Ruhrfestspielhaus

In the winter of 1946–47 coal from the Recklinghausen pits kept the Hamburg theatres heated; the following summer Hamburg's actors travelled to the coalfield and played for the miners in return. Out of that exchange came the Ruhrfestspiele, and eventually a house to hold them. A competition of 1956, chaired by Otto Bartning, went to the local practice of Felix Ganteführer and Fritz Hannes; building ran from 1960, and the first performance in the new Ruhrfestspielhaus was given on 11 June 1965. Between 1996 and 1998 Auer Weber rebuilt it for a wider range of use, work that took the German Architecture Prize in 2001. The hill above the town still carries the festival every May.