National Theatre Mannheim - History Since 1900

History Since 1900

By the early 19th century, disagreements between the Grand-Duchy of Baden and the City on Mannheim over the financing of the theatre finally resulted in a ministerial order in April 1839 that the responsibility for running the theatre be handed over to the City of Mannheim, and thus it became the first locally-administered theatre in Germany.

Following the destruction of the theatre and parts of the city of Mannheim in September 1943, ten years were to pass before an architectural competition for a new theatre was proposed. The original design, while still considered a classic of modern theatre architecture, was not used. Instead, between 1955 and 1957 a new theatre building was constructed at Goethe Place (not in the same location as the original National Theatre) utilizing the designs of the architect Gerhard Weber. The new National Theatre building was inaugurated in 1957 with simultaneous productions of Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz in the Opera House and (fitting for its reflection of the theatre's early history) Schiller's The Robbers in the Schauspielhaus. In 1979, the Youth and Children's Theatre ensemble (Schnawwl) was set up with its main theatre space being the converted from an old fire station on the Mannheimer Neckarstadt.