Excerpt - Berliner Festspiele

Das Buch 

Der 

Berliner 

Festspiele

Summary 

The first section ‘The Many Are One’ introduces all of the 

Berliner Festspiele’s programme series and their artistic work 

over the last ten years, the Haus der Berliner Festspiele and 

the Martin Gropius Bau in both words and pictures. 

In the second section ‘Continuities, Breaks, New Perspectives’, 

four essays highlight the political, social, artistic and 

philosophical background to the creation and transformation 

of the Berliner Festspiele, above all under the artistic direction 

of Joachim Sartorius 

After the first two sections look back and behind the scenes, 

Henning Wagenbreth’s comic XPRSS FSTVL takes a humorous 

and ironic view at the festival of the future. 

The last section of the Berliner Festspiele Book takes the 

form of a timeline including all Berliner Festspiele events 

from 2001 to 2011, contrasting the in depth essays and 

drawings with the sheer weight of everything which has 

been achieved during Joachim Sartorius’s tenure as Artistic 

Director. 

The MANy ARe ONe 

helga de la Motte-haber, Emeritus Professor of Musicology 

at the TU Berlin, describes in her article ‘Looking Back; 10 

years of MaerzMusik’ the special qualities of MaerzMusik as 

a contemporary music festival, analyses key performances 

since 2001 and uses her expert knowledge to place them in 

the context of the history of the avant garde. 

In ‘You can stand the Theatertreffen or are we sitting in a 

locked bus?’ writer Moritz Rinke paints an equally subjective 

and critical portrait of the Theatertreffen, questions how 

much reality it contains and comes to the conclusion that it’s 

just not possible to do without this show of strength from the 

German-speaking theatre. 

Music journalist and musician habakuk Traber uses a fine 

pen and a keen awareness of the social and political situation 

to sketch the historical development of the musikfest 

berlin in his contribution ‘The Art of Transition. From the 

Berliner Festwochen to the musikfest berlin’ assessing significant 

concerts since 2005 and the curatorial signature of its 

artistic director Winrich Hopp. 

Journalist Sabine Vogel reveals a wealth of anecdotes in 

her contribution ‘We had no idea how little we knew’ on 

the “classless literary society” which comes together every 

year at the international literature festival berlin. In ‘Not for 

the Moment’ Shelly Kupferberg describes the challenge of 

getting children – the most honest audience in the world – to 

show more interest in the world of books as part of the ilb’s 

children’s and young people’s literature programme. 

The journalist and writer Wolf Kampmann’s contribution 

‘JazzFest Berlin – an image of the swarm’, is a filmic journey 

in literary form to the JazzFest Berlin: the author approaches 

the Haus der Berliner Festspiele on a dull November evening 

from the perspective of a camera and allows the atmosphere 

of the JazzFest Berlin and a number of its most successful 

concerts from the past decade to be resurrected in front of 

our eyes. 

In ‘spielzeit´europa. Memories, Perspective, Insights’ former 

theatre director Nele hertling draws on her experience 

of presenting international theatre in Berlin to trace 

the developments which led to the evolution of the recent 

spielzeit´europa festival and recalls great theatrical moments 

from the Berliner Festspiele’s international dance and theatre 

season.

The author Khesrau Behroz, who was invited to the 2009 

Young Authors’ Meeting, describes in ‘You and Us. The 

Youth Competitions’ in a literary and poetic manner the thrill 

of suddenly being taken seriously as a writer as a young 

participant in the Youth Competitions while at the same time 

being confronted with the obligation and the opportunity to 

be a mature artist. 

In ‘Heroes of the Whole. The Berliner Lektionen’ lawyer and 

novelist heiko Michael hartmann praises the concentration 

on what is truly significant and the lack of obviousness which 

raises each of the Berliner Lektionen talks above the level 

of general chatter served up to us every day in talk shows, 

in politics and on the streets, making each of its ‘lecturers’ a 

‘hero’. 

In ‘Taxi! Take me to the Haus der Berliner Festspiele’ dramaturg 

henrik Adler describes a triple transformation, the 

difficult circumstances in 2001 under which what had been 

Freie Volksbühne theatre became the Haus der Berliner 

Festspiele, how the Berliner Festspiele have gradually begun 

to belong in the building and how following extensive renovation 

works it became a genuine festival house in 2011. 

Last but not least arts journalist and writer Peter von Becker 

paints a large-scale tableau of the martin Gropius Bau in 

‘The Museum as the largest Microscope in the World. A decade 

of the Festspiele at the Martin Gropius Bau’ , accounting 

for its location in direct proximity to so many key sites 

of the Third Reich and its rescue from demolition in 1981 as 

well as its legendary exhibitions, many of which have referenced 

this history. 

CONTiNuiTieS, BReAKS, NeW PeRSPeCTiVeS 

Michael Naumann, politician, editor of ‘Cicero’ magazine, and 

first Minister of State for Culture and the Media until the end 

of 2000, writes in ‘The Berliner Festspiele – a decade under 

Federal Government’ about the political and the personnel 

reasons for the Federal Government’s decision to fund the 

Berliner Festspiele fully from 2001, which was connected to 

its recent choice of Berlin as the new old German capital city. 

The Artistic Director sums up the last ten years of artistic 

work in ‘New Games. New Rules? A Look Back Into The 

Future.’ Joachim Sartorius reflects on his time as Artistic 

Director of the Berliner Festspiele, writes about restructuring 

the organization, taking over and founding new festivals, acquiring 

and renovating the Haus der Berliner Festspiele, and 

the achieved and unachieved goals during his time as Artistic 

Director. 

In her essay ‘Is Art a Weapon? The Berliner Festwochen 

as a special case of Ostpolitik.’ Journalist and writer Kerstin 

Decker reveals the political implications of many of the – 

apparently autonomously artistic – decisions in founding the 

Berliner Festwochen, its development and that of its ‘counterfestival’ 

in East Berlin, the Berliner Feststagen, and other 

stories from the cold war era which now seem highly bizarre. 

Finally in ‘Entertainment Through Art. Festivals from a 

Philosophical and Sociological Perspective’, philosopher and 

sociologist Sigbert Gebert offers an analysis of the anthropological 

roots of festivity, the historical creation of festive 

arts events and ultimately arts festivals devoted to a specific 

location such as the Berliner Festspiele were and are.

example from the ComiC Xprss Fstvl by henning Wagenbreth

the genealogy of berliner feStSpiele 

Die Berliner Festspiele 

ein taBleau 

»Das Fest der einheit« 

2. /3. Oktober 1990 

Fest zur »750-Jahr- 

Feier« Berlins 

1987 

»Das Neue Berlin« 

Mai 1999 bis 2001 

»Berliner Festwochen« 

aufgelöst 2003 

Internationales 

literaturfestival berlin 

Gegründet 2001 

seit 2005 unter dem Dach 

der Berliner Festspiele 

musikfest berlin 


Hervorgegangen aus »Berliner Festwochen« 

spielzeit’europa 


MaerzMusik 

Hervorgegangen aus 

»Musik-Biennale« 1991–2002, 

gegründet 1967 in Ost-Berlin 

1.–4. »internationale 

sommerfestspiele Berlin«. 

1978, 1979, 1980, 1981 

Theatertreffen 

Gegründet 1964 als 

»Berliner theaterwettbewerb« 

Martin-Gropius-Bau 

als ausstellungshaus 

wiedereröffnet 1981 

seit 2001 teil der 

Berliner Festspiele 

1.–3. »Metamusik-Festival« 

1974, 1976, 1978 

»Berliner Musiktage« 

1972 und 1980 

Berliner Lektionen 


anlässlich der 

»750-Jahr-Feier« Berlins 

1. Berliner FestWOcHen 1951 

5. bis 30. september 1951 

Fusion »Berliner Festspiele«, 

»Haus der Kulturen der Welt«, 

»internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin« 

zur »Kulturveranstaltungen des Bundes 

in Berlin GmbH«, 2002 

Treffen Junger Autoren 


Treffen Junge Musik-Szene 


»treffen Junger liedermacher« 

JazzFest Berlin 


»Jazztage Berlin« 

Theatertreffen der Jugend 


»schülertheatertreffen« 

»internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin« 

(Berlinale) 

seit 2002 eigenständige institution 

»Haus der Kulturen der Welt« 


eigenständige institution 

»topographie des terrors«, 

ausstellung 1987 

Weitergeführt als 

eigenständige institution 

»Horizonte – Festival 

der Weltkulturen« 

Gegründet 1979, 

weitere ausgaben 

1982, 1985, 1989 

1. Berliner FilMFestspiele 1951 

6. bis 17. Juni 1951

Excerpt - Berliner Festspiele

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?