Titania-Palast

The Titania-Palast is a cinema in Steglitz, in Berlin, Germany. Built in 1928, it is notable for its Art Deco style. It closed in 1965, and re-opened in 1995 as a multiplex, renamed the Cineplex Titania. It is a heritage site (Kulturdenkmal) of Berlin.

History
The building was designed by Ernst Schöffler, Carlo Schlönbach and Carl Jacobi, in New Objectivity style, featuring a "light tower" of height 30 m, and a large foyer in Art Deco style. It was a cinema and a theatre; it seated 1,924, and an orchestra of up to 60 musicians could be accommodated. There was a café seating 350. It opened on 26 January 1928; the first film shown was the silent film The Story of a Little Parisian, starring Carmen Boni. The first film with sound was The Singing Fool starring Al Jolson, shown on 29 October 1929, and the first German-speaking sound film, shown on 21 November 1929, was The Royal Box, starring Alexander Moissi.

Postwar
The building was not much damaged in the Second World War. The Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Leo Borchard, gave its first postwar concert at the Titania on 26 May 1945, and in December 1948 the founding ceremony of the Free University of Berlin took place.

Performers appearing at the Titania included Josephine Baker (in 1950), Marlene Dietrich (in 1960), Louis Armstrong, Maurice Chevalier and Yehudi Menuhin.

It closed as a cinema in December 1965. From 1966 it was no longer an entertainment venue, parts of the building being leased by retail shops. In 1995, the interior was replaced, and it re-opened as the Cineplex Titania, with five screens and 505 seats; after later renovation there were seven screens and 1,223 seats.