On this square in front of the theatre

On this square in front of Luckenwalde theatre we also encounter another Berlin architect: Richard Neutra. In 1921 he worked at Luckenwalde's building authority. He designed a cemetery for the cremation for Luckenwalde's numerous Freidenker (freethinkers). From a bird's-eye perspective, the cemetery's system of paths resembles a scarab beetle which was the symbol of re-birth in ancient Egypt. Neutra founded the Academy of Modern Art in Los Angeles in 1929.

The theatre and school buildings were built in 1930 by the architects Rudolf Brennecke, Hans Graf and Paul Backes. Backes, who also worked at Luckenwalde's building authority, designed many public buildings and residential buildings. The municipal theatre is considered one of the most remarkable modernist buildings in Luckenwalde. Backes worked with the architect Hermann Henselmann in Berlin from 1952 (Karl-Marx-Allee and Haus des Lehrers/ Kongresshalle (Teachers' House/Congress Hall) ensemble near Alexanderplatz).

Under the "Rotes Luckenwalde" (Red Luckenwalde) banner on the theatre square we learn about the political traditions of this industrial town. The Arbeiterverein (Worker's Club), which was founded in 1868, was the only local club in Brandenburg that participated in the founding of the Social Democratic Labour Party (SDAP). Its successor, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) received an amazing 80 percent of the vote in the elections of 1913. Between 1919 and 1933, the SPD governed in Luckenwalde with an absolute majority. Unlike many other places in Germany, SPD and Communist Party (KPD) received a combined total of 57 percent of the vote in the parliamentary elections of March 1933.