St. Pauli Theater

The St. Pauli Theater is a theatre founded in 1841 in the Hamburg district of St. Pauli. It stands on the Spielbudenplatz (on the Reeperbahn) next to the Davidwache police station and is the oldest private theatre in Hamburg and one of the oldest theatres in Germany. The theatre building with its auditorium, which around 1898 received a more richly designed front façade, was likewise built in 1840/1841 and is a listed monument. The theatre opened on 30 May 1841 as the "Urania-Theater" and, after financial difficulties, was continued from 1844 by a joint-stock company as the "Actien-Theater". In 1863 Carl J. B. Wagner acquired the theatre and renamed it "Varieté-Theater". In 1884 Ernst Drucker took over the theatre ("Ernst Drucker Theater") and successfully staged Hamburg folk plays. The "house playwright" Theodor Francke had twenty plays premiered there between 1896 and 1919. Between 1919 and 1951, 30 Low German farces with local colour by Theodor Stockmann had their premieres in the house on Spielbudenplatz, but dramas by Henrik Ibsen and Gerhart Hauptmann were also staged. In 1940 the life story of the Hamburg "original" Henriette Johanne Marie Müller was premiered under the title Zitronenjette and became a legendary success.