The Kurtheater Bad Kissingen is a theatre in the spa town

Bad Kissingen Bad Kissingen is a German spa town in the Bavarian region of Lower Franconia and seat of the district Bad Kissingen. Situated to the south of the Rhön Mountains on the Franconian Saale river, it is one of the health resorts, which beca ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

History

The theatre was built in 1904 by the Munich architect

Max Littmann Max Littmann (3 January 1862 – 20 September 1931) was a German architect. Littmann was educated in the Gewerbeakademie Chemnitz and the Technische Hochschule Dresden. In 1885, he moved to Munich where he met Friedrich Thiersch and Gabriel ...

in the neo baroque style and inauguratet on 25 June 1905 with a performance of the opera Pagliacci of

Ruggero Leoncavallo Ruggero (or Ruggiero) Leoncavallo ( , , ; 23 April 18579 August 1919) was an Italian opera composer and librettist. Although he produced numerous operas and other songs throughout his career it is his opera '' Pagliacci'' (1892) that remained h ...

. The theatre with its 538 seats replaced an older wooden theatre building in swiss style of 1856. The theatre was initially operated by the spa administration (Badkommissariat). The duty of the theatre was to entertain the visitors of the spa. The old theatre had no longer corresponded to the increased demands of the world bath. From 1871 onwards, the theatre was rented to Eduard Reimann, director of the theatre of Würzburg,. This made it possible to employ the ensemble of Würzburg during the summer months. After his death in 1898 his son, the actor Otto Reimann, became his successor. Otto Reimann continued his successful performance with his own ensemble in the new theatre. Despite the difficulties of the First World War, inflation, the global economic crisis, or the emergence of national socialism, the theatre business remained at a high level to entertain the spa guests. On the 9th of August, 1941, however, the now 71-year-old Otto Reimann ended his performance in Bad Kissingen with the operetta

The Gypsy Baron ''The Gypsy Baron'' () is an operetta in three acts by Johann Strauss II which premiered at the Theater an der Wien on 24 October 1885. Its German libretto by Ignaz Schnitzer is based on the unpublished 1883 story ''Saffi'' by Mór Jókai. Jokai ...

. Afterwards during the Second World War the theatre was used only sporadically. In 1945 the theatre was confiscatet by the American troops. In 1949 the theatre restarted its operations. But the theatre did not get an own ensemble any more. Now it is dependent on guest performances.Thomas Ahnert: ''Bretter, die die Welt bedeuten. Das Kissinger Kurtheater.'' In: Thomas Ahnert, Peter Weidisch (Hrsg.): ''1200 Jahre Bad Kissingen 801-2001. Facetten einer Stadtgeschichte.'' Sonderpublikation des Stadtarchivs Bad Kissingen, Verlag T. A. Schachenmayer, Bad Kissingen 2001, , Seite 329f.

Literature

Jakob Heilmann Jakob Heilmann (21 August 1846 in Geiselbach, Aschaffenburg County (Lower Franconia) – 15 February 1927 in Munich) was a German contractor. Son of a glazier, Heilmann attended the construction school in Munich and graduated with the exam as a ...

: ''Das Königliche Theater in Bad Kissingen'', Firmenschrift (39 Seiten), Heilmann & Littmann GmbH (Hrsg.), Bruckmann Druck, München 1905 *

Georg Dehio Georg Gottfried Julius Dehio (22 November 1850 in Reval (now Tallinn), Governorate of Estonia, Russian Empire – 21 March 1932 in Tübingen), was a Baltic German art historian. In 1900, Dehio started the "''Handbuch der deutschen Kunstgesch ...

: ''Handbuch der deutschen Kunstdenkmäler: Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler, Bayern I: Franken: Die Regierungsbezirke Oberfranken, Mittelfranken und Unterfranken: BD I'',

Deutscher Kunstverlag The Deutscher Kunstverlag (DKV) is an educational publishing house with offices in Berlin and Munich. The publisher specializes in books about art, cultural history, architecture, and historic preservation. History Deutscher Kunstverlag was fo ...

München Berlin, 2., durchgesehene und ergänzte Auflage, 1999, S. 71 * Thomas Ahnert: ''Bretter, die die Welt bedeuten. Das Kissinger Kurtheater.'' In: Thomas Ahnert, Peter Weidisch (Hrsg.): ''1200 Jahre Bad Kissingen 801-2001. Facetten einer Stadtgeschichte.'' Sonderpublikation des Stadtarchivs Bad Kissingen, Verlag T. A. Schachenmayer, Bad Kissingen 2001, , Seite 329f. * Edi Hahn: ''Eine Stadtführung.'' Rotter, Bad Neustadt (Saale) 1991, , Seite 31f. * Walter Mahr: ''Geschichte der Stadt Bad Kissingen.'' Bad Kissingen 1959 * Adina Christine Rösch: ''Das Königliche Theater in Bad Kissingen von Max Littmann (1904/05)'', Magisterarbeit, Nürnberg 2007 * Sigismund von Dobschütz: ''Die große Bühne zwischen Stuckaturen und Seidentapeten'', in: ''Kulturkalender für den Landkreis Bad Kissingen'', Februar-April 2015, S. 7–10 * Werner Eberth: ''Das Kurtheater im Bade Kissingen'', zwei Bände, 2015

References

{{Authority control Theatres in Bavaria Bad Kissingen