Festival Balver Höhle
The Balver Höhle Festival , a cultural institution in the Balver Sauerland , is based on the “Balver Höhlenspiele” at the time of the youth movement . In the year the Sauerland Heimatbund was founded (1922), Franz Hoffmeister and Theodor Pröpper launched the cave games. They were expressly designed as "amateur games".
After a break of 25 years, the tradition was resumed with the founding of the Festspiele Balver Höhle association in 1985. With the Balver Cave as the venue, the games have a geological peculiarity. The term "culture cave", originally attributed to the important archaeological finds in the Balver cave, is now used more figuratively.
history
1922 to 1928 (first period)
The Balver Höhle was first used as a performance location for amateur plays on the occasion of the founding event of the Sauerland Heimatbund in Balve in 1922. The Redentiner Easter Play was performed by Franz Hoffmeister. The performers were the actors of the amateur drama band of Home Guard Balve. This was followed in the following years by the amateur games Elmar based on Friedrich Wilhelm Weber's Dreizehnlinden , The Sacrifice - Mysterienspiel by Ludwig Nüdling , Eva - a game about dying by Ludwig Nüdling, Jung Siegfried - a game from German mythology.
In 1928 he created The Dancer of Our Lady , a legendary play by Franz Johannes Weinrich , and The Battle of Birkenfeld by Leo Weismantel .
1947 to 1958 (second period)
In 1947 the Balver Cave (code name ´Krone´), which was used as an armaments factory during World War II, was saved from the planned demolition by the British military government. The Balver Heimwacht plans to revive the cave games . On January 25, 1949, the founding event of the community Balver Höhlenspiele , an association for the care of ideal and cultural values. The statutes stipulated that only stage plays that have artistic value, do not contradict the Christian spirit and are suitable to act as a formative force on the audience and the players . Hermann Wedekind's first participation took place in a meeting on February 6, 1949 in Balve.
In 1949 Das Balver Zeitwendspiel was created , a mystery game by Theodor Pröpper . 18,000 spectators attended this production by Hermann Wedekind with 250 participants. The Great World Theater followed in 1950, also staged by Hermann Wedekind, with an audience of 13,000.
In 1950 with the Ninth of Beethoven for the first time a performance at the Balve cave under GMD Hans Herwig . Further concerts followed with works by Anton Bruckner , Verdi , Johannes Brahms , Edvard Grieg , Pfitzner and Richard Wagner , as well as a total of 100 performances under the direction of GMD Franz Herwig. 1951 followed Lucifer of Karl Wagenfeld in Low German. Theodor Pröpper plays the main role in the production by Hermann Wedekind, who is now the artistic director of the Munster Municipal Theaters (4000 spectators). In the same year a symphony concert followed under GMD Hans Herwig with works by Bruckner, Beethoven and Grieg.
In 1952, Murder in the Cathedral by TS Eliot and in 1956: Maria Stuart by Friedrich Schiller and Die schehrten Frauen von Molière were performed as guest performances by the Münster municipal theaters, staged by Hermann Wedekind.
Other performances were Bruckner's fourth and eighth symphony, Beethoven's Ninth, the Requiem of Verdi , Beethoven's Egmont Overture, the Peer Gynt Suite and Huldigungsmarsch of Edvard Grieg . In addition to preludes to Hans Pfitzner's stage legend ´ Palestrina ´ and the Meistersinger prelude by Richard Wagner , the cave was used for many instrumental and choral concerts by regional clubs.
According to the plans at the time, the Balver Cave was to serve as the cultural center of a wide landscape area and foster home for dramatic and musical art , paying special attention to the work of Anton Bruckner. The second period ended with the death of Hans Herwig in 1958.
1984 to 1999 (third period)
In 1984, in the tradition of amateur play, Katharina von Georgien by Andreas Gryphius was performed (German premiere on September 15, 1984, further performances on September 16, 1984, September 22, 1984, September 23, 1984), clearly edited and performed by Hermann Wedekind from the Balver Höhlenspielgemeinschaft, an ensemble consisting mainly of amateur actors with the participation of personal friends of Hermann Wedekind, choirs and orchestras from home and the Stockach youth wind orchestra , at that time still Stockach youth costume orchestra . 1800 spectators followed the performances.
The foundation of the non-profit association “Festspiele Balver Höhle” followed on January 27, 1985 in Volkringhausen . The association sees its purpose in promoting artistic and cultural events that unite peoples, which it wants to realize in particular through the care of songs, choral singing and theater literature. The respective annual program is approved by the general assembly in accordance with the statutes. The upbringing of young people in the sense of the association is laid down in the statutes. According to the statutes, party political, racist and denominational endeavors of the association are excluded. The members do not receive any benefits from the association's funds.
In the following years the artistic director Hermann Wedekind succeeded in engaging well-known ensembles and artists and an international cultural exchange was established in Balve under the motto "Art knows no borders", sponsored by the long-term patron, the former Federal President Johannes Rau and other friends Hermann Wedekinds from politics like Oskar Lafontaine . In addition to the events in the Balver Höhle, there were repeated concert evenings in the house of the Allhoff-Cramer family and other artistic performances as part of the festival, as well as guest performances by the company's own ensemble in various locations in Germany and also in other European countries.
From 1988 to 1991 an architecture firm from Essen developed a comprehensive concept for the Balver Cave, which included all relevant associations in the city and the administration. The concept was not implemented.
In 1991, initially in partnership with the cultural office of the city of Balve, the series "Balver Märchenwochen" was founded with the fairy tale Snow White and Rose Red . The children's theater developed into a permanent repertoire of the festival in the following years.
Mid-1990s, the club took over, among other things, the responsibility for spiritual concerts, the "International Jazz and Blues Festival" and in joint ownership with the city and the Märkischer circle symphony concerts. These events were previously planned and carried out by the city's cultural office.
At the annual general meeting on January 27, 1995, Agatha Allhoff-Cramer was appointed honorary chairman . In September 1997 the cantata Tu es Petrus was premiered by Theodor Pröpper in the Balver Höhle.
Since 2000 (end of the Board of Trustees)
The current period of the festival began in 2000 with the end of the board of trustees and the associated new version of the association's statutes. Increasingly rising operating costs and requirements on the part of the authorities, additional tax burdens due to, for example, the foreigner tax made the commitment more difficult.
In 2002 the city granted the association an unlimited right to use the cave, which had previously been extended annually.
The new version of the statutes took place in January 2015. In order to reach a larger audience, the Balver Höhle Festival began to restructure the program in 2014. Three musicals directed by Anke Lux and the musical direction by Michael Wiehagen were planned and staged for 2015. In August 2014 the Festival founded its own choir. The festival choir organizes its own concerts and participates in its own productions.
The CDU politician Wolfgang Bosbach has been the patron of the festival since 2016 . The former Garbeck secondary school teacher Ulrike Mertens has acted as chairwoman since December 2017, who resigned her office on July 6, 2018 with immediate effect.
founder
Artistic director
Second period
- Hermann Wedekind
- Hans Herwig (music director)
Third period
- Hermann Wedekind
- Alfred Gardener
- Jochen Zoerner-Erb
- Werner Traud (until December 11, 2007)
Artist
As part of the Balver Höhle Festival, national and international artists were hired for the Balver Höhle. These included Heiner Goebbels (1987), Alfred Harth (1987), Markus Stockhausen (1995), Justus Frantz (most recently 2007), Christian Bollmann (most recently 1999), Pee Wee Bluesgang (most recently 2002), Scala & Kolacny Brothers (2005 ) and the Höhner (2007).
Sound carrier
- Ensemble of the Balver Höhle Festival, Robin Hood - An adventure with music, songs from the theater performances from 1995
- Joachim Ernst-Behrendt's sound spaces, recorded live in the Balver Höhle by the WDR, distributed by Zweiausendundeins Versand, order no. 72,081
- Ensemble of the Balver Höhle Festival, Peter Pan, songs from the theater performances from 1997, BMB Enterprises, catalog no. 58089012
- Theodor Pröpper , Tu es Petrus, recording of the world premiere from 1997 in the Balver Cave,
- Ensemble of the Balver Höhle Festival, Fantastic Journey to Captain Nemo, songs from the theater performances from 1999, mpc records, catalog no. 58802003
- Ensemble of the festival Balver Höhle, Beauty and the Beast, songs from the theater performances from 2002, 25cent records
- Ensemble of the Festival Balver Höhle, Pinocchio, songs from the theater performances from 2003, music: Julius Czwakiel, lyrics: Liana Rückstuhl
- 5. Irish-Folk and Celtic Music, live DVD, recording from 2006
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Theodor Pröpper: The Balver cave games. In: Balve. Book of the becoming and being of the city. Unchanged reprint of the book published in 1930. 2nd edition 1993. Zimmermann-Druck Balve.
- ↑ Civic engagement in North Rhine-Westphalia - Chapter 4.4 p. 158, Appendix 1 (14) p. 139 - (pdf) ( Memento of the original dated November 15, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked . Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ North Rhine-Westphalia Foundation for Nature Conservation, Heritage and Cultural Preservation
- ↑ come-on.de: Ulrike Mertens is the new chairwoman of the Balver Höhle Festival Association , accessed on December 23, 2017
- ↑ Iserlohner Kreisanzeiger from 7 July 2018
Coordinates: 51 ° 20 ′ 21 ″ N , 7 ° 52 ′ 19 ″ E