Et may have been forgotten a bit, but historically the Ruhrfestspiele are the result of an energy crisis triggered by war and a cold snap. In the winter of 1946/47, one of the coldest of the entire twentieth century, the Hamburg theaters were about to close because the theaters could no longer be heated for lack of coal. While the Archbishop of Cologne, Joseph Cardinal Frings, justified the theft of mouth and coal in his New Year’s sermon, which is why the term “Fringsen” became commonplace for both activities, Otto Burrmeister, the then administrative director of the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, drove together with some colleagues to the Ruhr area, which had been destroyed by the war .
With two trucks that were operated with wood gasifiers, they ended up at the Ludwig colliery in Recklinghausen, where they asked the miners for help. The miners quickly loaded the trucks with coal and then smuggled the theater people past the occupying power’s controls several times before the British military police finally put an end to the solidarity activities.
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