Description
A two-storey plastered building designed in a socialist realism, with a representative gable and laterally added symmetrical arcades with a pseudo-coffered vault. On the front facade from the street side three spacious entrance doors with decorative pilasters can be seen. The original spatial division of the interior of the building has been fully preserved and consists of a ticket hall, a foyer, a large auditorium with a stage, a caretaker's apartment and a small projection and cinema room located above the entrance on the second floor.
Historical background
In the early 1950s, the German Democratic Republic state donated 1.1 million marks under the "National Development Program" for the construction of a modern film theater in Guben. In 1954, carbon stone was built in, which started two years of construction work on a new cultural facility in the city.
The official opening of the theater under the name "Friedensgrenze" was inaugurated on March 8, 1956 with the screening of the film "On Special Order" (Ger.: "Im Sonderauftrag"), to which the actors performing in them were invited.
During film screenings, theater performances, youth meetings, concerts and other events, the facility was able to accommodate from 500 to 650 spectators.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the cinema was sold to Ufa GmbH Düsseldorf and operated from 1995 to 2000 under the name "Filmtheater Guben". In August 2000, due to the lack of interest in the available cultural offer, and thus low profitability, the facility was closed.
Currently, the building is owned by the Guben housing cooperative GUWO, which has been gradually renewing the theater since 2021, organizing cultural events for a small audience in compliance with safety rules. In addition, the aim of the cooperating with GOWO theater association “Friedensgrenze” is to create a house of culture and art in Guben, woven to meet the demographically changing needs of city.
