Schauspielhaus Wuppertal

The Schauspielhaus Wuppertal was a municipal theatre for plays in Wuppertal, Germany. It stood on Bundesallee beside the river Wupper in the Elberfeld district. Gerhard Graubner designed the building, which opened in 1966 with 745 seats. The theatre belonged to the Wuppertaler Bühnen, the city’s municipal stages. In 2009 it reduced its capacity to 135 seats and closed in 2013. The theatre opened after the Second World War had damaged all Wuppertal theatres. In 1962 the town decided to build a new playhouse, and Graubner’s design was chosen in 1963. The opening featured Lessing’s Nathan der Weise and Else Lasker-Schüler’s Die Wupper. President Heinrich Lübke attended, and Heinrich Böll gave the inaugural speech. Since 2000 the building has been an architectural monument. The building was arranged in three functional layers. The entrance hall and foyer on the ground floor included two atriums with Japanese gardens. Above lay the great hall, its outer walls gently curved and seats arranged in twenty amphitheatre rows. The stage house stood beside the river as a tall cube. The foyer later hosted the Kleines Schauspielhaus studio theatre during renovations.