Further dispute over the Colosseum cinema: Senate should consider buying the property, former employees want to reopen it as a cinema.
Friends and employees of the Berlin Colosseum cinema demonstrate for the preservation of their cinema Photo: dpa
The dispute over the Colosseum cinema in Prenzlauer Berg, the owner of which filed for bankruptcy in May, is entering its second round. As early as November, the district mayor of Pankow, Sören Benn (Linke), announced that he had asked the Senate at the beginning of October to consider buying the cinema.
It would be about “whether and under what conditions this is fundamentally possible or there is a fundamental willingness to take this option should it arise”. But according to Benn, little has changed so far. One now has to wait, the result will “not be negotiated publicly for good reasons,” said Benn to the taz.
The Colosseum, whose gates have been closed since the first Corona shutdown in spring 2020, was one of the oldest cinemas in the city. It opened in 1924 and reopened in 1957 as the GDR premiere cinema.
After its renovation, nine modern halls with a total of 2,800 seats were added in addition to the historic, listed cinema. It belongs to the community of heirs of the cinema patron Artur Brauner. In the spring, they filed for bankruptcy for the cinema operating company and stopped film operations.
The cinema is no longer economical
When Artur Brauner’s son Sammy announced to the media in the spring that the cinema was no longer running economically, very few were surprised. Instead of luring with premieres, original versions or film series and discussions like the successful art house cinemas in Berlin, the Colosseum tried with more or less vigor to imitate the multiplexes, which were already threatened with extinction.
The viewers were offered overpriced popcorn and cola from buckets – and mostly films that can be seen on the sofa at home thanks to the internet. Despite the good location in Prenzlauer Berg with underground and S-Bahn connections, the cinema was completely run down, so cinema fans in this city agree.
In this sad state of affairs and the subsequent closure of the Colosseum, most of the people were in charge of the 45 former employees. They were never officially fired, says their spokesman, Michel Rieck, but they have not seen any salaries or bankruptcy payments since the spring.
Rieck and his colleagues were combative right from the start. First of all, they protested every Thursday in front of the closed cinema, which they are not even allowed to enter, but which they would like to continue to operate. On change.org they started a petition for the preservation of the cinema, which almost 11,000 people have now signed.
The owners’ plans are unclear
On October 15th they opened an exhibition at the Gethsemane Church and presented a history of cinema and a selection of comments from friends of the Colosseum on the fence. Until today they meet every Thursday – partly because of the current restrictions only on Skype.
The background to their outrage is not only how they were treated, but also what could be behind the bankruptcy of the Colosseum. The Brauners deny that they have any plans for the huge building. However, it is strange that there have been plans to convert the area in Prenzlauer Berg into an office complex since the beginning of 2019.
A corresponding preliminary building permit has already been issued by the district office to a Hamburg company that is apparently Values Real Estate, formerly DC Values. According to the website, the main shareholder is the famous Hamburg entrepreneur family Jahr. Apparently the heirs want to resell the property, the district office is assuming a value in the double-digit million range.
With the idea of District Mayor Benn that the city could buy the cinema, Michel Rieck and his colleagues now hope that history could come back into motion. Her primary goal from the beginning was to run the cinema according to her own ideas and to be able to offer a sophisticated program – and not to bite her teeth with such “extravagant wishes” to an owner who has apparently said goodbye to the Colosseum a long time ago. They hope that Benn’s move is a sign that the Brauner family has broken off a potential buyer. But Sören Benn says that he has not yet heard any encouraging signals from the owner.
The hope of cultural use
The former employees also hope that the modern cinema halls will not continue with offices, but with cultural use – and that a communal cinema could emerge in the hall, in which they would be able to somehow get involved. Actually, that’s not a bad idea, as there is often less pressure in communal cinemas than in commercial ones, instead it is often about seeing and discovering forgotten, independent and experimental films, which the Colosseum could interest many people in the neighborhood and beyond.
Those familiar with the Berlin cinema scene doubt that this idea could become a reality, because the only communal cinema in this city is the Babylon on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. The relationship between the city and the cinema has broken down, so it seems unlikely that the city would want to risk a second attempt in this direction.
But none of this frightens Rieck and his people. A press release by the employees shows that the balance of interests between the cinema and the employees has failed. The employees had expressed doubts as to whether a reconciliation of interests could be negotiated at all, as a transfer of operations might have taken place. The head of the theater, previously employed by Kino Colosseum BetriebsgmbH, is now working for the lessor, Artur & Theresa & Sammy Brauner GbR.
“Everything is still there, from the popcorn machine to the projector,” Rieck told taz. “We could reopen the cinema on the day the Senate declares the partial lockdown over.”
Even if that is quite unlikely and the battle for the Colosseum has only just begun: neighbors and cinema fans from northern Pankow would certainly be very happy.
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