Putting on the Ritz – at Berlin’s Admiralspalast

May 29, 2016 | City Centre Sights, Entertainment, History and Politics

A night out at the Admiralspalast

The words ‘Berlin’ and ‘cabaret’ are synonymous. The songs from the 1920s and 1930s echo down the years, and capture the essential Berlin feeling. Like a magic carpet of sound they transport you effortlessly back to a time when the German capital was renowned for its creativity and risqué edginess. Packed with catchy melodies and witty lyrics, the popular hits from the Weimar era paint a musical picture of the Zeitgeist. Nobody plays them better than the iconic Berlin-based band, Max Raabe & Palast Orchester, and the historic Admiralspalast next to Friedrichstraße Station provides the perfect setting. Last month, the band was back there, with their sell-our show, ‘Eine Nacht in Berlin’ (A Night in Berlin) and I had made sure of tickets by booking six months ahead.

The hot ticket

The German word ‘Palast’ (palace) says it all; both the band and the building have style and glamour. It is sheer professionalism and a unique sound that makes Max Raabe & Palast Orchester so special. Their shows are slick and seamless and capture the sound of those pre-war years that the Americans call‘Roaring’ and the Germans call ‘Golden’ – and the heyday of the Admiralspalast. Max Raabe founded the Palast Orchester in 1986, with 11 fellow students at the Berlin Academy of Arts, where he graduated as a baritone singer. The band initially used original musical arrangements from the 1920s and 1930s that Raabe picked up at various Berlin flea markets. Then they worked on learning them before giving their first public performance in 1987. They had their first hit 5 years later, with an original song, ‘Kein Schwein ruft mich an’ (Nobody calls me up). You can follow this link to listen and read more about Max Raabe on the Goethe Institute website.

Max Raabe & Palast Orchester

The band’s repertoire is mainly a homage to composers from the pre-war era of German and American popular songs, but they also perform contemporary music in the same vintage musical style. Non-German speakers might miss the humour in some of the lyrics, but Max Raabe’s singing is so accomplished and expressive that it hardly matters. There are instrumental numbers too, and in true jazz style the band members – who are traditionally all male, with the exception of the violinist – have a chance to show off their individual talent.

Queuing to get into the show

On the evening I heard them at the Admiralspalast we were treated to six extra numbers in English at the end of the show, as it was being recorded for an American TV channel. They included perfect renderings of ‘Stormy Weather’ and ‘Mack the Knife’. Next season the band is appearing in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Latvia and Estonia, as well as Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In the past they have performed in the Cadogan Hall in London, the Carnegie Hall in New York and in Israel. But to really tune into the band’s Berlin connection, it has to be the Admiralspalast. Tickets are already on sale for March 2017 on the band’s website.

Street view of the Admiralspalast

The Admiralspalast is one of the few Weimar theatres left in Berlin and like many survivors, it has had to re-invent itself to adapt to changing times. Its history dates back to 1867 when a saltwater spring was discovered on this site. The ‘Admiralsgartenbad’ opened in 1873 and soon became one of the leading public baths in Imperial Berlin. This building was demolished in 1910 and replaced a year later with the luxurious four-storey Admiralspalast, containing a skating rink, bowling alleys, restaurants, a cinema – and, allegedly, a bordello. The whole complex had over 900 rooms.

The ladies’ baths in the Admiralsgartenbad

The ice-skating rink at the Admiralspalast

An English cartoon from the 1920s

In 1920, the concept of the Admiralspalast was changed and the central skating rink was turned into a variety theatre in art déco style, with two dress circles and 1,065 seats. Ten years later the auditorium was enlarged to seat 2,200 and given a new, expressionist design. After the National Socialists came to power in 1933, the Admiralspalast was used mainly for the performance of operettas. In 1939, on the orders of Goebbels, it was given the plain, classical interior that it has retained to this day. A ‘Führerloge’(Führer’s box) was added in 1940;  Hitler often slipped into the theatre to watch his favourite operetta, ‘Die lustige Witwe’ (The Merry Widow).

The Admiralspalast auditorium

The Admiralspalast escaped the World War II bombing relatively unscathed. After the war, the Social Democratic Party of Germany and the Communist Party of Germany in the Soviet Occupation Zone held a historic convention at the Admiralspalast where they merged to become the SED, the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, which was to rule the GDR for 40 years. The building then became home to the Berlin State Opera until 1955, when restoration of the opera house on Unter den Linden was completed. During the GDR years, revues and operettas continued to be performed at the Admiralspalast, but under the name of the Metropol-Theater.  The GDR Union of Journalists also had its offices inside the Admiralspalast.

The Admiralspalast as home to the Berlin State Opera

After reunification, the Admiralspalast put on shows until 1997, when it was closed and threatened with demolition. The site stood empty for several years, but was finally rescued and renovated. On August 11th, 2006, when the restoration work was still incomplete, it officially reopened with Brecht’s ‘Threepenny Opera’, directed by Klaus Maria Brandauer. This was followed by ‘My Fair Lady’, ‘The Rocky Horror Show’ and, in the summer of 2009, it became the first venue in Germany to stage Mel Brook’s cult comedy ‘The Producers’. Follow this link for an interesting review of this Nazi-lampooning show. These days, it’s mainly concerts and comedy shows that are held in the main auditorium of the Admiralspalast. Sometimes the seats are folded away – then everyone parties and dances the night away. The Admiralspalast’s website gives all the details of their entertainment programme in English.

The Konzerthaus – Unwrapped

Mar 4, 2016 | City Centre Sights, Entertainment, History and Politics

The Gendarmenmarkt is the most beautiful square in Berlin and its glorious central building, the Konzerthaus, is an architectural gem and the musical soul of East Berlin. It finally rose again from the ashes of wartime destruction in 1984 and has come to embody the courage of the human spirit as well as artistic inspiration. During the ‘Cinema for Peace’ awards at the 2016 Berlin Film Festival, the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei wrapped 14,000 bright orange life jackets around the columns of the city’s Konzerthaus to highlight the risks refugees are taking every day to reach Europe by sea.

The Konzerthaus columns wrapped in life-jackets

The Konzerthaus has a fascinating history. Its origins lie in the theatre and in opera and go back to 1776 when Frederick the Great had the ‘Französisches Komödientheater’ built on this site, which had strong associations with the French Huguenot community. Ten years later it was renamed the Royal National Theatre and in 1789 Mozart came to Berlin to hear a performance of his opera, ‘Die Entführung aus dem Serail’. In 1802 a new ‘Nationaltheater’ was opened, designed by Carl Gotthard Langhans, whose best known work is the Brandenburg Gate. The great German playwright, Friedrich Schiller, attended many performances of his plays at the Nationaltheater and his monument stands in front of the flight of steps leading up to the Konzerthaus. Schiller is surrounded by four allegorical figures; Lyric Poetry, Tragedy, History and Philosophy.

The Schiller monument

In 1817 the Nationaltheater was destroyed in a fire and King Friedrich Wilhelm III commissioned the famous Prussian architect, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, to create a new theatre in the Greek classical style. The ‘Schauspielhaus’ (‘Playhouse’) opened in 1821 with the acclaimed premiere of Karl von Weber’s ‘Der Freischütz’,  full of emotional overtones of national identity.  1826 saw the Berlin premiere of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, 1838 the Berlin premiere of Goethe’s ‘Faust I’ and in 1844 Wagner conducted the Berlin premiere of his opera, ‘The Flying Dutchman’ there. During the 1848 Revolution the main auditorium of the Schauspielhaus housed the Prussian National Assembly for several weeks in September, with the Gendarmenmarkt a major arena of political events.

Schinkel’s Schauspielhaus

For almost another 100 years the Schauspielhaus continued to enjoy performances of all that was best in German theatre, opera and music. The actor Gustaf Gründgens, considered by many to have sold his soul to the Nazis, was Artistic Director of the Schauspielhaus from 1934 until 1945; the 1981 oscar-winning film, ‘Mephisto’, tells the story of Gründgen’s career. The Schauspielhaus was destroyed in a bombing raid in April 1945.  Reconstruction finally started in 1979 and Schinkel’s original exterior design was recreated in careful detail.  The main entrance used for most concerts is on the ground floor under the large staircase, just as in Schinkel’s time, where the horse-drawn carriages used to arrive. The interior, on the other hand, is a completely new construction – although its design cleverly gives the impression of the original. The former Schauspielhaus reopened on 1st October 1984 with a gala concert performed by the GDR Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester.

The Schauspielhaus on Gendarmenmarkt in 1910

The ruins of the Schauspielhaus in 1970s East Berlin

East Berlin opened its celebrations of Berlin’s 750th anniversary on 1st January 1987 in the Schauspielhaus and just two years later, Leonard Bernstein conducted Beethoven’s 9th Symphony there on Christmas Day 1989. Inspired by the fall of the Berlin Wall, he changed the text of the final chorus into ‘Ode to Freedom’. On 2nd October 1990, the GDR government chose the Schauspielhaus for their celebration of German reunification, with Kurt Masur conducting the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. To reflect its new purpose as a concert hall, the Schauspielhaus was officially renamed the Konzerthaus in 1992 and in 2006 the resident Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester became the ‘Konzerthausorchester Berlin’.

The GDR reunification ceremony, October 1990

The Konzerthaus has hosted most of the world’s most famous orchestras and every summer the Classic Open Air Festival is held on the Gendarmenmarkt, with the Konzerthaus as its stunning back-drop. I have been to many excellent concerts in this building since 1984, but none more moving than the annual New Year’s performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony which seems to have its spiritual home in this concert hall. It has also been interesting to see the changing profile of the audiences at the Konzerthaus over the years. In the late 1980s the concerts were mainly attended by a politically-correct and somewhat reserved section of GDR society. But things are much livelier these days. Gala concerts are packed with vocal fans and a recent piano recital was full of young people whose enthusiasm was rewarded with three encores.

A performance in the grand ‘Großer Saal’

Both the ‘Großer Saal’ (main auditorium) and the ‘Kleiner Saal’ (chamber music hall) of the Konzerthaus are visual feasts, as are the two elegant foyers, the ‘Carl Maria von Weber Saal’ and the ‘Beethoven Saal’, where you can enjoy a drink in the concert interval. In 2003 the modern ‘Werner-Otto-Saal’ was added to the facilities and also the ‘Black Box’ which lends itself to performances of more avant-garde music. To find out more about the Konzerthaus, its programme of concerts and their guided tours, go to  their excellent English website. You can also  treat yourself to a recent performance by the Konzerthausorchester. Just follow this link to a Guardian article about the concert given on 1st March by top Berlin orchestras to welcome refugees to their city. Or go to the Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall where you can also watch the concert.

Ivan Fischer conducting the Konzerthausorchester Berlin at the ‘Welcome to Refugees’ concert