Friedrichstadt-Palast

This guide to the Friedrichstadt-Palast in Berlin traces a stalactite-domed hall built in 1919 for impresario Max Reinhardt by architect Hans Poelzig, nicknamed by Berliners the dripstone cave. It follows the building through the Nazi takeover that renamed it and tore down Poelzig's ceiling as degenerate art, and the wartime bombing that came after. The guide opens with the Greek tragedy that filled that stalactite hall on its opening night in November 1919.