The new court theatre is inaugurated, 11 January 1908
The theatre everyone photographs in Weimar is younger than the Wagner premieres it is famous for.
On 11 January 1908 Weimar's new court theatre was inaugurated with a ceremonial act of state. The building had been commissioned in 1906 from the architect Max Littmann, and it is the one that stands on the Theaterplatz today.
Why the old house came down
The theatre it replaced was nearly eighty years old and, in the house's own summary of the problem, no longer met requirements in size, in fabric or in stage technology.[1] That is a plain engineering answer to a question visitors often ask the other way round: the Weimar theatre was not rebuilt out of ambition or fashion, but because a growing repertoire could not be staged in it any more.
It stands on eighteen hundred wooden posts
The old house was pulled down completely, and the ground it stood on would not carry what replaced it: the foundation of the new building was secured with over 1,800 wooden piles, and the theatre still rests on them today.[1] What went up on that raft held 1,080 seats and was, in the house's own words, one of the most modern of its time. The opening on 11 January 1908 was staged accordingly — Kaiser Wilhelm II attended, along with more than seventy Intendanten of other theatres.
What this means for what you are looking at
It matters for anyone standing on the Theaterplatz with the Goethe and Schiller monument behind them. The premieres this house is famous for — Wagner's "Lohengrin" in 1850 under Liszt, Humperdinck's "Hänsel und Gretel" in 1893 under Strauss[2] — all happened in the earlier building, not in this one. The façade in the photographs is younger than almost every event people come here for, and it belongs to the last decade of the monarchy rather than to the classical age.
Sources
- Geschichte des Deutschen Nationaltheaters — Deutsches Nationaltheater und Staatskapelle Weimar, retrieved 29 August 2026
- Die Staatskapelle Weimar — das Orchester — Deutsches Nationaltheater und Staatskapelle Weimar, retrieved 29 August 2026
Historical figures
Historical figures
Historic sites
Historic sites
Theaterplatz 2, 99423 Weimar
This is the building: commissioned from Max Littmann in 1906 and inaugurated on 11 January 1908, it is the house standing on the Theaterplatz today.
Period
1832–1918
A monarchy still building at scale ten years before it fell — the period's last large public work in Weimar.