ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

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The Ruhrfestspiele (Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen) are the oldest and at the same time one of the largest and most renowned theatre festivals in Europe. The festival is a cultural event of the Ruhr area, which has its origins in the post-war period and since 1965 takes place in the specially built Ruhrfestspielhaus on the “green hill” in Recklinghausen.

Concept

The Ruhrfestspiele are organized annually by Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen GmbH. 50% of the company is supported by the City of Recklinghausen and the German Trade Union Confederation, each of which contributes about € 1.1 million annually. The Ruhrfestspiele do not have a fixed ensemble. Productions of the Festival are co-productions with well-known European artists and performances of guest groups. The goal is to bring together different art forms, languages and cultures. The main venue is the Ruhrfestspielhaus.

History

Origin

During the cold winter of 1946/47, the Hamburg Theatres were about to close because they lacked coal for heating and operating the stage technology. The administrative director of the Deutsches Schauspielhaus, Otto Burrmeister, the Chairman of the Works Council of the Hamburg State Opera, Karl Rosengart, and other participants drove in two wood gas-powered trucks to the Ruhr area to ask for help on the coal mine. From the A2 motorway they saw the vents of the power plant of the King Ludwig 4/5 colliery in Recklinghausen-Suderwich and described their situation to the employees there. Bypassing the control of the occupying power, the miners helped the theater people and loaded the trucks with coal. This illegal action was repeated several times until the loaded trucks were discovered by the military police.

In the summer of 1947, 150 actors from the three Hamburg state stages performed under the motto “Art for Coal” at the Städtische Saalbau Recklinghausen. The Hamburg State Opera played with the Philharmonic Orchestra on the evening of the 28th. June the Mozart opera Figaros wedding. Directed by Kurt Puhlmann and conducted by Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg, the opera featured Alfred Pfeifle and Gustav Neidlinger, among others. The next morning, the Thalia Theater, which was then under the direction of Willy Maertens, performed the play The Locked House by Michael Harward under the direction of Heinz Sailer. Together with the Philharmonic Orchestra, the State Opera played Don Pasquale by Gaetano Donizetti on the evening. The pieces were repeated over the next two days. On July 1, the Deutsche Schauspielhaus under the direction of Willy Meyer-Fürst closed a “Russian Comedy Evening” with the one-timers He is to blame for everything of Leo Tolstoy and The Marriage Proposal and The Bear of Anton Chekhov, which was repeated the following afternoon. With the Erne