PIAST cinema

The cinema was designed by the Berlin architect A. Rebiger with elements of expressionism and art deco. The Berlin artist Max Kujawa and the Frankfurt sculptor Georg Fürstenberg were responsible for the interior design. It was officially opened in 1925 as Frankfurt's "Filmpalast Friedrichstrasse". The first film to be shown on January 17 was the German silent film from 1924 by Richard Oswald "Carlos and Elisabeth" based on Friedrich Schiller.

The cinema had to close in 1930. The premises continued to be used as the “Elyseum” restaurant until the cinema, which had since been rebuilt and modernized, reopened as a sound cinema in 1937. This time, the film “Patriots” by director Karl Ritter from 1937 was shown at the reopening.

The further history of the cinema is shaped by the fate of the German-Polish border region. After the Second World War, it was nationalized and reopened on October 1, 1947, in the now Polish city of Słubice, as the "Kino Piast". The name "Piast" goes back to the first Polish royal dynasty, the Piasts. Piast was their legendary founder from the tenth century. After 1945, a comprehensive polonization campaign was carried out in the new western and northern Polish territories that had previously belonged to Germany. This included renaming cities, streets and, of course, cinemas. Names were preferred that recalled the period between the tenth and twelfth centuries, when these areas were under the rule of the Piasts.

In 1963, the cinema was rebuilt once again and adapted to modern standards. In 2005, it had to be closed for economic reasons. During a visit in 2012, a calendar with the date June 2005 was still hanging on a wall of the ruins. In December 2012, the rear part of the building was demolished. Fortunately, the valuable facade was listed as a historical monument in 2009 and thus saved.