Rex Filmtheater

The building at Kipdorf 29 in Elberfeld opened in 1887 as the Hôtel-Restaurant Im Salamander, whose concert hall had a painted glass roof that opened to the sky in summer. The house dates its first film screening to 1889, the basis of its claim to be among the oldest cinemas anywhere. It went full-time as the Apollo in 1937, burned out in the 1943 raids, was rebuilt and reopened in 1951, and took the name Rex in 1954 after the shoe manufacturer objected to Salamander. Multiplexes closed it in 1998. Mustafa El Mesaoudi and Jochen Kuhnert, who run the Cinema in Oberbarmen, brought film back on 6 February 2015. The listed main hall kept its balcony and old wooden seats, six loges seat two or three with their own fridge, and a 17-seat room, SLMNDR, came later. Arthouse and European titles dominate, with the occasional big release; about one screening in eight runs subtitled, not dubbed.

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