BUILDING THE PROJECT   

The Realization February 1954 - January 1957
February 1954 March 1, 1954 June 16, 1954 February 15, 1955 January 13, 1957

After Mies and Schwarz had declined to participate any further in the competition in June 1953, the Theater Building Committee of the Board of Aldermen convenes on the designs submitted by O. E. Schweizer and Gerhard Weber. Gerhard Weber´s design was chosen for the commission in February 1954. Gerhard Weber's commission for a preliminary design on a scale of 1:100. On June 15, 1954, the City Council approves Gerhard Weber's design. Construction begins. Official opening of the National Theater Mannheim to mark the 175th anniversary of the first performance of Friedrich Schiller's "Die Räuber" with a production by Erwin Piscator.
Gerhard Weber (Frankfurt/Main), der sich als Praktiker, vor allem durch die im Bau befindliche Hamburger Staatsoper empfahl, und als "Quereinsteiger" erst in der zweiten Stufe des Wettbewerbs hinzugeladen worden war, wurde zum eigentlichen Erbauer des Theaters. Da Mies van der Rohe und Rudolf Schwarz eine Überarbeitung ihrer Entwürfe abgelehnt hatten, war es Anfang 1954 zu einer Wahl zwischen den Entwürfen von Otto Ernst Schweizer und Gerhard Weber gekommen. Gerhard Weber, der mehrfach betonte ein Schüler von Mies am Bauhaus gewesen zu sein, wurde im März 1954 beauftragt bis Juni die ausgearbeiteten Pläne vorzulegen, die bei Beibehaltung eines einheitlichen Baukörpers auf einer systematischen Umkehrung des funktionalen und kompositorischen Gefüges Mies van der Rohes beruhten. Die Bauarbeiten wurden termingerecht bis Januar 1957 abgeschlossen. Gerhard Weber (Frankfurt) had commended himself as a practical architect chiefly through his Hamburg State Opera building, which was just being constructed at that time. He was invited to join the second stage of the competition, and eventually went on to become the actual architect of the new National Theater. Because Mies van der Rohe and Schwarz had declined the prospect of revising their designs, in early 1954 it came down to a choice between the proposals by Otto Ernst Schweizer and Gerhard Weber. They both exhibit a considerable likeness to each other. In March 1954, Gerhard Weber, who stressed repeatedly that he had once been a student of Mies, was asked to submit his final plans by June of that year. In preserving a unified construction, the plans were based on a systematic conversion of the functional and compositional framework of Mies's design. The construction of the theater was completed on time by January 1957.
© Photos: Wagner (1), Stahl (2;13), Lipp (3), Bogedan (4;8;9;14;16), Mausbach (5;6), Kugel (7;12;20), Ghezala (10;11;15;17;18;19;21;22).
 

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