"Jewel among German cinemas" - not a bad label for Wiesbaden director and Oscar winner Volker Schlöndorff to bestow on this movie theater right on the market square. And he was right. After all, this cinema dates back to the silent movie era. It was built in 1926 in neo-Gothic style as the "Ufa im Park". Incidentally, the fact that it faces the market square with a rather plain façade was not due to thriftiness. Rather, it was the declared wish of the market church congregation - they obviously feared competition with their own church services.

Inside, however, the plush opulence of the Caligari Film Stage is reminiscent of the great days of movie theaters. However, the brass swinging doors, the red armchairs, the curved gallery and the Art Deco lighting are not a legacy of the 1920s. Instead, they are part of a large-scale refurbishment in the mid-1950s - a homage to the spirit of optimism of the economic miracle years. In this setting, new arthouse films are shown today as well as classics from all cinema eras; silent films are sometimes accompanied by live music.

The varied programme is organized by the film department of the cultural office; the cinema crew is also very involved in the organization of film festivals: the short film days are just as much a part of this as the "goEast" festival, which focuses on Central and Eastern European films. It also gets really busy every year in March when the Caligari hosts the German TV Crime Film Festival. Prominent actors and crime writers also come to the city, which is after all the seat of the Federal Criminal Police Office, and new Tatort episodes or other crime thrillers are shown here for the first time.

Address:

Marktplatz 9
65183 Wiesbaden