Residenztheater

The Residenztheater stood in Hannover’s old town centre from 1879 until the early 20th century. It occupied a building on Marktstraße that had once housed the Thalia-Theater, and its name recalled the city’s former role as a royal residence. The architect Otto Goetze remodelled the house in 1879, while a second theatre, the Stadttheater, opened nearby in 1877 in the former Marstall on Reuterstraße. The house was repeatedly modernised to keep pace with new tastes. In 1899 it was completely renewed for the modern age, and the following year Julius Rudolph took over as director, guiding it to great successes. Gabor Steiner led the theatre around 1884, and by 1914 the stage boasted electric lighting and central heating. The painted curtain, created by Ernst Jordan after a design by Johann Daniel Ramberg, was counted among the building’s chief attractions. Visitors found a theatre of 1,250 seats arranged in stalls and galleries. The auditorium’s decoration and the Ramberg-Jordan curtain drew admiring glances, while the building itself formed part of the compact historic quarter around Marktstraße. The neighbouring Reuterstraße added a second stage, the former Marstall, to the city’s cultural map.