Krolloper

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The Krolloper (usually called the Kroll Opera House in English) was an opera building in Berlin, Germany, on the western edge of the Königsplatz (now the Platz der Republik), facing the Reichstag. It was built in 1844 as an entertainment venue for the restaurant owner Joseph Kroll, on a site donated by Friedrich Wilhelm IV. The building was redeveloped as an opera house in 1851 and was used by various owners and directors for opera, operetta and drama. It was redeveloped again in 1895 and re-opened as the New Royal Opera Theatre, operated by the Prussian state opera and drama companies.

In 1924 the building was renamed the State Opera at the Platz der Republik, but was always better known as the Krolloper. During the 1920s its resident conductor was Otto Klemperer. The Krollper saw the world premiers of Paul Hindemith's Neues vom Tage in 1929 and Arnold Schönberg's Begleitmusik zu einer Lichtspielszene in 1930.

After the Reichstag fire in 1933 severely damaged the Reichstag building, the Krolloper became the seat of the Reichstag, by then under the control of the Nazi Party. It was chosen both because of its convenient location and its seating capacity. On 23 March 1933, the Reichstag sitting in the Krolloper passed the "Enabling Act" that gave Adolf Hitler virtually unlimited power. The Krolloper was used for sittings of the Reichstag throughout the Nazi regime, and was the site of Hitler's setpiece speeches. It was here that Hitler made his "prophesy" speech of 30 January 1939 in which he said that "if the international Jewish financiers in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, then the result will not be the Bolshevizing of the earth, and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe."

The last session of the Reichstag was held in the Krolloper on 26 April 1943, passing a decree allowing Hitler to override the judiciary and administration in all matters. The building was destroyed by Allied bombing on 22 November 1943, and the ruins were demolished in 1951. The site remained vacant for many years after the war, and is now occupied by the House of World Cultures.