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German Route

The Journey Across Germany

Counts, dukes and kings were the driving force of theatre life in Germany from the 17th to the 19th century. Let us make a journey to their theatres and find out what they have to tell us.

Our journey starts on the island of Ruegen. In this ideal holiday place the Marques Malte of Putbus built his ideal city – complete with a theatre (1821), of course. The mainland was split between two Dukes of Mecklenburg: one duke had a new theatre built in his capital Schwerin in 1886, the other duke opened his summer theatre in Neubrandenburg already in 1794. The shining example was the Prussian king Frederick the Great who built five theatres. Of those his private theatre (1769) in the New Palace in Potsdam-Sanssouci can still be visited.

Travelling south we enter Goethe’s world. Near the city of Halle (Saale) where Handel was born we find the historic spa Goethestadt Bad Lauchstaedt and the Goethe Theatre which the famous poet had built in1802. After a little excursion to Weimar we arrive at the private theatre (1800) of the Stein family at Kochberg palace. And finally there is the palace theatre in Gotha, the Ekhof Theatre (1681/1775), the centre of German theatre in the 18th century.

In the 19th century, Meiningen became the centre of Germantheatre. Duke Georg II, the theatre duke, created a theatrical style that was copied throughout Europe. The style is embodied in the huge stage decorations that are still preserved and on display in the theatre museum.

Not far away, in Bayreuth, we find one of Frederick the Great’s sisters, the Margravine Wilhelmine. She wanted to boost the image of her seat and built the most breath-taking theatre north of the Alps, the Margravial Opera House, a Unesco World Heritage. It was inaugurated in 1748 on the occasion of the marriage of her daughter with the Duke of Wurttemberg. Following the example, the duke had a number of theatres built, of which the palace theatre (1758) in Ludwigsburg has survived. His neighbour, the Elector Carl Theodor of the Palatinate, had inaugurated the Rococo Theatre in his summer palace Schwetzingen already in 1752.

Prince Wilhelm of Hesse-Kassel thought more in commercial terms: in 1781 he ordered the construction of a “Comoedien Haus” in order to lure guests into his new spa Wilhelmsbad. The archbishop Clemens Wenzeslaus had a similar idea, but lacking the financial means he left it to a Mr Schmitz to build and run the theatre (1787) in Koblenz. Thus our journey to historic theatres ends – or begins – with one of the oldest municipal theatres in Germany.

The Emperor Route presents:

The European Route of Historic Theatres

Theatre has been a corner stone of European culture for over 2500 years. The buildings created for this art mirror our history. They can be found everywhere in Europe. Together they form a very special part of our common European heritage.

The “European Route of Historic Theatres” was initiated in 2007. It proved to be an excellent idea for travellers and theatres alike, and the European Commission agreed to support its extension to all of Europe until 2017.

Every six months, a new part of the European Route will open, until the European Route will be complete in 2016. It consists of 12 part routes, each comprising about 10 theatres, so that one can easily travel along any part route in a week (or see two or three theatres during a week-end trip).

The part routes of the European Route of Historic Theatres are:

  • Iberia Route (Spain, Portugal)
  • French Route
  • Channel Route (Great Britain, Netherlands,  Belgium)
  • German Route
  • Nordic Route (Sweden, Norway, Denmark)
  • Baltic Route (Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Russia)
  • Black Sea Route (Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece)
  • Adriatic Route (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia)
  • Emperor Route (Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary)
  • Alpine Route (Southern Germany, Switzerland, Northern Italy)
  • Italian Route I + II

As of autumn 2013, five part routes are already operating: the Nordic Route, the Channel Route, the German Route, the Emperor Route and the Italian Route I in northern Italy. In the following years, we are planning to open the next routes like this (subject to change):

Opening 2014: Adriatic Route and French Route

Opening 2015: Baltic Route and Iberia Route

Opening 2016: Alpine Route and Black Sea Route

More information: www.europeanroute.info

 

Existing routes of the European Route: