The deepest roots of Filmtheater Winterberg go back to 1929. My mother's uncle built a large premiere cinema, the Mercator-Palast, in Duisburg. After the manager at the time was called up during World War II, 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 through the cinema association. With 2 projectors , two Ernemann 7B, which survived the attack intact, he then came with family to the Sauerland and opened in November 1943 in the then Schützenhalle the Winterberg Filmtheater.
In 1952, my grandfather built a new cinema 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 a sideline basis until 1999. In the course of this time, the Filmtheater Winterberg was updated several times and operated until 1999 as a service cinema with 170 seats and a large bar area in the hall.
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 halls: FILMTHEATER WINTERBERG - KINO 1 - KINO 2. Still in use are the two projectors from Duisburg. Benedikt "Ben" Schmitt took care of them over the years, so that even after 70 years they were still working tirelessly and reliably.
But in 2009, these could 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, primarily in terms of quality, but also in terms of quantity, and have since been awarded the Program Prize of the NRW Film and Media Foundation every year.
But technical and qualitative development is also close to our hearts. In 2015, for example, Kino 1 underwent a complete renovation and became the 36th auditorium in Germany to be equipped with a DOLBY-ATMOS sound system. In addition, as the 21st auditorium in Germany, we installed six D-Box seats in the cinema. Throughout Germany, our Winterberg movie theater with Cinema 1 was the 5th movie theater to combine both DOLBY ATMOS and D-BOX SEATS in one auditorium.
But technology and comfort are one side. But the personal setting is just as important to us. From "good day" to "goodbye", we want to give you a well-deserved "feel-good" time in our small family business. If something doesn't fit, tell us. We are not without faults and try to get a little better every day.