Filmstudio Glückauf Essen

Essen's oldest cinema opened on 1 March 1924 in the Glückaufhaus, an office building of 1922/23 by the architect Ernst Bode at the northern end of the Rüttenscheider Straße. A bomb destroyed the auditorium in 1945. It was rebuilt, and the look it acquired in the 1950s is the one it still wears. Structural faults forced it shut in April 2001 and the cinema wing was demolished in 2007, leaving only the listed façade standing. After a rescue campaign financed largely by donations it reopened over two days in December 2009 with 250 seats. It belongs to the Essener Filmkunsttheater, the five-house group that also runs the Lichtburg, and screens arthouse releases from digital and 35mm. There is a small stage for concerts and a monthly Spanish-language series. The versions we currently list are German ones.

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