Neues Theater

The Neue Theater was a privately funded playhouse on the Mainzer Landstraße in Frankfurt am Main. It opened on 11 September 1911 with Heinrich von Kleist’s *Der zerbrochne Krug* in a Jugendstil building by Vietze & Helfrich that seated 770. The house was almost always full, thanks to donations from Frankfurt citizens. In the 1920s it became one of Germany’s most innovative stages, premiering works by Leo Tolstoi, Arthur Schnitzler and Georg Kaiser. The young ensemble included Hans Albers, Käthe Dorsch, Lucie Englisch, Heinrich George, Trude Hesterberg, Marianne Hoppe, Victor de Kowa, Theo Lingen, Günther Lüders and Helene Weigel. Under Arthur Hellmer the theatre kept its independence even after 1933, running at 90 per cent capacity while others collapsed. The building was destroyed in 1944. Today a modern office block stands on the corner of Mainzer Landstraße and Karlstraße, housing the Verband der Chemischen Industrie. The site holds no trace of the Jugendstil playhouse that once filled its auditorium night after night.