Culture@
Bertelsmann
Bertelsmann
In 2022, after two years of Covid, sold-out auditoriums and happy, relaxed faces in the audience testified to people’s yearning for unrestricted enjoyment of art and culture. Bertelsmann, too, is seeing this in the response to its cultural initiatives under the Culture@Bertelsmann umbrella. Whether at exhibitions, the literary format “Das Blaue Sofa/The Blue Sofa” or the “UFA Film Nights,” culture is once again becoming a true experience, live and in living color, with personal encounters and direct interactions.
Ricordi Archive Enhances Opera Exhibition with Loans
From September 2022, the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn attracted numerous fans of classical music theater to the city on the Rhine with the exhibition “Opera is dead – Long live opera!” It traces the creation and transformation process of opera as an art form, from the precursors of opera at the court of the Medici in Florence up to the present day. With almost 70 exhibits, the Archivio Storico Ricordi in Milan is the most important lender. The Bertelsmann-owned archive houses a wealth of unique testimonies from 200 years of Italian opera history. Some particularly expressive archival items were sent to Bonn, including a Giuseppe Verdi portrait by Leopoldo Metlicovitz, set designs for Puccini’s “Turandot” and costume designs for the Verdi operas “Aida” and “Falstaff.”
This was the second time Bertelsmann sent precious original documents and facsimiles from Milan to Germany. In Verdi Year 2013 – to mark the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth – the archive’s treasures were presented to the public for the first time as part of a European traveling exhibition.
ePhotographs “Opera is Dead – Long Live Opera!”
eInformation about the exhibition
This was the second time Bertelsmann sent precious original documents and facsimiles from Milan to Germany. In Verdi Year 2013 – to mark the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth – the archive’s treasures were presented to the public for the first time as part of a European traveling exhibition.
UFA Film Nights Whisk Viewers Away to South Tyrolean Mountainscapes
The dramatic conquest of a peak in the South Tyrolean Dolomites thrilled hundreds of viewers at the world premiere of “Der Berg des Schicksals” (Mountain of Destiny) in the UFA Pavilion on Berlin’s Nollendorfplatz in 1924. Spectacular nature shots, a love story, and the acting debut of mountaineering idol Luis Trenker ensured that the film was a sensation. A century later, at the 12th UFA Film Nights in Berlin, Bertelsmann and UFA proved that the first mountain film in the history of cinema has lost none of its appeal: around a thousand fans of silent film attended the festival’s opening on Museum Island to experience the open-air screening of the digitally restored original version of Arnold Fanck’s masterpiece. The evening ended with standing ovations.
“We can finally celebrate the UFA Film Nights as we did before the pandemic: with live audiences, masterpieces of early cinematic history, and now even with accompanying livestreams,” declared Thomas Rabe, Bertelsmann CEO. As a company with a long cinematic history of its own, Bertelsmann is keen to preserve the creative achievements of earlier generations – including their cinematic heritage. After the mountain adventure, audiences were treated to the silent films “Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler I” (Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler I) by Fritz Lang and “Die keusche Susanne” (Chaste Susanne) by Richard Eichberg on the subsequent evenings, each accompanied by specially composed live music.
Highlights of the Opening Night
“Mountain of Destiny“: The Making of a Restoration
“We can finally celebrate the UFA Film Nights as we did before the pandemic: with live audiences, masterpieces of early cinematic history, and now even with accompanying livestreams,” declared Thomas Rabe, Bertelsmann CEO. As a company with a long cinematic history of its own, Bertelsmann is keen to preserve the creative achievements of earlier generations – including their cinematic heritage. After the mountain adventure, audiences were treated to the silent films “Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler I” (Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler I) by Fritz Lang and “Die keusche Susanne” (Chaste Susanne) by Richard Eichberg on the subsequent evenings, each accompanied by specially composed live music.
Nobel Laureates and Hollywood on the Blue Sofa
A bright blue sofa and authors from across all genres presenting their latest works in lively conversation with presenters – for more than 20 years, this has been the recipe for success of the “Blue Sofa” literary format jointly organized by Bertelsmann, ZDF, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, and 3sat. In 2022, the sofa continued to offer the world of books a stage in various cities and at the major book fairs, where it reliably proves to be an audience magnet. Bertelsmann brought the “Blue Sofa” to Luxembourg for the first time in 2022. For the premiere, four award-winning authors from Luxembourg, Austria and Germany came to the Grand Duchy’s sold-out National Library. For Bertelsmann, the evening was also a gesture of friendship: the media group and Luxembourg share a long history of business and cultural relations.
At the reading festival ”Leipzig liest trotzdem” and the book fair in Frankfurt am Main, the big names of the literary scene, public favorites and newcomers take turns on the “Blue Sofa” every half hour. In Frankfurt alone, the sofa featured close to 80 guests, including Nobel laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah, Peace Prize winner Serhij Zhadan, Hollywood star Diane Kruger, and Donna Leon along with many other bestselling authors. At the end of the year, it was announced that Bertelsmann would assume sole responsibility for the “Blue Sofa” henceforth, thereby further underscoring its close ties to the creative community.
ePhotographs of “Blue Sofa” in Luxembourg
eThe authors in Luxembourg
eThe authors of the Frankfurt Book Fair
At the reading festival ”Leipzig liest trotzdem” and the book fair in Frankfurt am Main, the big names of the literary scene, public favorites and newcomers take turns on the “Blue Sofa” every half hour. In Frankfurt alone, the sofa featured close to 80 guests, including Nobel laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah, Peace Prize winner Serhij Zhadan, Hollywood star Diane Kruger, and Donna Leon along with many other bestselling authors. At the end of the year, it was announced that Bertelsmann would assume sole responsibility for the “Blue Sofa” henceforth, thereby further underscoring its close ties to the creative community.
Captivating Life Stories on the Blue Sofa Gütersloh
Bertelsmann brought the “Blue Sofa” literary format to Gütersloh twice in 2022, offering prominent authors from its own publishing groups a stage in the auditorium of the city’s theater. In March, singer and entertainer Roland Kaiser kicked things off by presenting his autobiography “Sonnenseite” (Sunny Side), published by Heyne, to the Gütersloh audience. In it, he looks back on his turbulent life while also presenting a piece of contemporary German history. In the sold-out theater hall, it quickly became clear that Roland Kaiser – one of Germany’s most successful and beloved artists – has a large fan base in Gütersloh as well.
Then, in October, the well-known presenter and journalist Pinar Atalay came to Gütersloh to present and read from her book “Schwimmen muss man selbst – Wie ich als Arbeiterkind den Weg ins deutsche Fernsehen fand” (“No One Can Swim It For You – How I Made My Way from the Working Class into German TV”) on the “Blue Sofa.” Her story, published by Penguin Verlag, tells of educational advancement and equal opportunities – and was very well received by the audience. For Bertelsmann, the “Blue Sofa Gütersloh” is an opportunity to contribute to cultural diversity in the region while also introducing people in the Group’s hometown to the company’s creative diversity.
eRoland Kaiser at “Blue Sofa Gütersloh” event
ePinar Atalay Talks About Her Life
