Volkstheater Millowitsch
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The Volkstheater Millowitsch, also known as the Millowitsch-Theater, is a medium-sized theater in Cologne, Germany where popular, low-brow comedies are enacted.
History
The Millowitsch family had been active in theater before ownership of this building with a tradition dating back to 1792. With the onset of the Great Depression and the ensuing inflation, Peter Millowitsch was forced to abandon the family’s old theater and tour Cologne and the surrounding area, until in 1936 they finally moved in to the new theater on Aachener Straße.
In 1940 Willy Millowitsch took charge of the theater. During World War II it was damaged, but not too severely, so on September 16, 1945 the theater was reopened. In the time from 1945–1949 there were daily performances in the theater, but afterwards the attendance dropped and Millowitsch had to rent out the theater sometimes. Fortunately, the theater doubled as a cinema, so he could still make money with it.
The first live broadcast of a theatrical performance with real audience in German television took place in this theater. On October 27, 1953 Willy Millowitsch’s Kölsch dialect play Der Etappenhase was broadcast on the Western regional channel WDR. It was immensely successful and just six weeks later was broadcast again, live, from the Millowitsch-Theater. Over the course of the years, over 100 performances from the Volkstheater Millowitsch were shown on television.
The television plays spawned interest in theater and the audiences gradually grew and by the 1960s a steady flow of people were teaming into the theater to see Millowitsch’s plays firsthand. He renovated the theater in 1967 and the Volkstheater once again became a focal point of local culture. Changing his original concept, Millowitsch turned the theater from a house just for plays into a venue for local performances of all kind. Many young dialect artists started their careers there, including the now famous singing groups Bläck Föss and De Höhner.
In 1999, after Willy Millowitsch’s death, his son Peter Millowitsch took over the theater.
Location
The Millowitsch-Theater is located on Aachener Straße 5, near the Hahnentor and Rudolfplatz in the center of Cologne, just by the tramline. It is a medium-size theater that can seat up to 383 people. Ticket prices usually range from € 19 - € 24.
External Link
Volkstheater Millowitsch (German) (http://www.millowitsch.de)