The deepest roots of the Winterberg Filmtheater go back to 1929, when my mother's uncle built a large premiere cinema, the Mercator-Palast, in Duisburg. After the managing director at the time was called up during the Second World War, my grandfather Walter Berenbruch took over the management. When the Mercator-Palast was completely destroyed by bombing during the war, he was offered the Winterberg location via the cinema association. With 2 projectors, two Ernemann 7Bs, which survived the attack unscathed, he and his family came to Sauerland and opened the Winterberg Filmtheater in November 1943 in what was then the Schützenhalle.
In 1952, my grandfather built a new movie theater at the current location at Nuhnestraße 13, initially with over 400 seats. After his death in 1958, my parents Herbert and Doris Wahle took over the cinema business and continued to run it as a family business on the side until 1999. During this time, the Filmtheater Winterberg was brought up to date several times and operated as a service cinema with 170 seats and a large bar area in the auditorium until 1999.
In 1999, I took over the Filmtheater Winterberg as a son, together with my wife Annette, now more in the 3rd generation. In order to remain competitive, we completely gutted the cinema in 2000 and divided it into 2 auditoriums: FILMTHEATER WINTERBERG - CINEMA 1 - CINEMA 2. The two projectors from Duisburg are still in use. Benedikt "Ben" Schmitt has looked after and cared for them over the years, so that even after almost 70 years, they have been tirelessly and reliably in use.
But in 2009, they were able to go into well-deserved "retirement". We were the first cinema in the Sauerland to introduce digital cinema technology, including two 3D systems.
With this technology, we were also able to expand our program, especially in terms of quality, but also in terms of quantity, and have been awarded the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW program prize every year since then.
However, technical and qualitative development is also important to us. In 2015, Cinema 1 was completely renovated and became the 36th auditorium in Germany to be equipped with a DOLBY-ATMOS sound system. We were also the 21st auditorium in Germany to install six D-Box seats in the cinema. Our Filmtheater Winterberg with Cinema 1 was the 5th cinema in Germany to combine both DOLBY ATMOS and D-BOX SEATS in one auditorium.
But technology and comfort are one thing. But the personal setting is just as important to us. From "hello" to "goodbye", we want to give you a well-deserved "feel-good time" in our small family business. If something is not right, tell us. We are not without our faults and try to become a little better every day.