Tours · Saarbrücken · Theatre
Saarländisches Staatstheater
A colossal neoclassical theatre looming over the Saar, built by the Nazi regime as a cultural fortress on the French border and reborn after the war as Saarland's grandest stage.
About this place
Rising in pale stone directly on the riverbank in the St. Johann district, the Saarländisches Staatstheater is one of the most imposing and unsettling buildings in Saarbrücken. Commissioned by Joseph Goebbels and designed by architect Paul Baumgarten, it was raised in 1937 and 1938 as a monumental piece of propaganda, a reward for the region voting to rejoin Germany in the 1935 Saar referendum and a deliberate cultural bastion aimed at neighbouring France. Opened in 1938 as the Gautheater Saarpfalz before an audience that included Hitler himself, the theatre was gutted during the war and then patiently rebuilt, reopening in 1948 with Mozart rather than Wagner. Today its severe colonnaded facade hides a thriving regional house whose Großes Haus stages opera, ballet, drama, and concert for hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.
Key facts
- 1938 year — Opened as the Gautheater Saarpfalz with a gala attended by Hitler, Goebbels, and Himmler
- 875 seats — Fill the grand auditorium of the Großes Haus, the theatre's main stage on the Saar
- 700 events — Are staged here in a typical season for more than 200,000 visitors
📍 Schillerplatz 1, 66111, Saarbrücken