Kino-Center Leer

During the first half of 1953, Hereditary Grand Duke Hotel owner Heinrich Buschmann (or Frido Buschmann) built a 702-seat single-screen movie theater on Monument Square known as the “Deli-Lichtspiele”, and was raved to be back then as the most modern cinema in East Frisia. The Deli-Lichtspiele opened its doors on December 18, 1953 with Wolf Albach-Retty in “The Bird Dealer”.

The Deli-Lichtspiele featured a colonnaded hall lined with stone slabs and with lightful falls on the display cases. The ceiling was tricolored with three domes, and mixing with the brighter glow form the two cash registers is the concession stand. There are also two corridors lined with runners leading into the hall which was built with a particularly steep slope to the screen and enables perfect visibility. During its early heyday featured hearing aids which were a modern thing in movie theatres across Germany during the 1950’s. At the same time, Buschmann knew that CinemaScope was rising across the world right at the time his movie house opened, when the start of the war with “The Robe” boomed up the screens in the United States during the 1953/1954 timeframe. CinemaScope was installed at the Deli-Lichtspiele and “The Robe” made it to the screen.

During the early-1970’s, Buschmann expanded the theater uniquely. At first, a 198-seat “City” auditorium was established next to the 702-seat “Deli”, but because of the original Deli auditorium was a little outdated at the time, Buschmann sliced the original auditorium in half and the theatre was tripled. The seats were also divided from the original auditorium. The Deli auditorium after conversion now stands at 255 seats, while the second auditorium named the “Roxy” housed 129 seats, bringing into a grand total of 582 seats. Parts of the ground floor were converted into a specialist shop for men’s clothing called “Mansion” in English.

During the late-1970’s, Buschmann closed the nearby Urania Theatre and officially added a fourth-screen next to the City auditorium called the Urania auditorium dedicating to the old Urania Theatre nearby. The theatre now has a capacity of 721 seats.

Buschmann managed to operate the City-Deli-Roxy-Urania theaters throughout the 1980’s and early-1990’s, unfortunately during the early-1990’s comes a major change led by operators from other theatres including other theatres (including ones in Emden and Norden among others; also operated by Buschmann). During the first quarter of the 1990’s, Buschmann leased the theatre to a chain from Hanoverm CinemaxX known in English as “Compare Filmtheater Operations” chain, and later by the “Groteheide Ostfriesische Filmtheater” chain a few years later.

Unfortunately, right at the time the theatre became part of the Groteheide Ostfriesische chain in the mid-1990’s, the theater suffered minor damage from a fire.

As a result from the minor fire damage, the theatre was remodeled, and one more additional 109-seat screen was added bringing a total to five screens and a total of 900 seats (255 + 199 + 198 + 139 + 109), and reopened a short time afterward by Muckli Cinemas (or “East Frisian Film Theaters”) featuring Dolby digital sound systems, but the large hall received renovations in November 2004.

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