Kinopalæet og Det Ny Teater, Copenhagen

Traces of climate change and Nazis—crises past, present, and future—mark the intersection of Gammel Kongevej and Vodroffsvej, on the border of Copenhagen and Frederiksberg. The oddly tropical construction site in the present photo, where they’re building the Kalvebod Skybrydstunnel, is the sunny manifestation of climate change—it’s a massive stormwater tunnel that will store excess rainfall from Denmark’s increasingly severe storms and, if necessary, funnel it into the sea. Nazis are responsible for the disappearance of the first version of Kinopalæet, the movie palace on the right of the postcard—it was blown up in 1944 during the Schalburgtage terror campaign by Danish Nazi collaborators. Sandwiched in between is Det Ny Teater, the site of more than a century of creative real estate development, architectural infighting, and the precarity of even beloved arts institutions.  

So, what’s changed? Obviously Kinopalæet is gone—they actually rebuilt a cinema here on the same footprint after the war, but it only lasted a decade before it too was demolished in 1960 to make room for the Codanhus and the widening of Gammel Kongevej. Codanhus, Denmark’s tallest office building for decades, also claimed the apartment building on the far right of the postcard. Note also the streetcar tracks—trams from the Københavns Sporveje Line 8 once ran down Vodroffsvej on its route between Nørrebro and Rådhuspladsen, before the route was changed in the late 1920s. Basically unchanged are Det Ny Teater and its neighbor to the west (right), Gammel Kongevej 29A, but that wasn’t inevitable—by the end of the 1980s Det Ny Teater was in rough shape, but a major fundraising effort restored it. 

Danish film tycoon Constantin Philipsen exploited the Copenhagen-Frederiksberg divide to open Kinopalæet (Mk. 1) in 1918. Philipsen had signed a non-compete agreement when he sold his old theater, Palads, prohibiting him from opening a new cinema in Copenhagen...so, obviously, he went 40 feet across Copenhagen’s municipal border and built Kinopalæet in Frederiksberg. To design his new theater, Philipsen hired architect Axel Maar, fresh from his 1917 graduation from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Maar would go on to have a long career, eventually moving away from the Neoclassicism of his work on Kinopalæet to a more proto-modernist, functionalist style. 

Completed in 1918, Kinopalæet was one of those massive early cinemas—it sat more than 1,200 people when it opened. One of most high-profile theaters in the Copenhagen area along with Palads and the Rialto, Kinopalæet hosted the premiere of the first Danish-language talkie feature film in 1931.

Business for Kinopalæet continued mostly as usual after the Germans invaded Denmark in 1940, with the cinema screening Danish, German, and Italian films. However, as Danish resistance to the occupation finally ramped up in earnest in 1943, the German military and their Danish Nazi collaborators engaged in a retaliatory terror campaign—the Schalburgtage. Denmark had an enthusiastic collaborator minority, with thousands of Danes volunteering to fight for Germany on the Eastern Front and thousands more working for the Nazis in Denmark. In the Schalburgtage, these collaborators bombed civic institutions, hubs of Danish social life, and sites connected to the resistance, as well as engaging in a targeted killing campaign of high-profile civilians. On March 31st, 1944, they bombed Kinopalæet. 

After standing as a ruin for a few years, a new Kinopalæet opened on the same site in 1950, reusing what few parts they could of Axel Maar’s original. Kinopalæet II didn’t last long either, although at least this time it was intentional—insurer Codan wanted the lot for its new headquarters, and the (1950s car-brained) municipality wanted to widen Gammel Kongevej. Kinopalæet’s owners negotiated that the Codanhus development would have space a new cinema, so they handed over Kinopalæet II and it was demolished in 1960. That part of the site became…a parking lot, of course (okay...and a small plaza). The third Kinopalæet, built only a few meters away, closed in 1981 and was demolished soon after. 

Where Kinopalæet focused on cinema, an alliance between real estate development and theater built Det Ny Teater across the street—developer Bona and theater director Viggo Lindstrøm began planning what would become Det Ny Teater in 1902. More than just a place for a stage, the New Theater would anchor a whole complex of buildings—offices and residential—that would form a connecting passage between Gammel Kongevej and the rapidly growing Vesterbrogade. Bona hired architect Lorenz Gudme to design the new complex, and construction began in 1907.

Befitting the construction of a theater, there was drama. As building proceeded, the developer grew dissatisfied with Gudme’s work and hired another architect, Ludvig Andersen, without telling him. Appalled that one of their members had helped snake a peer out of a commission, the Danish Association of Architects expelled Andersen. He’d finish the project anyway. A heavy French Baroque lump identical on both sides save for a different ornament on top—a crown on the north, the muses on the south–the Ny Teater opened in 1908. 

The rocky start extended to the stage as well—Lindstrøm’s theater company collapsed quickly and by 1911 the Ny Teater was up for rent. Director Ivar Schmidt took it over and led the theater for more than 25 years. Det Ny Teater would become one of Copenhagen’s most influential stages, with a reputation for greater openness to experimentation than the Royal Danish Theatre, its grandiose competitor on the other side of town.

Finances were frequently precarious for the Ny Teater, despite varying levels of public support and, eventually, the passage of a formalized subsidy scheme for Copenhagen theaters in 1975. By the late 1980s the building was in rough shape. The theater closed in 1990, but fundraising and restoration efforts spearheaded by Niels-Bo Valbro, Bent Mejding, and building owner Ida Løfbergs Fond, the restored Ny Teater reopened in 1994 as Denmark’s only privately-run theater. Today, the stage at Det Ny Teater now mostly hosts productions of major international musicals.

Further reading:

• The conservation listing of Det Ny Teater
• Article about Gudme's original design for Det Ny Teater in Arkitekten: månedshæfte
• Vi anlægger en skybrudstunnel i dit område, Vodroffsvej
• "Debunking the Myth of the Volunteers: Transnational Volunteering in the Nazi Waffen-SS Officer Corps during the Second World War" by Martin Gutmann

Kinopalæet, København (Frederiksberg)

Kinopalæet, en beskrivelse af alle 3 Kinopalæer på Frederiksberg

Teatrets historie - Det Ny Teater

Teatrets historie. Det Ny Teater har siden 1994 produceret store musicals på internationalt niveau med kunstnerisk og publikumsmæssig succes.

Det Ny Teater

Kalvebod Brygge Skybrudstunnel - HOFOR

Tunnelen er én af flere hovedvandveje i København og Frederiksberg Kommuners skybrudskonkretiseringsplan. Kapaciteten er på 10.000 m3 vand.

HOFOR

Two more architectural drawings from Det Kgl. Bibliotek.

Two more aerials from Danmark set fra luften.