Tiger Palace Variety Theatre

Visitors to Frankfurt’s Tiger Palace (Tigerpalast) experience an extravaganza of the entertainment arts, so close you can almost touch it. Handstand aerobatics from Italy, trapeze artistry from Kazakhstan or magic from Las Vegas, somersault displays from Switzerland, rope acrobatics from China, juggling from New York or chansons – these attractions and many more draw audiences into their spell in the distinctive ambience of the old ballroom in the city centre. 

The curtain first went up on the Tiger Palace Variety Theatre (Tigerpalast Varieté Theater) in the autumn of 1988. Two German stars, the escape artist Hans Moretti and the juggler Ernesto Montego, tread the stage of the variety theatre. And on this premiere evening, Matthias Beltz, friend and co-founder of the Tiger Palace, declared the new/old ideals: Liberté, Egalité, Varieté. Previously, Tiger Palace founder Johnny Klinke had spent five years searching for vestiges of the entertainment arts of the 20th century with artistic director Margareta Dillinger. They wanted to reclaim a lost way of metropolitan life: “The lively and brash, intelligent and fascinating meeting of the stage cultures, artistry and tango, chansons and magic, flamenco and cabaret.”