Theater Waidspeicher

Theater Waidspeicher stands in Erfurt’s old town, a protected building in the Great Arche complex off Mettengasse. Built between 1540 and 1560 as a warehouse, it once stored and processed woad, the blue dye that made the city prosperous. Over the centuries the stone structure passed through many hands: a Saflor merchant in 1643, an advocate in 1751, a tobacco maker in 1797. Each owner left traces such as painted ceiling beams or a small garden around the 1321 Milk Fountain. The place is worth the journey because it now houses two lively stages. In 1986 the city turned it into a permanent theatre after a full restoration led by Gerhard Schade. Lothar Krone designed the interiors, and Klaus-Dieter Klotz stitched the main curtain for the puppet hall. Today the puppet theatre seats 142 and the cabaret 95, while the adjoining house at Domplatz 18 holds the box office and rehearsal room. A visitor finds vaulted cellars, a puppet theatre with painted beams, and a cabaret stage in the same walls that once dried tobacco leaves. The lower foyer, remodelled in 2001 by Krone, leads to functional rooms on the top floor. Outside, the narrow Mettengasse keeps the medieval flavour alive, and a few steps away the Milk Fountain recalls the courtyard garden planted in 1762.