Theater Adlershof
Theater Adlershof - formerly GDR television, today neighbourhood theatre
The small, fine Theater Adlershof with 100 seats offers its guests a wide-ranging programme of plays, children's theatre, dance theatre, music theatre, concerts, readings and talks.
Productions and artists of the last theatre season such as The Swingin' Hermlins, the STEINLANDPIRATEN with songs from the 1920s, "People on Sunday" with Herbert Köfer or the successful series "Schwester Cordula liebt Arztromane" (Nurse Cordula loves medical fiction) are very well received by the audience.
It is precisely this mixture that attracts visitors to the Theater Adlershof
History of the Theater Adlershof
S5, which stands for Studio 5, is located at the entrance to the Media City in Berlin-Adlershof. The name originates from the pre-reunification period when the entire area belonged to the GDR television. It is the last remaining and only television theatre in Germany and is still a listed building today. The architect commissioned for the project, Franz Ehrlich, built it in Bauhaus style in 1952.
The S5 was originally a theatre with about 500 seats. In the 1950s it mainly staged operas and comedies for television. Herbert Köfer was one of the first stage actors to perform there.
In 1956/57 the theatre hall was gutted and the stage house was converted into a television studio. From then on until the day of its closure, it was from here that for 37 years state television broadcaster Deutscher Fernsehfunk broadcast its most important news programme in the history of the GDR: "Aktuelle Kamera". The editorial staff self-deprecatingly referred to themselves as the "trumpet of the party" and broadcast, as prescribed by the Politburo, behind high walls that could only be accessed with a pass.
The Theater Adlershof opens
A few years ago, Kathrin Schülein revived the Theater Adlershof and also tidied the place up a bit since its days as a production location for GDR television, whose furnishings had remained entirely untouched ever since! The old, large, disused theatre hall was located behind a 20-metre mirror wall.
In the meantime their theatre has grown with the addition of a second stage. In June 2020 the stage was moved outdoors due to the coronavirus situation. The Theater Adlershof got its first temporary open air season underway on a spacious site to the rear of the building.
Places of interest near the Theater Adlershof
To make the most of your day in Adlershof, we recommend visiting the WISTA site, Germany's most modern high-tech park. Immerse yourself in the future! What may sound like science fiction has long been reality in Berlin Adlershof.