Kurbel Kinocenter

Die Kurbel and Die Kamera was a classic twin-cinema, opening in July 1953. It was located in Freiburg im Breisgau (Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) in the same building as the City Theater, directly in opposite to the university. In the beginning it contained the big hall of Die Kurbel with about 1,000 seats which was a balcony-theater with 70mm-projection and the biggest screen in South-Badenia.

Die Kamera was with 200 seats the smaller theater with a most intimate atmosphere and was used especially for arthouse-cinema like the beginning Nouvelle Vague or the New-German-Cinema with films from Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Volker Schloendorff.

The Center was founded by the Sueddeutsche Filmtheaterbetriebe Hubertus Waldt and later sold to the Olympic-Filmtheaterbetriebe. These later became part of the Ufa-Theater-AG by Heinz Riech in the 1970’s.

In 1982, the UFA seperated the big auditorium of Die Kurbel into four parts by building a wall in full high in front of the balcony. Behind of this wall under the balcony they developed two small cinemas with each about 100 seats; “Die Kurbel 2 & 3”. The former balcony became “Die Kamera 2”. Two new screens were created by cutting parts from the enormous foyer.

This new format was called from now on Kurbel-Kinocenter and was one of the most successful centers the Ufa had managed in that time. It has been closed since 1994 when the lease ended and wasn’t renewed by the community because they needed the space for the local stage.

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