Lichtburg Essen

The Lichtburg opened on Kettwiger Straße on 18 October 1928 with around 2,000 seats under a dome twenty metres across, then the largest in any German auditorium. Rebuilt and modernised since, it still has the biggest single cinema hall in the country: 1,250 seats facing a screen of some 150 square metres, with a full stage behind it. The building has been listed since 1998 and reopened in March 2003 after a restoration costing about seven million euros. The second hall in the basement, 150 seats and named after the actor Sabu, dates from that work. In the 1950s and 60s this was West Germany's premiere cinema, and premieres, concerts, cabaret and theatre still share the room with films. The team behind Essen's arthouse cinemas has run it since April 1998, since 2024 David Schreiber and Oliver Flothkötter. The film programme is mainstream, and in our listings entirely in German.

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