Volker Schlöndorff still sees himself “half at home” here.

Perhaps that is precisely why the Wiesbaden-born painter pains the fact that the state capital is perceived more as a city of "imperial pensioners and Russian gamblers" than as a city of film.

The 82-year-old Oscar winner fondly remembers his first cinema experiences in Wiesbaden, the first “terrible” opera and his first short film, which he shot on the banks of the Rhine in Biebrich.

Oliver Bock

Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung for the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis and for Wiesbaden.

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The director currently sees the film in a crisis, and that is precisely why the Walhalla is a great opportunity: Its future as an "event location" lies in a combination of cinema, fair and variety theater.

For Wiesbaden, the renovation and realignment of the former theater is no less than its reputation, said Schlöndorff at the start of a working conference on the fate of the Walhalla.

A conference to which mainly foreign impetus were invited, who can "rethink" the largely unknown cultural location without having to deal specifically with questions of feasibility and financial feasibility: "Think as big as you want", The chairman of the cultural advisory board founded in 2018, Ernst Szebedits, encouraged the participants.

After all, it is about nothing less than a new cultural urban center.

Corona straddled between

For almost five years, the Walhalla Theater in a central location in Wiesbaden City has been closed for fire protection reasons.

Just when the state capital wanted to start in 2020 to take decisive steps to renovate and to search for an operator for the gaming venue that was to be permanently subsidized, Corona intervened.

Which cultural worker would be able to warm up to a new, highly ambitious project in this difficult time? At the request of the cultural advisory board, the city council decided to postpone the matter for the time being, and in May of this year it was decided to stop the search for a possible operator - at least for the time being. Instead, the advisory board's suggestion was taken up to start a “creative process” with the local and national cultural scene in order to collect creative ideas for the future of the Walhalla. It is clear that a renovation and a possible renovation inside must be geared closely to the future operator concept.

The house, which is in great need of renovation, is assigned an important role in the revitalization and permanent revitalization of the inner city.

There is a clear consensus, says Mayor Gert-Uwe Mende (SPD): The Walhalla should become a cultural fixed point in the city center.

The cultural use is the basis of all considerations and renovation plans.

An expensive renovation is imminent

But the renovation costs have so far been estimated at well over 30 million euros. Therefore, two options have been considered so far: The city grants its holding company WVV, which has owned the house since 2007, a municipal renovation grant of at least 21.5 million euros in order to be able to reduce the rent for an operator to an acceptable level. Or the city leases the house from the WVV and lets it on at a high discount on the actual cost rent.

It is already clear that a few more years will pass before the Walhalla can be reopened - under whatever circumstances. The Lord Mayor urges that the hanging game be ended as soon as possible and that ambitious schedules be drawn up. Funding from the state from an inner city program can only be expected if construction begins in 2024. In addition, Wiesbaden will make a new attempt to get money from the federal program “National Urban Development Projects”. The cultural advisory board and the holding WVV as the owner GmbH are in dialogue about the future of the house. Advisory board chairman Ernst sees a consensus that “a cultural use at this important location can become a new point of attraction that unfolds a positive charisma for the entire city center”.

The workshop on Friday, to which external experts were invited, was supposed to provide further impetus.

The expectations are great.

"If we succeed in developing ideas for a sustainable, functioning usage concept for this special property, we will be a very big step further," said the mayor earlier.

The Wiesbaden location needs new impulses, and the structural situation of the building can no longer be postponed.

The deputy chairwoman of the advisory board, Dorothea Angor, advocates the Walhalla as a “fresh, cheeky and dashing place of culture that has a radiant power”.

WVV managing director Bernadette Boot would like an "economically viable usage concept".

Once radiance as far as Australia

Opened in 1897, the Walhalla with its two basement floors has a total area of ​​around 6,700 square meters.

As a “specialty theater of the first order” there were, among other things, large stage shows with vocal performances, concert music and vaudeville.

Even elephants were shown in the house.

There was a "grand restaurant", a wine bar, a bowling alley and a winter garden.

During the silent film screenings in the 1930s, an organist played the cinema organ.

The most prominent visitors to the house include Marika Rökk, Elvis Presley, Maria Schell and Ray Charles.

The architect and building researcher Martino La Torre recalled that even the constituent ceremony for the founding of the State of Hesse took place in Walhalla.

The house once developed as far as Australia.

That is much more difficult today.

But a big lighthouse for the city is possible.