5 January 2024

Jürgen Flimm – Mit Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben
Book premiere and archive presentation

Friday, 12 January 2024, 7:30 pm, Akademie der Künste, Pariser Platz

On Friday, 12 January 2024, the Akademie der Künste, together with the publishing house Kiepenheuer & Witsch, will present the memoirs of opera director and artistic director Jürgen Flimm, who died on 4 February 2023. The memoirs will be published on 11 January. At the same time, his archive, which he bequeathed to the Akademie der Künste while he was still alive, will be presented to the public for the first time. A welcome will be given by Nele Hertling, Director of the Performing Arts Section, Helge Malchow, editor-at-large at Kiepenheuer & Witsch, and Director of the Archives Werner Heegewaldt. Sven-Eric Bechtolf, Meike Droste and Stefan Kurt will read from the memoirs. Michael Naumann, former Minister of State and founding rector of the Barenboim-Said Akademie, will speak with director Andrea Breth, actor and director Sven-Eric Bechtolf and Dietmar Schwarz, Intendant of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, about their recollections of Jürgen Flimm. Musical accompaniment will be performed by members of the Staatskapelle Berlin.

Jürgen Flimm, Akademie member since 1990, set artistic standards as a theatre director and as an opera director worldwide, formed ensembles as an artistic director and welded stars together into collectives as a festival director. He made unforgettable stage events possible and ensured the future of his art through his numerous public functions. His archive at the Akademie der Künste bears witness to this as well. With great love for theatre and opera, for those who work for and in it, for dramas, texts and music, and in a decidedly subjective manner, his memoirs tell of how he became what he was, and how he succeeded in what he did – always calling conventions into question, moved by what is socially challenging and inspired by a deep trust in art.

Jürgen Flimm, born in 1941 in Giessen and raised in Cologne, where he studied, began his career in 1968 as assistant at the Munich Kammerspiele under Hans Schweikart, Claus Peymann, Otto Schenk and others. As a stage director in the 1970s, he made a name for himself with his work at the Thalia Theater and the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg as well as at the Munich Residenztheater and other theatre houses. His lifelong role as a theatre director began as artistic director at Schauspiel Köln (1979–1985). He subsequently served for 15 years as artistic director of the Thalia Theater Hamburg (1985–2000), where he successfully brought his work as a stage director to the fore, earning numerous awards in the process. Since his debut of Nono’s Al gran sole carico d’amore in Frankfurt in 1978, he has staged operas at the world’s leading opera houses, working with conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Nikolaus Harnoncourt and James Levine. He was stage director (2002–2004) and artistic director (2007–2010) of the Salzburg Festival, general manager of the RuhrTriennale (2005–2008), and served as intendant of the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden from 2010 to 2018. Shortly before his death, Jürgen Flimm bequeathed his extensive archive to the Akademie der Künste.

Event information
Jürgen Flimm – Mit Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben
Book premiere and archive presentation
Friday 12 January 2024, 7:30 pm, admission €6/4
Akademie der Künste, Pariser Platz 4, 10117 Berlin
Welcome: Nele Hertling, Helge Malchow, Werner Heegewaldt
Readings: Sven-Eric Bechtolf, Meike Droste, Stefan Kurt
Talks: Michael Naumann speaks with Andrea Breth, Sven-Eric Bechtolf and Dietmar Schwarz
With music performed by the Staatskapelle Berlin
Cooperation: Verlag Kiepenheuer & Witsch publishing house

Press tickets available at presse@adk.de, Tel. 030 200 57-1514

Publication
Jürgen Flimm: Mit Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben. Erinnerungen
With a foreword by Sven-Eric Bechtolf. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne, 2024. 352 pages, 70 illustrations, ISBN 978-3462054804, €26
Press contact publisher and review copies:
Claudia Barczewski, cbarczewski@kiwi-verlag.de, Tel. 0221-376-85-19