Art and culture in North Rhine-Westphalia

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The promotion of art and culture in North Rhine-Westphalia is set out in the state constitution as a national goal. North Rhine-Westphalia has a large number of cultural workers simply due to the sheer number of inhabitants in the state . An estimated 30,000 artists live in North Rhine-Westphalia. Peter Paul Rubens , Ludwig van Beethoven and Joseph Beuys were born in what is now the country .

The art and culture scene in North Rhine-Westphalia is characterized by its diversity and polycentrism . Reasons for this are, among other things, the pronounced regional differences in the country in terms of culture and history , which did not allow the emergence of a monocentrically dominant metropolis or residential city. There are therefore important cultural institutions spread across the country. The working-class culture formed one of the roots for the transformation of the Ruhr area from a purely industrial region to a “cultural metropolis”, which continues to see its industrial culture as an important part of its cultural identity. In 2010 the Ruhr area was the European Capital of Culture .

Dusseldorf and Cologne are known as centers of art , national and international art trade as well as significant as locations art collections, including in Dusseldorf, the Art Collection of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Museum Kunst Palast in Cologne, the Art Gallery Wallraf-Richartz Museum and the Museum Ludwig . In Dortmund there is the Museum Ostwall in Wuppertal , the Von der Heydt Museum in Mönchengladbach , the Museum Abteiberg . Essen is the location of the Folkwang Museum . The Museum Mile in Bonn is home to the Bonn Art Museum and the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany, two of the most important art museums in the country. The Schauspielhaus Bochum and the Schauspiel Köln are among the most important theaters in Germany . The most famous opera houses are the Cologne Opera and the Deutsche Oper am Rhein . The Dortmund Theater is one of the large three-part houses in Germany. The Cologne Philharmonic is one of the most famous concert halls in the country. The best-known art universities are the Düsseldorf Art Academy , the Detmold University of Music and the Folkwang University of the Arts .

Düsseldorf acquired a special significance in the history of art as a place of artistic development. With the Gemäldegalerie Düsseldorf built by Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz from 1709 , one of the earliest independent museum buildings in Europe, the cornerstone of a development into an art metropolis was laid. Around 1762, gallery director Lambert Krahe established a drawing school there, which later became the Düsseldorf Art Academy . The concepts, artist and art movements emanating from Düsseldorf include, for example, the Düsseldorf School of Painting , the Sonderbund , The Young Rhineland , Capitalist Realism , ZERO , Fluxus , the Extended Concept of Art , Electropop or Synth-Pop by Kraftwerk and the Düsseldorf Photo School .

Museums and exhibitions

Tomb of Poblicius from Roman Cologne, reconstructed by Gundolf Precht , in the Roman-Germanic Museum

According to a survey by the Institute for Museum Research , North Rhine-Westphalia had a total of 683 generally accessible and not exclusively commercial museums in 2004, including 253 folklore and local history museums, 105 art museums, 43 natural history museums, 113 natural science and technical museums, 39 historical and archaeological museums as well as 100 cultural history specialty museums. The 528 museums that provided visitor statistics reported around 14.7 million visitors in 2004.

The most famous art museums in the state are the Bundeskunsthalle (Bonn), the Kunstmuseum Bonn , the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen (Düsseldorf), the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum (Cologne), the Museum Kunstpalast (Düsseldorf), the Museum Ostwall (Dortmund), the Museum Folkwang (Essen), Museum Ludwig (Cologne), Museum Abteiberg (Mönchengladbach), Kunsthalle Bielefeld , Von der Heydt Museum (Wuppertal) and MARTa Herford . Since the late 1960s, a large number of galleries have shaped Cologne's cultural landscape, making it one of the most important international art trading centers. In addition, art fairs Art Cologne and Cologne Fine Art take place annually in Cologne . The Viersen sculpture collection is an important sculpture collection .

One of the most popular museums is the House of History in Bonn on the history of the Federal Republic. Provide insight into the industrial history of North Rhine-Westphalia a. the German Mining Museum Bochum , the German Tobacco and Cigar Museum (Bünde) and the Westphalian Industrial Museum with eight locations and the Rhenish Industrial Museum with six locations. Numerous old installations of the coal and steel industry "along the route of industrial culture " can now be visited. Outstanding are the Duisburg-Nord Landscape Park , the Zeche Zollern in Dortmund and the Zeche Zollverein in Essen, on whose premises other museums, including the Red Dot Design Museum for industrial design, are housed. The three parts of the country also present their culture in other museums. These include the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn , the LVR-Freilichtmuseum Kommern , the LWL-Freilichtmuseen Detmold and Hagen , the LWL-Museum für Kunst und Kultur (Münster) and the Lippisches Landesmuseum (Detmold). The Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum (Paderborn) is one of the largest computer museums in the world, the Archaeological Open-Air Museum Oerlinghausen the "oldest German homestead" in the world. Most of the institutions listed in Bonn are grouped together in the Museum Mile , which also includes other museums, including a. the well-known Koenig natural history museum . The Aquazoo - Löbbecke Museum is located in Düsseldorf and the Neanderthal Museum , which deals with the evolution of humans, is located in the Neandertal just outside the city .

The Westphalian Roman Museum in Haltern , the Roman-Germanic Museum (Cologne) and the Xanten Archaeological Park provide information about Roman history . The Municipal Gustav-Lübcke-Museum Hamm exhibits one of the largest ancient Egyptian collections in Germany.

The German Football Museum was opened in 2015 as the official national football museum of the German Football Association (DFB) in Dortmund. It should be a living place of remembrance and experience of German football history. The focus is on information about historical football events and the development of the sport as well as social and societal issues related to football.

See also: List of museums in North Rhine-Westphalia , museum buildings in North Rhine-Westphalia

theatre

Monument to the popular Rhenish folk actor Willy Millowitsch in front of the Hänneschen Theater , which is also legendary in Cologne
The Neue Philharmonie Westfalen , one of the three regional orchestras , in the Cologne Philharmonic

The Schauspielhaus Bochum is one of the most renowned theaters for spoken theater in Germany. The Dortmund Theater is one of the large five-division houses . The Lippe State Theater Detmold is a three-part house and the largest touring theater in Europe. In addition, the opera houses in Cologne , Dortmund , Essen and Düsseldorf / Duisburg are among the best known of their kind in Germany. The Münster Municipal Theaters are one of the oldest municipal houses . The other regional theaters are the Rheinisches Landestheater in Neuss , the Westphalian State Theater in Castrop-Rauxel and the Landestheater Burghofbühne in Dinslaken. Smaller but very popular stages are, for example, the Düsseldorfer Kom (m) ödchen or the Hänneschen Theater in Cologne. There are also unusual venues such as the Balver Cave and the numerous open-air theaters . These include the Hohensyburg natural stage , the Bökendorf open-air stage and the Freudenberg open-air stage in South Westphalia . The Ruhrfestspiele are probably the most famous theater festivals in the country. With the Waldbühne Heessen in Hamm , Germany’s most popular amateur open-air theater is also located in North Rhine-Westphalia.

In addition to the ballets at the opera houses mentioned, there are numerous other dance ensembles. The Wuppertal dance theater is world-famous, under the direction of Pina Bausch until her death . In addition, there is a very active independent dance scene in North Rhine-Westphalia with more than 100 freelance choreographers and dance companies. Also worth mentioning are the Tanzhaus NRW (Düsseldorf) and the Choreographic Center NRW , which also hosts the Performing Arts Choreographic Center ( PACT Zollverein ) on the premises of the Zeche Zollverein in Essen. In addition to these two centers, there are also the medium-sized centers in Bonn with the theater in the ballroom / bread factory theater, Münster with the pump house and Mülheim an der Ruhr with the roundhouse.

The most famous commercial musical in the country is Starlight Express in Bochum .

music

Ludwig van Beethoven's homeland has three regional orchestras : the New Westphalia Philharmonic , the South Westphalia Philharmonic and the East Westphalian Northwest German Philharmonic . There are also a large number of independent ensembles and 15 municipal symphony orchestras . These include the Cologne Gürzenich Orchestra , the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn , the Dortmund Philharmonic and the Düsseldorf Symphony . The orchestras of the WDR (including the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne , the radio orchestra and the WDR Big Band ) are also well known. Big theaters are the already mentioned houses of the big theaters. In addition, the Tonhalle Düsseldorf , the Cologne Philharmonic , the Rudolf-Oetker-Halle in Bielefeld, the Beethovenhalle in Bonn, the Konzerthaus Dortmund and the Philharmonie Essen should be mentioned. The Viersen Festival Hall hosts the international Jazz Festival Viersen every year, the International Beethoven Festival in Bonn , the Moers Festival in Moers and the Witten Days for New Chamber Music in Witten . Popkomm took place in Cologne until 2003 .

The North Rhine-Westphalia Choir Association has more than 3,000 choirs with around 250,000 members. This also includes the state-wide and internationally active State Youth Choir North Rhine-Westphalia . Other well-known choirs are the Cologne Men's Singing Association , the Cologne Cathedral Choir and the Cologne Bach Association . The WDR also has its own choir, the WDR Rundfunkchor Köln . Countless music corps and marching bands are integrated into the carnival and rifle clubs. The tradition of the miners in the "area" includes the numerous Bergmann choirs .

The state finances the state music academies: the Detmold University of Music , the Robert Schumann University of Düsseldorf , the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, the Cologne University of Music and the Orchestra Center NRW in Dortmund.

In the field of pop music in the broader sense, the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan area is one of the four most important music locations in Germany alongside Berlin, Hamburg and Munich. Düsseldorf has a particularly successful and colorful music scene. So come Die Toten Hosen , the pioneers of electronic music Kraftwerk , the folk singer Heino and Marius Müller-Westernhagen from the state capital. Artists such as Herbert Grönemeyer, who comes from the Ruhr area, or Willi Ostermann , who is firmly anchored in Rhenish customs , the Bläck Fööss or the Höhner are important bearers of the regional identity of the respective region. From 2006 to 2010 the Technoparade Loveparade took place in the Ruhr area. The metropolitan area is also known for its extensive metal scene, such as Kreator .

Wind music is represented by the North Rhine-Westphalia Wind Music Association .

Other cultural events

With the economic structural change on the Rhine and Ruhr, the cultural scene in the core area of ​​the state also experienced an upswing. The Ruhr area and Essen presented itself in 2010 under the name RUHR.2010 as the first North Rhine-Westphalian city to be the European Capital of Culture . The Ruhr area as a cultural region also regularly presents itself at the Ruhr Festival and the Ruhr Triennale . The Lit.Cologne is a well-known literature festival . The International Short Film Festival in Oberhausen is also well known . Another ceremony is the North Rhine-Westphalia Day , also known as NRW Day for short. This biennial celebration on the occasion of the founding of the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia on August 23, 1946, takes place every year in a different city in North Rhine-Westphalia. In numerous North Rhine-Westphalian cities, poetry slams are also an integral part of the calendar of events, once a year the North Rhine-Westphalian Slam Championships ( NRW Slam ) take place in changing cities in front of sold out theaters .

See also

Web links

Commons : Culture of North Rhine-Westphalia  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ State Constitution of North Rhine-Westphalia. Article 18: "Culture, art and science are to be maintained and promoted by the state and communities."
  2. ↑ State government of North Rhine-Westphalia: Culture ( Memento of the original of July 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kultur.nrw.de
  3. ↑ State Office for Data Processing and Statistics NRW: Museums in NRW 2004 ( Memento of the original from April 29, 2007 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lds.nrw.de
  4. ↑ State government of North Rhine-Westphalia: Orchestra ( Memento of the original from December 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kultur.nrw.de
  5. ^ Ministry for Economy, Medium-Sized Enterprises and Energy NRW: Music Industry. North Rhine-Westphalia: "Mecca of live music" ( Memento of the original from April 4, 2008 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kreativwirtschaft.nrw.de

Coordinates: 51 ° 29 '  N , 7 ° 33'  E