FGvW advises Dominican Order on leasehold agreement for former "Heilig Kreuz" monastery church in Cologne

FGvW provided comprehensive legal advice to the Dominikanerprovinz Teutonia e.V. on the drafting of a leasehold agreement for its former Heilig Kreuz ("Holy Cross") monastery church at Lindenstraße 45 in Cologne. The contractual arrangement creates a future solution at the interface between religious spirituality and independent theater culture.

The secularized monastery church was granted to the multi-award-winning independent Cologne theater Theater der Keller e.V. for an initial period of 60 years, with two options to extend the lease by ten years each.

Within the framework of the legal agreement, it was important to the Dominicans that the dignity of the former monastery church be preserved. In the future, the space should be able to continue to be used openly and meaningfully by people in the neighborhood and in the city. By leasing the space to the Theater "der Keller", the order hopes that it will be used in accordance with the original purpose of the monastery church: people come together, engage with issues that are bigger than themselves, and leave the space feeling inspired. Dominican Father Dr. Gottfried Michelbrand OP, prior of the Heilig Kreuz convent, spoke of the project for the further use as a “consciously designed transformation.” He and his fellow brothers had moved out of the Cologne convent building due to their advanced age and celebrated their last service with their congregation in the monastery church in August 2022.

After the upcoming renovation, the theater will have a main stage for up to 199 visitors, a laboratory stage with about 100 seats, and two rehearsal stages at the beginning of the 2027/28 season.

The Dominican Order came to Cologne in the 13th century and initially found accommodation in St. Maria Magdalena hospital with its chapel in Stolkgasse. At the end of the 18th century, the former Heilig Kreuz monastery was secularized during the French occupation. In 1898, the Dominicans returned to the city and began rebuilding their monastery on Lindenstraße, whose church was consecrated at the beginning of the 20th century. After the destruction of World War II, the monastery church was rebuilt and reconsecrated in 1952.

The theater “der Keller,” Cologne's oldest private theater, opened in October 1955 in a former air-raid shelter. In 1974, it moved to the premises of a former maternity clinic in Cologne's Südstadt district. There, the ensemble performed on two stages, each with 99 seats, until it had to leave the building for good in 2019 due to the termination of the lease. Since then, the theater has been temporarily housed in the TanzFaktur venues in Cologne's district Deutz.

During the drafting and negotiation of the leasehold agreement, the Dominikanerprovinz Teutonia e.V. received comprehensive legal advice from our Cologne-based partner Dr Uwe Steingröver.

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