Dortmund apprentice theater
The Dortmund apprentice theater existed from 1970 to 1984 and, as a traveling theater, played self-written pieces that dealt with the working world of adolescents and young adults. Originally founded as a politically ambitious Theater Dortmund initiative around the student Kurt Eichler , the initiative developed into one of the best-known apprentice theaters in the Federal Republic of Germany within a few years. As a social phenomenon, it belongs to the apprenticeship movement of the 1970s . It is also one of the first free theaters in the Ruhr area .
Pieces
The Dortmund apprentice theater produced a total of eight pieces of its own, plus the participation in the revues Vorwärts and not forgetting the Kultur Kooperative Ruhr 1976/1977 and colleague, grab it! the IG metal 1980/81.
The big shit
The first piece deals with the development of the school leaver Erwin to become a critical apprentice, who learns that conditions can only be changed through solidarity of all apprentices. It was premiered on January 29, 1972 in the Freizeitzentrum West; the last of twenty performances took place on September 15, 1975 in the Fritz-Henßler-Haus .
Class struggle!
Using the example of the Works Constitution Act as amended in 1972 and its implementation in the everyday life of a company, the play brings the message to the stage that the state and entrepreneurs work hand in hand to “oppress the great majority of the working population”. Between December 7, 1972 and June 26, 1973, the play, which consists of five scenes and a prelude and an episode, was performed seven times.
May 1, 1929
The historical May 1 play based on the novel Barricades am Wedding by Klaus Neukrantz was only performed once, on April 27, 1973 in the Freizeitzentrum West.
All wheels stand still
On October 9, 1973, the Dortmund apprentice theater performed this play for the first time at an event organized by the Dortmund Adult Education Center, the official premiere also took place in Dortmund on November 29, 1973. It was the theater's first play to enjoy sustained public success: 41 performances between October 1973 and December 1974 (as well as two performances of the play in 1975) demonstrate intense demand. The piece was the most extensive and lyrically intensely elaborated to date. Following the example of a family story, it tells the story of a spontaneous, successfully ended strike at Huch AG (an allusion to Hoesch AG in Dortmund ). The title quotes a well-known line from the federal song for the General German Workers' Association .
That leaves the boss with no spit
Since December 1974 the Dortmund apprentice theater has played this piece. The premiere took place on December 3rd in the Fritz-Henßler-Haus and after a total of nearly eighty performances it was seen for the last time on June 9th, 1977 in the Haus der Jugend in Witten. It was the group's most frequently played piece. The first division of the material into two story lines reflects the different interest groups at the Dortmund apprentice theater: on the one hand the company-union committed "older" members, on the other hand the "younger" who were involved in the emerging youth center movement. With a strike, trainees defend themselves against a controversial training level model; But that remains a partial success because the company on strike, Huch AG, will employ fewer trainees in the future.
We are hiring
The piece "sees itself as a contribution to the discussion on the union demand for real working hours to be reduced with full wage compensation to reduce unemployment". Between 1977 and 1978 it was performed a total of 41 times. In the twelve scenes, the connections between unemployment (among young people), short-time work and overtime are the central theme.
Years of apprenticeship - in short supply
“Years of apprenticeship - in short supply” is once again playing in the Huch metal works and is a “continuation” of Wir sind ein . The eleven scenes in the play deal with actual or threatened unemployment among young people and the (successful) joint struggle between young people, works council and trade union to prevent injustices in the company and to secure jobs. Between 1978 and 1980 the piece was played 40 times, also twice in 1981 and once in 1982.
How do you get on the narrow board?
It was the last piece and was played from May 1981. The performance of the play at the Festival of the Free Dortmund Theater Groups on June 14, 1984 was also the last appearance of the Dortmund apprentice theater with a complete play. A clique of young people divides society into people with and without a job. Current reference were the demonstrations under the motto “Steelworks Now”, with which steel workers and the population fought for the preservation of Dortmund as a steel location since autumn 1980.
Performance practice
The local reference point of the group has always been Dortmund , but it has by no means limited itself to the city, but has developed an ever larger catchment area over time. With increasing coverage in the regional and national press and some appearances on radio and television, the group also became known beyond Dortmund.
Since it did not have its own stage, it performed as a "traveling theater" in the rooms provided by the organizer. The organizers were mainly local youth centers and youth welfare offices, adult education centers, youth associations, political parties and trade unions. The theater has also performed several times at (youth) theater festivals.
The performances of a piece differed depending on the actors involved and the "form of the day". The written piece texts developed and discussed jointly by the group formed the framework on which the actors moved; the spoken text, on the other hand, was not free from the actors' spontaneous associations. The demands on the “stage” and the props were minimal. Characteristic in the first few years were a red and a white curtain, a number of empty beer crates, which, depending on the requirements, represented tables, chairs and other pieces of furniture, later a screen was added onto which the “stage sets” were projected via a slide. The portrayal of the figures was usually quite striking: the entrepreneur wore a suit and hat, the workers overalls, and the employment office advisor wore thick glasses.
Members
The Dortmund apprentice theater had between ten and 30 members with relatively large fluctuations. According to personal interests and the different life and career plans, some were only active for a few months, others worked in the group for many years.
Lore
Kurt Eichler handed over the archive of the Dortmund apprentice theater to the Dortmund Fritz-Hüser-Institute for literature and culture in the world of work. In many independent theaters, the precarious economic situation, the high fluctuation of the participants and the mostly lack of connection to an archive carrier have meant that the privately stored documents are not accessible to the public or have already been destroyed. The archive of the Dortmund apprentice theater in the Fritz Hüser Institute documents and therefore represents an essential aspect of (free) German theater history.
literature
- Horst Hensel: mouthpiece of the exploited . In: Deutsche Volkszeitung , October 17, 1974.
- Initiative Theater Dortmund / Dortmund Apprentice Theater : Red Theater in the Coal Pot. An experience report. Self-published in 1974.
- Angela Wagner: Show what's going on. Amateur youth theater in the Ruhr area: Ten years of initiative Theater Dortmund / Dortmunder apprentice theater (1970/71 - 1980/81) . Master's thesis in empirical cultural studies at the University of Tübingen (supervisor: Herbert Bausinger) 1982 (usable at the Fritz-Hüser-Institute for literature and culture in the world of work, Dortmund).
- Volker Zaib: Archives of literary associations and initiatives in the inventory structure of a literature archive. The holdings of Initiative Theater Dortmund / Dortmunder Apprentice Theater in the Fritz-Hüser-Institute for Literature and Culture of the Working World . Diploma thesis at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam (supervisors: Karin Schwarz / Hanneliese Palm) 2010 (usable at the Fritz-Hüser-Institute for Literature and Culture of the Working World , Dortmund).
- Volker Zaib: "Red Theater in the Coal Pot". The Dortmund apprentice theater and its plays on the working world of young people (1970–1984) . In: Literature in Westphalia. Contributions to research , Vol. 12, 2012, pp. 127–159.
swell
Original documents from the Dortmund apprentice theater and archival finding aid in the Fritz Hüser Institute for Literature and Culture in the Dortmund Working Environment.