VALUABLE: Priceless or irreplaceable? This is the motto chosen by the German Foundation for Monument Protection for this year's ‘Open Monument Day 2025’ on 14 September.

For over 30 years, this day has offered the opportunity to discover monuments that are otherwise inaccessible. This includes the Theater an der Ruhr.

Of course, every visitor can always enter the theatre hall, which was set up in the historic spa hotel building, with a theatre ticket for the Theater an der Ruhr. However, insights into the costume collection under the roof, the workshops in the basement, the stage itself and the other workrooms of the historic building are rarely available: for example, in this theatre tour!

Theatre art has been created for over 40 years in the historic monument of the old spa hotel at Raffelbergpark – a building complex dating from the early 20th century. Fleeting and transient, and far less monumental than large stone buildings, yet no less ‘valuable’. In our opinion, theatre arts, like stone monuments, must be affordable because they are irreplaceable: as important markers of our inner and outer maps, they shape us. On our guided tour of the building at Raffelbergpark on 14 September at 3 p.m., we will provide insights into both the history of the building itself and the workshops of the performing arts that have been in operation here for over 40 years.

The Theater an der Ruhr will also serve as a polling station on 14 September. In order not to disrupt the election, we will meet on the theatre forecourt in front of the glass entrance area to the foyer. We will have to climb stairs on our way through the building. Barrier-free access is possible to a limited extent upon registration info@theateranderruhr.de. read less