelmshaven in Lower Saxony. It began as a private theatre under director Steingoetter in 1906, using the Seemannshaus on Bismarckstraße. In 1938 the city took over the New Playhouse run by Robert Hellwig, a former Austrian reserve officer, and appointed Richard Gsell as intendant. The theatre opened with Carl Maria von Weber’s opera Der Freischütz but was destroyed by a bomb in March 1943. After the war the former Marine-Intendantur building on Virchowstraße, dating from 1904, was converted into the new Stadttheater. The conversion cost 358,000 Reichsmark and 1.1 million Deutsche Mark before reopening on 19 October 1952 with Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Since then it has served as home to the Landesbühne Niedersachsen Nord and hosts productions by the Oldenburg State Theatre. It was also the stage for the Niederdeutsche Bühne Rüstringen until 2010. Inside, the theatre has a stage 18 metres wide and 7 metres deep, with an orchestra pit for 52 musicians. After 1983 the upper tiers were removed and foyers modernised. Later renovations reduced seating from over 800 to 514 places. The building remains a cultural hub in Wilhelmshaven’s city centre.