Gaststätte Kretscham

THE ABANDONED THEATER IN GERMANY

The first mention of this ‘Gaststätte Kretschamin Ebersbach was in 1537. A Kretscham is a village inn or a tavern. This building was built as a hotel in the late 19th century by Ernst Rotzsche. It was 2000 m2 big, had three floors with two big theaters.

In the 1980s, the building was used as a HO-hotel. HO was short for Handelsorganisation or in English: ‘Trading Organisation’. It was the DDR retail business, that was created in 1948 by the Soviets. At the same time, the trade organisation also operated hotels, like this guesthouse.

In particular, the guesthouse and its theater was a club for the working class with many events. The theater was also used by the local school, as a dance studio and as training facility for Ebersbach chess players.

During the political turmoil in the DDR in 1989, the business and the hotels were taken over by the Treuhandanstalt, the agency responsible for state-owned enterprises. Four years later, some years after the German reunification, the hotel became abandoned.

Over twenty years this building was neglected. As a result, the roof has partly collapsed. Eventually in 2016, a couple of months after my visit, Gaststätte Kretscham demolished. The demolition costs were around 200 thousand euros.

Built 1910
Abandoned 1998
Demolished 2016
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