Hans Otto Theater

In 1946, the Brandenburg State Theatre was founded and initially found its venue in the baroque palace theatre of the Neues Palais, succeeding the artillery-damaged Royal Playhouse. The opening production was Iphigenia on Tauris by Johann Wolfgang Goethe. A new temporary venue was opened on 16 October 1949 with Goethe's Faust, Part One in the former restaurant, society house and concert garden "Zum alten Fritz" in Zimmerstraße, which now houses the Science and Restoration Centre of the Schlösserstiftung.

In 1952, the theatre was named "Hans Otto Theatre" after the actor Hans Otto, who was arrested, tortured and murdered by the Nazis in November 1933 as a communist and trade unionist.

A reconstruction of Potsdam's city centre including a city hall and theatre decided in 1968 – the opening was planned for 1974 – was delayed. In 1985, another theatre building was planned; the building designed by Günter Franke, one of the architects of the Berlin TV Tower, was to be handed over in 1993 for Potsdam's 1000-year anniversary. The foundation stone was laid in 1989, before the fall of the Wall. However, the already completed shell at Art-Pro at Old Market Square was demolished in 1991 following a decision by the city council. In its place, the Landtag Brandenburg opened in January 2014 in historicised facades of the City Palace, Potsdam, which was damaged in World War II and demolished in 1960. The old venue in Zimmerstraße was closed at about the same time due to structural defects. Substitute venues were temporarily found in Schiffbauergasse and Heinrich-Mann-Allee. A temporary theatre building was erected at the Alter Markt, which was to serve as the central venue for five years and was soon nicknamed the "tin can" by the Potsdam public.

In 1998, a venue for children's and youth theatre was established on Schiffbauergasse (on Berliner Straße). In 1999, the decision was made to build the long-awaited new theatre building for the state capital of Potsdam on the newly developed cultural and commercial site Schiffbauergasse. In April 2003, the first sod was turned; in October 2003, the foundation stone was laid. To bridge the construction phase until the opening of the New Theatre, the then artistic director of the Hans-Otto-Theatre, Uwe Eric Laufenberg (2004-2009), invited his audience for two seasons under the motto "on the road" to various, sometimes exotic, alternative venues in the city. exotic alternative venues in the city, such as the Orangery Palace in Park Sanssouci, the pavilion on Freundschaftsinsel, the Palais Lichtenau or the Französische Kirche. Plays also continued in the "Blechbüchse" – it was the main venue of the Hans Otto Theater GmbH for fourteen years until its final closure in June 2006. On the weekend of 22 to 24 September 2006, two years after the topping-out ceremony in September 2004, the new building of the Hans Otto Theater GmbH, the New Theatre, was ceremoniously opened.

Brief summary of the history of the theatre since 1946:

from 1946 "Landestheater der Mark Brandenburg" in the Neues Palais

from 1947 "Brandenburg State Theatre

from October 1949 in the former restaurant, society house and concert garden "Zum alten Fritz" in Zimmerstraße