Haus der Berliner Festspiele

– © Kai Bienert

Haus der Berliner Festspiele – © Burkhard Peter

Haus der Berliner Festspiele – © Christian Riis Ruggaber

In the island state of West Berlin, with the Berliner Festspiele, an institution was grounded that with its “window of the West” brought forth an artistic and cultural exchange between East and West. As a contemporary festival, the Berliner Festspiele understood how to consciously and in tune with the times, bring the latest artistic trends out of the entire world into the closed off city.

With the starting of the orchestra festival under the Berliner festival-weeks, the 1951 cultural bridgings had begun; the festival activities soon expanded into diverse exhibitions end events. International artists out of the areas of theatre, dance, and music found a platform here to put forth their latest productions about genre and country borders.

To the now renowned events and exhibitions belong the MaerzMusik—Festival for New Music, the Berliner Theatertreffen in May, the Musikfest in September, the Jazzfest in November, and the new international festival for theatre and performative arts, "Foreign Affairs".

Beyond that, directed towards the youth, there is the Theatertreffen der Jugend (May/June), the Treffen Junge Musik-Szene and the Treffen Junger Autoren (both in November). Outside of the festivals, in the Martin-Gropius-Bau, the Berliner Festspiele mount year-round special exhibitions on archaeological and cultural history themes, modern art, and photography.

Since 2001, the Berliner Festspiele now have a permanent home with their Haus der Berliner Festspiele in the Schaperstraße in Berlin-Wilmersdorf. By 1963, a majority of the festival’s events had begun to take place in the building of the “Theater der Freien Volksbühne”. In 2010/2011, the house designed after the plans of architect Fritz Bornemann have been renovated and its stage machinery brought up to date, in 2012 Dr. Thomas Oberender became the artistic director of the Berliner Festspiele.