Filmpalast Capitol Schwerin

The Capitol in Schwerin opened as a cinema on 21 December 1936 on the site of the earlier Tonhalle entertainment venue. It temporarily sheltered refugees in 1945 before resuming film screenings. The building became a regular setting for the city’s Filmkunstfest. From 2004 its programme expanded to include readings, smaller theatrical presentations and live music, and in 2007 it hosted events of the Mecklenburg blues and jazz festival. Its cultural history therefore extends beyond its continuing role as a cinema. A cinema first and foremost. The Capitol is Schwerin's principal picture house, in a Mecklenburg city otherwise defined by the lakeside ducal palace and the state theatre facing it. Multiplex auditoria of this kind are increasingly pressed into service between screenings — galas, touring shows, amplified concerts sized to the room — and the Capitol takes its share of that traffic.