Grafikkraft

(photo: dpa)
The "Ruhr Theatre Festival" is an important cultural event in Germany and is the oldest and one of the biggest and most renowned theatre festivals throughout Europe. From 1st May to 14th June my hometown, Recklinghausen, in the north of the Ruhr Area, changes into a world stage for productions of famous directors and performances of awarded actors. It arose out of "coal for art, art for coal" :
Actors and directors from the theatres of Hamburg drove in severe postwar winter of 1945-46 to the Ruhr Area in order to ask for coal for their theatres. Miners from the Koenig Ludwig 4/5 pit in Recklinghausen delivered truckloads of coal and saved several theatres from closure. Impressed by the solidarity of the miners, the people from the theatres of Hamburg returned to the Ruhr and thanked by preforming in front of the pit men the following summer. That was the birth of the Ruhr Theatre Festival. Afterwards the trade union federation Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund (DGB) set up the Ruhr Theatre Festival, known originally as Culture for the Miners. The festival was established even prior to the two German States, which were found in 1949.
I think this is such a great story. It shows once again the solidarity and willingness of the people in the Ruhr Valley. Moreover the phrase "coal for art, art for coal" is such a great starting point for my project as it stands for the recent developments of the creative industry in the Ruhr. (article: Der Spiegel)