Cumberland Gallery, Historic gallery in Mitte district, Hanover, Germany.
Cumberland Gallery is a building in Hanover designed by Otto Goetze and built between 1883 and 1886 to house the Duke of Cumberland's painting collection. It stands in the courtyard of the Schauspielhaus, accessible from Prinzenstraße. Only the former stairwell survives from the original gallery; it has a three-flight staircase and a choir-like annex with cast-iron columns and broad steps.
The gallery was built between 1883 and 1886 by architect Otto Goetze for Ernst-August of Brunswick-Lüneburg, the last crown prince of Hanover, who also called himself Duke of Cumberland. He intended it as a prestige building to assert his claim to the throne after Prussia annexed the Kingdom of Hanover in 1866. In 1925 the duke sold it to the provincial administration of Hanover, and during the Nazi era it was used for propaganda exhibitions. Two connecting structures from 1863 and 1878 were destroyed in World War II air raids, and since 1970 the ground floor has housed the Amerika-Haus.
The building is named after Ernst-August, Duke of Cumberland, who commissioned it. Today it is one of five venues of Schauspiel Hannover, with up to 80 seats in the gallery and 200 in the Cumberlandsche Bühne opened in 2009. The play Nipplejesus has been performed here continuously since 2009, and the stair rail has served as a stage set.
The gallery is reached through the courtyard of the Schauspielhaus at Prinzenstraße 9; the stair hall has no stage set, so only productions without scenery are staged there. The separate Cumberlandsche Bühne on the upper floor seats 200 and has variable seating. The stair hall holds at most 80 spectators.
The preserved stairwell has a three-flight staircase and a choir-like annex with cast-iron columns and broad steps. Since 2009, the play Nipplejesus has been performed here permanently, and the railing has served as a stage set in productions such as Böser Hun.
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