Französisches Komödienhaus

The French Comedy House was a theatre on Berlin's Gendarmenmarkt that stood from 1774 to 1802. Frederick the Great commissioned it for his French court theatre, intended to serve both the Huguenot community and the Francophile court with French-language repertoire. After Frederick's death in 1786 a German company also performed here, until structural problems led to demolition and replacement by Carl Gotthard Langhans's National Theatre. The site is now occupied by Schinkel's Konzerthaus. The Comedy House itself can no longer be seen, but the Gendarmenmarkt and the story of Frederick's French cultural policy remain present.