Theater im Bauturm

The Theatre in the Bauturm stands in Cologne’s Belgian Quarter, behind the Café im Bauturm on Aachener Straße. The building was set up in 1983 by a collective of actors, directors and artists who still occupy the same space today. Across the road the old Millowitsch Theatre reminds visitors of the quarter’s theatrical past.

The theatre is recognised for its lively repertoire and bold new productions. Each season it stages four or five premieres alongside classics reworked for modern audiences. Recent successes include a sharp look at carnival fame in Petermann! Eine kölsche Paranoia and a panoramic stage portrait of women’s lives in Hexe – Heldin – Herrenwitz. Around 23 000 to 26 000 people attend the roughly 300 events held here every year.

Visitors enter through a side passage past the show-cases of current plays into a small foyer with a bar. The 130-seat theatre hall rises behind it, its stage only 2.90 metres high. The walls carry decades of posters and photographs that tell the story of the house and its people.