Columbia Theater

Columbia Theater is an 800-capacity concert club in Berlin’s Tempelhof district, across from the former Tempelhof Airport. Its defining feature is structural as much as historical: audiences gather in a 1951 US Air Force cinema, entering a 1950s foyer before the auditorium drops steeply toward the stage. Standing shows hold 800; seated configurations hold 380, preserving a compact scale for touring artists with a full production setup.

A cinema, a radio club, a return

Columbia opened on 13 October 1951 with the premiere of Captain Horatio Hornblower, serving US Air Force soldiers and staff stationed at Tempelhof. Berlin’s heritage office identifies it as a protected postwar cinema, with curving forms, glazed materials and the original Columbia lettering integral to its exterior. The Allied departure brought a transfer to the city in 1994 and a closure.

In 1998, the former auditorium became COLUMBIAFritz, the Berlin base for youth station Fritz and a site for concerts and parties. The room subsequently carried Columbiaclub and C-Club names. A major restoration and technical renewal culminated in the 2015 reopening under Columbia Theater, recasting the preserved cinema as a concert and club room.

The room today

Its program runs to around 140 concerts each year, spanning varied popular music by national and international artists. The relaunch concept put indie, electronic, pop and retro at the center, alongside club series and event hires. For a showgoer, this is a single-room space with a 6-metre-wide, 8-metre-deep stage, a central front-of-house position about 15 metres from it, three bar points, a foyer and garden access. The descending auditorium gives the room its cinema-shaped focus.