Gandersheim Cathedral Festival

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Gandersheim Cathedral Festival 2011
Gandersheim Cathedral Festival 2011

The Gandersheim Cathedral Festival takes place every year from mid-June to mid-August in the Bad Gandersheim spa in southern Lower Saxony . The largest open-air theater in Lower Saxony is one of the most traditional festivals in Germany. Over 55,000 spectators visit the festival every year.

history

The cathedral festival is based on the celebrations for the 1100th anniversary of the Gandersheim Monastery . In 1952, the historical open-air play "Das Lied von Gandersheim" by Herta Sellschopp was staged by Eberhard Gieseler on the Gandersheim market square as part of a large festival week.

In the summer of 1959 the first cathedral festival in its current form took place in front of the Romanesque collegiate church under the legal sponsorship of the "Kulturwerk Bundesweihestätte Greene eV" in cooperation with the city of Bad Gandersheim .

Eberhard Gieseler staged Hugo von Hofmannsthal's Jedermann as the first director . In 1961 the Gandersheim Cathedral Festival became the legal entity of the city of Bad Gandersheim. Gieseler led the cathedral festival until 1964.

In the first decade the focus was on German classics, in the second decade comedies were added. The Man from La Mancha was the first musical to be played in front of the cathedral in 1978 and 1979. In 1978 and 1979 the drama "Pafnutius - The Conversion of the Buhlerin Thais" - written more than 1000 years ago by the Gandersheim canon Hrotsvit , was staged. The robber Hotzenplotz, based on the book by Otfried Preußler , was the first children's play in the Cathedral Festival's program in 1982.

From 1991 to 2003 Georg Immelmann was director of the Gandersheim Cathedral Festival. During his tenure he also ran the Musical Academy bad gandersheim from 2000 as a training measure for musical performers and from 1998 to 2002 also organized the winter cathedral festival in the Brunshausen cultural center.

Since 2004 Johannes Klaus has been artistic director. During his tenure, the repertoire was expanded to include opera ( Die Zauberflöte , 2004) and operetta ( Die Fledermaus , 2006). In its third season in 2006, four in-house productions were presented in front of the collegiate church for the first time: The Jungle Book , The Visit of the Old Lady , The Rocky Horror Show and Die Fledermaus. These productions were attended by around 55,000 viewers; the utilization was thus over 90%.

In 2007 four in-house productions were presented again: Orpheus in the Underworld , Petticoat and Mini Skirt, Michel from Lönneberga and Der zerbrochne Krug (with Dietmar Bär as village judge Adam).

In order to accompany and support the Gandersheim Cathedral Festival, the Gandersheim Cathedral Festival Association was founded in 2005 .

Due to the tight financial situation of the city, the cathedral festival was converted into a non-profit limited company in 2011, the "Gandersheimer Domfestspiele gGmbH".

In 2012 Christian Doll became director of the festival, his successor has been Achim Lenz since 2017 .

Prominent performers

In 1959 Gustav Fröhlich and Hilde Körber played in "Jedermann". Theo Lingen , Ernst H. Hilbich , René Kollo and Ralf Wolter were guests in Gandersheim for many seasons. Well-known actors from stage and television such as Anja Kruse , Erwin Kohlund , Ann-Katrin Lange, Harald Dietl , Friedhelm Ptok , Wolf Ackva , Jenny Gröllmann , Aljoscha Sebald , Karl John , Diana Körner , Johanna Liebeneiner , Günter Mack have also played in recent years , Gunnar Möller , Christian Quadflieg , Will Quadflieg , Anne Rieckhof , Heinrich Schweiger , Ellen Schwiers , Veit Stübner , Hubert Suschka , Hans Teuscher , Thekla Carola Wied , Claus Wilcke , Klaus Zmorek , Ingeborg Wolff and Jürgen Uter . Dorothee Hartinger , who started acting at the Festival in 1998, was then hired by Peter Stein for his Faust project as "Gretchen". In 2007, the two television actors Dietmar Bär and Stephan Ullrich played in Kleist's comedy Der zerbrochne Krug , which was repeated in 2008 due to its great success.

Roswitha ring

In memory of the poet Roswitha von Gandersheim, the city ​​of Bad Gandersheim has donated the Roswitha-Ring to an actress from the ensemble of the Gandersheim Cathedral Festival as an audience award since 1975 . The ring is an award for outstanding performance in the respective festival season. At the beginning, the prize was awarded by a jury; since 1998, the award has been an audience award based on the voting of festival visitors. Previous winners are:

Visits to incumbent federal presidents

Since 1973, almost without exception, the anniversary years of the Festival have been under the patronage of the incumbent Federal President. In 1973 it was Gustav Heinemann , who for the Roswitha year the XV. Gandersheim Cathedral Festival and at that time initiated the literature prize of the city of Bad Gandersheim, the Roswitha Memorial Medal , which has been awarded every year since then to an outstanding German-speaking poet.

For the XX. Cathedral Festival in 1978, Federal President Walter Scheel took over the patronage and in 1983 Federal President Karl Carstens hosted the XXV. Festival opened on the occasion of his visit. In 1988, Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker attended the premiere of the XXX. Cathedral Festival. In 1993 the President of the German Bundestag, Rita Süssmuth , took over the patronage. The 1998 festival was opened by Federal President Roman Herzog . Federal President Johannes Rau took over the patronage of the 45th Festival and was a guest on the premiere day.

In the 2012 season, Lower Saxony's Prime Minister David McAllister was the patron of the Gandersheim Cathedral Festival. In 2013 and 2014, Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Stephan Weil took over the patronage.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from August 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ http://www.dtoday.de/regionen/lokal-politik_artikel,-Gandersheimer-Domfestspiele-Ministerpraesident-Stephan-Weil-uebernehmen-erneut-Schirmherrschaft-_arid,316685.html

Coordinates: 51 ° 52 ′ 12.4 "  N , 10 ° 1 ′ 33.7"  E