page_title: Kino Babylon
section_title: Planning and architecture (1927–29)
hierarchical_section_title: Kino Babylon / Planning and architecture (1927–29)
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Scherl Bilderdienst: Ein neues Gross-Filmtheater [Babylon] am Bülowplatz wurde in diesen Tagen als Erstaufführungstheater des Zentrums eröffnet. Das Theater steht unter der kundigen Leitung des von der Alhambra am Kurfürstendamm und den Mercedes-Palästen bekannten Theaterfachmannes Arthur Rupp. 12193-29
context_page_description: The Babylon is a cinema in the Mitte neighborhood of Berlin and part of a listed building complex at Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz opposite to the Volksbühne. The building was erected 1928/29 according to plans of architect Hans Poelzig and is regarded as typical of its construction period, Neue Sachlichkeit. In 1948 the theatre was heavily renovated and served afterward as a speciality cinema in the GDR. After the auditorium had been closed because of the danger of collapse, it was refurbished and reconstructed from 1999 until 2001 in accordance with conservation guidelines. In 2002 the reconstruction was awarded the "German Award for Monument Protection". Since 2001 the Babylon is once again open to the public and used primarily as arthouse cinema, as well as a venue for the Berlinale and musical and literary cultural events. Originally the cinema held 1200 members of audience in one hall, but is today divided into two halls with 450 and 70 seats.
context_section_description: By order of building contractor Alfred Schrobsdorff (1861–1940), Hans Poelzig designed from 1927 to 1929 eight blocks for a perimeter development at the Bülowplatz (today Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz). The completed blocks included 170 apartments and 80 shops. The block where Babylon is located has the form of a right triangle, where Hirtenstraße and Kleine Alexanderstraße form the catheti and Weydingerstraße borders the block as hypotenuse. The layout of the block is given a facet at the acute-angled corner Weydingerstraße / Hirtenstraße, so that the building has a short front on Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße, where the entrance of the cinema is located at the address "Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße 30." After the destruction of World War II the block of the Babylon was the only complete survivor left from the overall design by Poelzig.
  The building is strongly structured horizontally by a striped enclosure of window rows and a wide overhanging moulding at the roof plate. The front is ochre-coloured plaster, with stripes painted on plaster in a light yellow shade.
  Full in the sense of Neue Sachlichkeit, the interior design was characterized by economical material usage and utilisation of the emotional impact of colours and forms at the same time:
  From a spacious, in grey, red and yellow kept vestibule, from where two broad stairs lead upwards to the rood loft, one gets to the imposing auditorium, that is given a warm and cosy mood without many extravagant decorative forms. Wall and ceiling are painted in a shaded yellow, the gallery niche and the stalls are painted red and contrast with a narrow copper-coloured band, the balustrade of the seats is blue. The seats are covered with velvet of the same colour. The wooden working of the doors and the grilles of the heating and ventilation system are painted in red.
  — Walter Curt Behrendt, Die Baugilde, 9/1927
  Poelzig also worked as set designer and architect for film and theatre of the 1920s. The most important film in collaboration with him was The Golem: How He Came into the World (1920) by Paul Wegener and Carl Boese. Aside from the Babylon Poelzig designed two other cinemas: in Berlin the Capitol am Zoo (1924–26) and in Wrocław the Deli (1926/1927).
caption: Kino Babylon, 1929
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