The “Ankersaal”, more than just a film theatre, celebrates its birthday – anniversary weekend in autumn with selected films and concert
August 20, 2024. Like many houses in the historic old town of Burghausen, the building at Stadtplatz 41/42 has a long, moving history behind it. A cinema has been located there for 70 years now. On August 20, 1954, the “Anker-Lichtspiele”, as the Ankersaal In autumn, the Cultural Office is organising a Anniversary program.
The building originally consisted of two separate houses. Wigmakers worked and lived at number 41 until the 18th century. Other tenants also lived in the house. For example, there is evidence of a lawyer and a trailer who unloaded goods from ships on the Salzach. Next door, at number 42, was the “Geistwirt”, an inn with a beer cellar that reached 50 meters into the castle hill. The name of the alley that leads up to the castle next to the Ankersaal still bears witness to this today: the Geistwirtgaßl.
But why is the cinema actually called the “Ankersaal”? During the course of the 19th century, houses no. 41 and 42 were merged, and the pub changed owners and names several times. At the beginning of August 1866, the building burned down completely and was rebuilt. The new pub was called the “Goldener Anker”. And that is where Burghausen’s social life took place over the next few decades. In the pub’s large hall, the “Ankersaal”, parties and balls were held, as well as medical examinations and vaccinations.
“… and love remains forever”
In 1938, the “Golden Anchor” lost its importance because the former government building on the opposite side of the street was expanded to become the town hall. Since then, major events have taken place there. In 1953, the Volksbank bought the building at Stadtplatz 41/42 and had it remodeled; only the facade and the main walls remained.
The building now housed a liqueur factory, the border police, and to this day a branch of the Volksbank, private apartments and the “Anker-Lichttheater” with over 400 seats. Fritz Junghans, a Burghausen painter and sculptor, designed the ceiling fresco of the cinema hall. Other works by Junghans can be seen in Burghausen, for example the clock at the main entrance to the Johannes Hess School.
The first film to be shown on the screen on August 20, 1954 was “… and love remains forever” with Karlheinz Böhm. Böhm also visited the Ankerkino in person once. In 1989, he came to Burghausen to collect donations for his “Menschen für Menschen” campaign as part of the Hasenkopf company’s anniversary.
In 1990, the couple Daniela Mayer and Attila Kovacs, who also founded the Quadroscope cinema in Neustadt in 2000, took over the cinema on the town square. At that time, the comfortable red armchairs in the style of the 1950s were also installed, which give the hall its unique atmosphere to this day. In 2018, the cinema operation in the “Ankerkino” ended because it had fewer and fewer visitors. At that time, the building already belonged to the then mayor Hans Steindl, who was keen not to close the cinema but to reopen it with a new concept.
Over 100 film screenings per year
After extensive renovation work, the city of Burghausen has been operating the Ankerkino since 2019 and renamed it the “Ankersaal” again. Not only are films shown anymore, but the hall is also used for events such as concerts, cabaret evenings or readings, for example as part of “Literatur Live” or the Pentecost festival “Look into the Future”. The Burghausen Cultural Office is responsible for the city’s program. The hall is rented out through the Cultural Office and the Community Center.
A team of temporary workers and film enthusiasts take over the shifts at the box office and sell snacks and drinks. Over 100 films are shown every year, many of which are highly awarded arthouse films or even Oscar-nominated. Film classics, short films and other film experiments are also shown in the municipal cinema.
To celebrate the birthday of the “Ankersaal”, the Cultural Office has planned a Anniversary program A special treat: On October 11, 2024, “… and love remains forever”, the very first film that was shown in the Ankerkino in 1954, will be shown. On October 12, the local band “The Bricats” will play hits from the 60s together with singer Pep Torres, followed by the after-show birthday party. With “Wickie on a big trip” and “The mother-of-pearl color”, the culture office will also show two films that were shot in and around Burghausen on the Sunday of the anniversary weekend.
The “Ankersaal” is currently on summer break. The new season starts at the end of September.
An excursion into Burghausen’s cinema history:
The Ankerkino was not the first cinema in Burghausen. The first cinema opened in the Grüben in 1914. From 1925 onwards there was the “Kammerlichtspiele” in the “Vier Jahreszeiten” building on the town square. Since 1937 there has also been the Burgtheater in the new town, which was developing at that time. In the 1950s, when the Ankerkino opened, for a short time there were four cinemas in Burghausen at the same time: the “Ankerkino” and the “Kammerlichtspiele” in the old town and the “Burgtheater” and a “Zentraltheater” in the new town. By the end of the 1970s only the Burgtheater and the Ankerkino were left.
