Arts and culture

Volksbühne Berlin Enlarge image The festival cinema: Berliner Volksbühne (© Berlin Picture Gate) Land of the poets and thinkers that is a widely held image of the land of Goethe and Schiller. But more literary names like Thomas Mann, Guenter Grass, Heinrich Boell, Christa Wolf, Bernhard Schlink, and also famous children authors like Cornelia Funke and Michael Ende spring to mind. The musical reputation is still based more on works of Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, Händel, Richard Strauss and Stockhausen, but increasingly more German musicians are on the rise to international fame.

There are many sides to cultural life in Germany: over 600 museums with diverse collections, a variety of over 400 theatres and about 140 professional orchestras. Old and new, traditional and modern trends share the cultural scene in the country: German cinema gets more confident with recent successes, German painters and photographers ar enjoying international success. Fashion and design made in Germany are popular.

Participants during the 2011 BTC

African Talents head to Berlin for renown film training program

This year marks the 10th Berlinale Talent Campus. It will take place from February 11 – 16, 2012 during the acclaimed Berlin International Film Festival.  Out of the 350 participants, 18 come from eight countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The Talent Campus offers this new generation of film-makers a prominent programme featuring many Berlinale guests and international experts.

Carl Woebcken (L) and Christoph Fisser, CEO and chairman of Studio Babelsberg AG, pose with a poster of the film 'Inglorious Basterds' by director Quentin Tarantino

Studio Babelsberg, successor of the Ufa dream factory, is reconnecting with the good old days

"You can find support for blockbuster productions anywhere in the world, of course, but we particularly liked Babelsberg and Berlin,” says Joel Silver. “Studio Babelsberg has developed into one of the most important film centres in Europe,” says Lloyd Phillips. “Few other countries can offer the same possibilities.”

Seeed

Crossover diversity - Germany's music scene

The German pop music landscape is more colourful than it has ever been before. Multicultural sounds have been reaching the top of the charts for a while now. The artists’ biographies and different genres reflect the country’s social diversity.

Berlin's Tresor ("Safe"): Birthplace of German techno and Berlin's club scene

Berlin: World capital of international club culture

Berlin techno culture was born with the fall of the Wall. Reunification took place in empty cellars where teenagers from the West and the East confronted one another in a flush of strobe lights and electronic rhythms. 20 years later Berlin has become the world capital of club culture.

Modenschau, Berliner Fashion Week

Fashion in Germany

On international catwalks and in famous fashion houses "high fashion made in Germany" is now a regular feature. The designers responsible for the collections of major French and Italian labels include not a few Germans.

Supremely Imaginative

She is Germany’s most successful writer of children’s books: millions of young readers all over the world enjoy Cornelia Funke’s magical worlds.

Arts and Culture

“Music is the most powerful source of inspiration”

Durban born Daniel Hope

The seats are always sold out for his performances: Daniel Hope, the violinist who was born in South Africa ranks among the most successful soloists and most sought-after classical music stars. In an interview he talks about the modernity of Bach, encounters between rock and Baroque, and the power of music.

Musical journey through time

Musical journey through Germany

From Bach to Lena: a brief musical journey through four centuries spotlights seminal moments.

New Home for Modern Masters

From left, museum director Hartwig Fischer and architect David Chipperfield at an opening event © picture-alliance / Sven Simon

With its clear lines, brightness and transparency, the architecture of the new Museum Folkwang in Essen adds a brilliant highlight to the museum landscape of the Ruhr District at the beginning of the European Capital of Culture Ruhr 2010. In just two years British star architect David Chipperfield designed a new home for the internationally renowned art collection of one of the most important German museums, which is opening to visitors for the first time this weekend (30/31 January).

The New Lightness and Freedom of German Literature

German literature: changing with the times

Too intellectual, too complex, too introspective: often German-language literature was not rated very highly by domestic readers. But the times are changing. Felicitas von Lovenberg, literary critic with the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung takes a look at German literature “reloaded”.