Right, back again - with hangover but hey
The Theaterring was a constituent part of the cultural programme for the Hitler Youth called '
Veranstaltungsring der Hitler-Jugend'. The Veranstaltungsring was
introduced Reich-wide in 1938 although it had already been running prior to that in certain HJ Gebiete
. I posted a little about it
here and
here.
The purpose of the Theaterring was to:
Engage the youth in the arts at affordable prices
To increase attendances at theatres and to guarantee 'bums on seats'.
There would appear to have been no 'standard' membership card for the Theatre Ring. The regulation does show a suggested format but states that it was left to the discretion of the individual HJ Gebiete to produce the cards as required so there may be quite a few different types out there.
Theaterring
The plan was that Theatre Rings would be created in all towns/cities with theatres with the aim of promoting regular attendance and therefore regular income for the theatres and also to engage the youth in the arts and therefore in German culture. Ideally The ring size would match the number of seats in the theatre.
The RJF made suggestions for appropriate theatre productions in line with its cultural programme and these were then discussed locally by the theatre management, the head of the local HJ cultural office and a representative from the Veranstaltungsring der HJ. Once a programme had been decided upon, the local Veranstaltungsring committed itself to a certain number of productions. The RJF suggested that this number should be between 4 and 6 with particular emphasis being placed on plays - for example: the Veranstaltungsring commits to 6 productions. Of these, 4 would be plays and the remaining two would be operas. Ticket prices were to be between 0,50 RM and 0,75 RM.