The Waldbühne Heessen (full name Westfälische Freilichtspiele e.V. Waldbühne Heessen) in Hamm in Westphalia is one of the most popular amateur open-air stages in Germany, whose stage construction is located in the district of Heessen. The first chairman and managing director of the Westfälische Freilichtspiele e.V. is Ingeborg Hesse. The current Lord Mayor of Hamm Thomas Hunsteger-Petermann is the 2nd Chairman. The Waldbühne Heessen is one of the founding members of the Verband Deutscher Freilichtbühnen.
The foundation took place on July 7, 1924 at the instigation of brothers Anton and August Funke together with Eberhard Rörig in the castle courtyard of Castle Oberwerries in Heessen. A crowd of about 100 people called first after the venue Naturtheater Oberwerries.
After the venue soon became too small for the performances, a separate property was acquired. On this first a wooden grandstand was created. The auditorium now seated 2,000 people and was inaugurated with the play "Josef und seine Brüder" in 1928. At the same time, the name was changed to the new venue, the Heessener Wald, and was now Westphalian Heimatspiele - Waldbühne Heessen Expansion of the grandstand by side buildings needed, after the expansion it took 3,000 spectators.At the beginning of the 1930s, the attendance increased to up to 85,000 visitors a year.
In 1946, they had decided to play theater again, but the facilities of the Waldbühne had become unplayable by the bombing. For this reason, the game crowd began by performing pieces in halls in the area. In 1949, the season "Freilermann-Theater" was again played for the first time in the Heessener Schlosshof with the play "Jedermann". The following season 1950 turned out in favor of the reconstruction of the Waldbühne. In 1951, the "Maid of Orleans" played again in front of a provisionally erected tribune in the Heessen Forest. The number of spectators rose in the wake of the mid-1950s back to 56,000, but then broke in and stabilized only at the end of the 1960s at a low level between 20,000 and 26,000 spectators per year.