The cinema center on Bahnhofstrasse will sooner or later disappear. The city politicians are now talking about reactivating the »Heli« cinema.
A bit of Giessen cinema nostalgia still resonated in the building and planning committee of the city parliament on Tuesday evening at the beginning of the deliberation on the change to the development plan “Mühlstrasse / Schanzenstrasse”. “It’s a shame that the cinema center is history. I also saw my first film there, ”said Mayor Peter Neidel. After that, however, the CDU planning department deprived everyone who had spoken out in the days since the owner’s plans for the preservation of the “box cinema” had been announced, the illusion that the city could somehow prevent demolition and redevelopment. The owner could also submit a demolition and building application without a development plan, which the city would have to approve, Neidel explained to the committee. In this respect, one has to be happy that Adam Henrich Lichtspiel GmbH, as the investor, has submitted an application to change the development plan. “This gives the city the opportunity to regulate more things that are in our interest,” Neidel explained.
Demolition of the Giessen cinema center: 30 apartments and coworking rooms planned
As reported, the owner is planning the construction of two buildings with 30 apartments with coworking areas on the ground floor and an underground car park on the site and an adjacent property. According to the owner, one reason for the application was the intention of the cinema center operator Kinopolis to give up the cinema center sooner or later. The location was already in deficit before Corona and had to be cross-subsidized.
The main question in the debate was how and where art-cinema programs could be secured in Gießen. Mayor Dietlind Grabe-Bolz quoted a recent letter from Kinopolis boss Dr. Gregory Theile. He had once again stated that he would »continue to show the demanding film in Giessen«.
Just where? Obviously, many consider the Kinopolis on Berliner Platz unsuitable and want a separate location for an art house cinema. Green parliamentary group leader Klaus-Dieter Grothe introduced an amendment to the B-Plan, according to which the magistrate should hold talks with Henrich Lichtspiel GmbH and Theile in order to »contractually secure« a program cinema offer. In this context, the idea was voiced to reactivate the “Heli” in Frankfurter Strasse. It belongs to Henrich Lichtspiel GmbH and could be operated by Theile – as before.
Reactivation of the “Heli” cinema: Option for arthouse cinema in Frankfurter Straße not yet checked
As Gregory Theile said on request, the considerations to show film art at Berliner Platz are still at the very beginning: “We have ideas and have already managed that at other locations, but nothing is ready to be said yet.” The audience potential for arthouse cinema is unquestionably available in Gießen, but it also remains to be stated that the cinema center with its four halls is not self-sufficient. “I don’t have the imagination why this should work with a hall with the same staff,” explained Theile. In this respect, the »Heli« option has not yet been examined.
The development plan including the commissioning of the municipal authorities to negotiate the safeguarding of an art house cinema offer was decided by a large majority.
Protest against the demolition of the cinema center: the end of the arthouse cinema in Gießen not necessarily
In an open letter to the magistrate and the parliamentary groups in the city parliament, the working group representing the interests of the free cultural scene in Gießen spoke out against the demolition of the cinema center in the run-up to the building committee meeting on Tuesday. »The traditional music club Haarlem, the penultimate club in the city center, has already fallen victim to the construction activity in the redevelopment area Mühlstrasse / Schanzenstrasse without replacement. Now the last area in the redevelopment area, which offers the people of Giessen a cultural offer, is supposed to disappear. That has to be prevented! «Reads the letter signed by Jan Buck (raumstation3539). In it, the city officials are called upon to »in any case prevent the cinema center from being demolished and to fix its use as an area for cultural purposes«. A traditional location of film culture with a rich history that is over 100 years old should not simply disappear. An end to the independent cinema program in Gießen is by no means inevitable, but still “essential for the cultural needs of a young and culturally rich city like Gießen” in the 21st century.
The signatories call on the city council not to agree to the plans to demolish the cinema center and to find a solution in a dialogue with the owner and possible operators for a new opening with a “real program cinema company with its own profile, independent of Kinopolis”.
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