The Kalkberg Stadium () is an open-air theatre built in a former quarry on the Segeberger Kalkberg, a rocky outcropping in the centre of

Bad Segeberg Bad Segeberg (; ) is a German town of 16,000 inhabitants, located in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, capital of the district (Kreis) Segeberg. It is situated approximately northeast of Hamburg, and west of Lübeck. It is famous for its annual ...

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; ; ; ; ; occasionally in English ''Sleswick-Holsatia'') is the Northern Germany, northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical Duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of S ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It was built as a

Thingplatz A ''Thingspiel'' (plural ''Thingspiele'') was a kind of multi-disciplinary outdoor theatre performance which enjoyed brief popularity in pre-war Nazi Germany during the 1930s. A Thingplatz or Thingstätte was a specially-constructed outdoor am ...

under the

Third Reich Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

and since 1952 has been the site of the annual Bad Segeberg Karl May Festival. The Kalkberg was mined for salt until 1860 and was the site of a

gypsum Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate Hydrate, dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, drywall and blackboard or sidewalk ...

quarry until 1931. After the Nazis came to power, the quarry was converted into an amphitheatre to be used for mass meetings and multimedia theatrical performances as part of the ''Thingspiel'' movement. The theatre was designed by Fritz Schaller of Berlin, and was constructed mostly by the

Reich Labour Service The Reich Labour Service (''Reichsarbeitsdienst''; RAD) was a major paramilitary organization established in Nazi Germany as an agency to help mitigate the effects of unemployment on the German economy, militarise the workforce and indoctrinate ...

beginning on 29 May 1934. The work entailed sealing salt-mining shafts and cavities and bringing in 1,200

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton in the United States to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the s ...

s of

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

from

Silesia Silesia (see names #Etymology, below) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Silesia, Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at 8, ...

as building material, since the

anhydrite Anhydrite, or anhydrous calcium sulfate, is a mineral with the chemical formula CaSO4. It is in the orthorhombic crystal system, with three directions of perfect cleavage parallel to the three planes of symmetry. It is not isomorphous with the ...

core of the hill itself is water-soluble."Kalkbergstadion" a
Schleswig-Holstein von A bis Z
, Gesellschaft für Schleswig-Holsteinische Geschichte, retrieved 29 May 2013 Sascha Sommer

Norddeutscher Rundfunk (; "North German Broadcasting"), commonly shortened to NDR (), is a public broadcasting, public radio and television broadcaster, based in Hamburg. In addition to the city-state of Hamburg, NDR broadcasts for the German states of Lower Saxony, ...

, 13 October 2012 The theatre was dedicated on 10 October 1937 by

Joseph Goebbels Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and philologist who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief Propaganda in Nazi Germany, propagandist for the Nazi Party, and ...

as the ''Feierstätte der Nordmark'' or ''Nordmark-Feierstätte'' (Northern March Ceremonial Site);Frank Knittermeier
"Bad Segeberg: Heute vor 70 Jahren wurde in der Kreisstadt die Kalkbergarena eröffnet. Es begann 1937 - als Feierstätte der Nazis"
''

Hamburger Abendblatt ''Hamburger Abendblatt'' () is a German daily newspaper in Hamburg belonging to the Funke Mediengruppe, publishing Monday to Saturday. The paper focuses on news in Hamburg and its surrounds, and produces regional supplements with news from Norde ...

'', 10 October 2007 (paywalled): "Neben dem Segeberger Freilichttheater sind die Berliner Waldbühne und das Freilichttheater an der Loreley die bekanntesten." in his speech he expressed the wish it would be a "political church of National Socialism".Stommer, p. 218. A performance of

Henrik Herse Henrik is a male given name of Germanic origin, primarily used in Scandinavia, Finland, Estonia, Hungary and Slovenia. In Poland, the name is spelt Henryk but pronounced similarly. Equivalents in other languages are Henry (English), Heiki (Estoni ...

's ''Die Schlacht der weißen Schiffe'' took place there, probably in 1938, but after that there were no further performances until the end of World War II. Immediately after the war, the arena was used amongst other things for boxing and for circus performances, before becoming the site of the Karl May Festival in 1952. Concerts also take place there, including

's annual ''Kult am Kalkberg''."Kult am Kalkberg 2013: Eine großartige Party!"
NDR 1 Welle Nord, 5 May 2013 With the Berlin

Waldbühne The Waldbühne (''Woodland Stage'' or ''Forest Stage'') is an amphitheatre at Olympiapark Berlin in Berlin, Germany. It was designed by German architect Werner March in emulation of a Greek theatre and built between 1934 and 1936 as the Dietrich ...

and the Freilichtbühne Loreley, it is one of the best known of the former ''Thing'' sites. Schaller did not do any further blasting, but used the existing shape of the quarry, so the arena is asymmetrical and has a smaller stage area to one side. There is a rocky peak behind the stage, and loudspeakers were not installed because of the natural amplification. Originally there was to have been a monument behind the theatre. 14,000 seats and room for 6,000 standees were planned, but the theatre as built seats 10,000 and has room for 4,000 standees.

References

External links

"75 Jahre Kalkbergstadion: Erfolgreiches Freilichttheater mit Nazi-Vergangenheit"
Sat.1 regional, 6 November 2012. Video with archival photos, plans, models, interviews {{Music venues in Germany, collapsed Amphitheaters in Germany Thingplatz