The rapid industrialisation in the first half of the 20th century led to enormous population growth in the cities, which resulted in a significant expansion of cultural offerings. Numerous schools, museums and magnificent theatre buildings were built. In former industrial centres, economic change in the 1950s and 1960s led to a decline in population and thus dwindling audiences for cultural events. This was accompanied by a change in people's leisure behaviour: The increasing spread of television from the 1950s and later, from the 1980s, of home cinemas caused the importance of theatre and cinema to steadily decline.
Many older theatres and cinemas were located in large, elaborately designed buildings whose maintenance costs often exceeded their income, which often led to their closure and eventual decline.