The Zeiss Major Planetarium (German ) is a planetarium in Berlin, and one of the largest modern stellar theatres in Europe. It is located on the borders of the

Ernst-Thälmann-Park Ernst-Thälmann-Park is a park in the centre of the Prenzlauer Berg district in Berlin. It was laid out in 1986 at the site of a former coal gas plant and named after the former Communist party leader Ernst Thälmann (1886-1944). The former pl ...

housing estates in the

Prenzlauer Berg Prenzlauer Berg () is a locality of Berlin, forming the southerly and most urban district of the borough of Pankow. From its founding in 1920 until 2001, Prenzlauer Berg was a district of Berlin in its own right. However, that year it was incor ...

locality of

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

History

It was one of the last buildings built in the GDR, constructed in 1987, the 750th anniversary of Berlin. Planning for the area commenced with old

gas works A gasworks or gas house is an industrial plant for the production of flammable gas. Many of these have been made redundant in the developed world by the use of natural gas, though they are still used for storage space. Early gasworks Coal ...

to be torn down by 1981. The anniversary gave an opportunity to the Communist government to create a new style of housing estate with decorative high-rise residential buildings, a cultural centre with restaurants, and a planetarium supposed to be larger than the old one in the

Archenhold Observatory The Archenhold Observatory () was named in honour of Friedrich Simon Archenhold, is an observatory in Berlin-Treptow. It houses the ''Großer Refraktor'' (Great Refractor), which is the longest pointable telescope in the world. It is also called th ...

of Berlin. The building was designed by architect , and opened on schedule on 9 October 1987.

Description

The dome of the main hall has a diameter of and is equipped with a ''Universarium IX''

planetarium projector A planetarium projector, also known as a star projector, is a device used to project images of celestial objects onto the dome in a planetarium. Modern planetarium projectors were first designed and built by the Carl Zeiss Jena company in Germa ...

from

Carl Zeiss AG Carl Zeiss AG (), branded as ZEISS, is a German manufacturer of optical systems and optoelectronics, founded in Jena, Germany in 1846 by optician Carl Zeiss. Together with Ernst Abbe (joined 1866) and Otto Schott (joined 1884) he laid the f ...

. There is also a café and a

movie theatre A movie theater (American English), cinema (British English), or cinema hall (Indian English), also known as a movie house, picture house, the movies, the pictures, picture theater, the silver screen, the big screen, or simply theater is a ...

with 160 seats. The dome hall has not only a planetarium projector but also up to 100 slide projectors, a laser show installation, and sound equipment, including a recording studio to create new shows.

Uses

The building is not only used for astronomy shows; the dome hall with 292 seats also allows for music concerts and audio drama, with a regularly-scheduled "audio theatre under a starry sky" (german: Hörspielkino unterm Sternenhimmel) running since 1995. It serves as one of many venues for the

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the fest ...

each February. It has two spaces available for film screenings: the planetarium hall with 307 seats, and a cinema hall with 160 seats. It was one of the last buildings built in the GDR, constructed in 1987.

References

External links

Homepage of the Zeiss Major Planetarium
(German)

at kinokompendium.de Science museums in Germany Planetaria in Germany {{Berlin-struct-stub

History

Description

Uses

See also

References

External links