Arts and culture
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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.
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.
Berlinale Talent Campus 10
"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.”
Babelsberg is on a Roll
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.
Crossover diversity - Germany's music scene
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.
Berlin's clubs
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.
Fashion in Germany