Union Filmtheater Bochum

In the location's words:

A few words about our Union

Bochum's Union-Filmtheater has lost none of its charm in over 60 years. The majority of Bochum's citizens had their first cinema experience with their parents at the Union, experienced the obligatory first kiss with their girlfriend or their first visit to the cinema with their own children. For many generations, the Union has been an integral part of Bochum's cityscape.

The Lueg-Haus, where the cinema is still located today, was built by Friedrich Oscar-Lueg (1875-1947), the son of car dealer and company founder Friedrich Lueg (1842-1890). The building was completed on October 1, 1925 and was Bochum's first high-rise building with a height of 32 meters. The car showroom was destroyed during the war, but the façade of the building was half-preserved and the Union-Bühne was officially opened in 1950. Up to 1600 people could attend the theater performances, the highlight being the large balcony or tier with 326 seats. The large hall was repeatedly reduced in size, so that later it could "only" seat 1,182 people. Until 1953, the hall also served as a venue for the Bochum stage; years later, the dramaturge and then director of the Bochum Schauspielhaus, Peter Zadek, staged Shakespeare's "King Lear" on the Union stage. In the 50s and 60s in particular, the theater experienced major premieres and stars and starlets came and went. In the 1980s, the theater was converted into a so-called box theater based on the American model. The large auditorium was greatly reduced in size and in the end the Union suddenly had an incredible ten movie theaters to report.

In February 1999, the WAZ announced the conversion into a gastronomic experience, and in July 1999, the WAZ wrote that the building would remain a cinema for the people of Bochum for the time being. On February 18, 2000, the WAZ then wrote that the building would be "spruced up" for just under two million. In the end, the renovation cost around 4 million and in the end it became a beautiful, seven-screen cinema with state-of-the-art technology. The charm of the golden age of cinema was preserved with large art deco lamps and the wonderful staircase to Cinema 7. Although the large auditorium "only" seats 388 people after the renovation, its incomparable charm remains unbroken and the Union naturally has a completely different atmosphere and history to the new multiplex cinemas.

It has been "chic" to go to the Union for over 60 years and it is not only the people of Bochum who have taken this cinema to their hearts. The Union is cinema culture that stands for the entire Ruhr region. Cinema is still alive here. Tradition never dies, as the saying goes.

This content has been machine translated.