Kino - Theater in camp Saalburg in Autry / France

 

"Kino in Saalburg. Fritz Beck als Führer. Mai 1918"

This postcard is more of a photo than a postcard, but was intended (and probably sold) as a postcard. The place, person and time are noteworthy on the back - and this is how the cinema depicted can be identified.

Saalburg is not the little town in Thuringia on the river Saale, and not the Roman fort located on the main ridge of the Taunus, northwest of Bad Homburg in Hesse. 

The German camp Saalburg was established during World War I near the occupied place of Autry, 50 km east of Reims. It is possible that the camp got its name after the Hessian fort of Saalburg. The camp and the place of Autry were destroyed by fighting in October 1918. Today there is forest and peace again. 

Here I found an interesting article about the camp. Unfortunately, the cinema is not mentioned. Perhaps it was built in May 1918, as written on the postcard. I think the building was used as a cinema and theater.

The soldiers with the tools look like they have just finished the building. One of them is marked with a cross. The only one who doesn't look at the camera. Maybe it's the aforementioned Fritz Beck. I'm not sure what kind of "Führer" / leader Fritz Beck was. The head of cinema construction or the Vorführer / projectionist or the artistic director? I am sure that cinema-theater complied with all applicable German regulations. 

Postcards in World War I are a very interesting topic. They show a desired self-expression. They are souvenirs for the army member themselves but also for their relatives and friends at home. When you look at the postcard, you think of a holiday camp for big boys rather than a war place. 

At the same time, it is often not easy to locate postcards with front-line cinemas because they worked under exceptional conditions. There is little information about it - how many places there were, what was shown when, who performed, how was the film distribution. That's why this postcard with the comments is an important contemporary document.

Columbia in Berlin / Germany

 

The free-standing cinema building in Berlin-Tempelhof was built in 1951 for members of the US Air Force who were stationed at Tempelhof Airport. With its rounded, sweeping shapes and shiny materials in a 1950s design, the Columbia is a typical post-war cinema.

The cinemas Outpost in Berlin-Dahlem and L’Aiglon in Berlin-Wedding two more cinemas belonging to the former allies.

When the Allies withdrew from Berlin, the cinema was closed by the Americans and handed over to the Berliners and has been used as a club and event location for a variety of events since 1998. Now there is a theater - the Columbia Theater (since 2015). 

The modern postcard shows a view of this theater. The photo was taken by Gunnar Klack.

Danke, Nadja, für die Karte!

Kammerlichtspiele in Bad Kreuznach / Germany

 

A postcard full of history.

This cinema in Bad Kreuznach opened on 16th November 1907 by Gottfried Heym. 

The first presentations were in an extension of the restaurant "Zum Freischütz". Today there is a multiplex cinema with 9 halls and 1400 seats. For more than 100 years, the family Heym-Sawatzki has entertained not only the residents of Bad Kreuznach with movies. Now in the fifth generation.

The cinema wears the name Kammer-Lichtspiele between 1920 and 1970.

After World War I, Bad Kreuznach and the Rhineland was occupated by the French military from 1918 to 1930. Many buildings such as gyms, halls, houses and apartments were confiscated as quarters for the soldiers and civilian employees. (There is a research project being carried out by the University of Mainz about this time.)

Among the occupied building there was also this cinema. It was now "Cercle et Mess des Sous-Officiers" - a non-commissioned officer circle and mess. And a cinema, too. Look at the posters at the entrance.

The postcard was maybe sent. There is written "F.M." instead a stamp. That means "Franchise Militaire". During the entire period of French occupation, normal mail sent by members of the army to France or the colonies in North Africa, where many occupation soldiers came from, was free of charge. The unit's vaguemestre also stamped the postage on the mail items delivered to him, thus confirming the sender's right to postage exemption. And this stamp is missed on the postcard. So the postcard can't dated- unfortunately.

This postcard is a souvenir from Léon to his brother Marcel Constans in Nice. Is Léon in the photo himself? It would be too nice to know who the five men, two women and the child on the balcony are. Is the man in the door the owner of the building? Could the German inhabitants visit cinemas during this years? What kind of movies were shown for the French people?

Cinema Burg Vogelsang in Schleiden / Germany

 

The Cinema on castle Vogelsang is the low building with the writing Cinema. It was built in the 1950s.

In 1934, the construction of the castle Vogelsang started as one of three so called Ordensburg for training the next generation of leaders of the NSDAP.

After the Second World War, the complex was taken over by the British army, who set up the military training area on 6354 hectares in the surrounding area. From 1950 to the end of 2005 the Belgian military used the area as a military training area and built other buildings on the site of the former Ordensburg. The already completed base and outer walls of the Haus des Wissens (House of Knowledge) planned by the National Socialists were used for the construction of the soldiers' accommodation Van Dooren, so that the angled architectural style is similar to the construction of the buildings from the Nazi era. The Belgian military cinema (later a theater) was built on the neighboring foundation of a planned auditorium. 

The castle has been under monument protection since 1989. In 2016, the Vogelsang International Place with the Nazi documentation Vogelsang and the Eifel National Park Center opened.

The cinema was reopened in 2012. The hall with about 200 seats has been renovated and now shines in the splendor of the 1950s.

Cinema in Piennes/France

I saw 1917 and They shall not grown old and Un long dimanche de fiançailles in the cinema. This postcard reminds me of these films. 

Piennes is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France, about 40 km northeast of Verdun. The cinema was used by German army, later it was a hospital during the war. I don't know if it was used as a cinema before and after the war. The building is still standing (look at this interesting website www.morthomme.com.)

The postcard was sent in October 1916 by military mail from France to Germany. Arthur wrote to his wife Frieda in Chemnitz. Among other things, he asked her sending him the shaving kit. He didn't write anything about a hospital or a cinema.

The address book for Chemnitz 1915 finds a baker Mr. A. M. Fischer on Münchner Strasse 10.  And also the 1920 address book. And there's still a bakery today at this address.