Wednesday 12 March 2008 | 11:00 hrsOrganizerStiftung Preu&szlig;ische Schl&ouml;sser und G&auml;rten Berlin-Brandenburg in cooperation with the Hermitage Museum St. Petersburg and the Federal Museum Reservation Peterhof.Supported by the <cms_link linktemplate="externalLink_st_domeditor_1" type="genericLink"> <templatecontent> <cms_value name="ref"> <lang id="§" set="1"> <text> http://kulturstiftung-des-bundes.de/ </text> </lang> </cms_value> <cms_value name="text"> <lang id="§" set="1"> <text> Federal Cultural Foundation </text> </lang> </cms_value> <cms_value name="comment"> <lang id="§" set="0"></lang> </cms_value> <cms_value name="linktemplate"> <lang id="§" set="1"> <sel> <value> externalLink_st_domeditor_1.HotLink </value> </sel> </lang> </cms_value> <cms_value name="mediaref"> <lang id="§" set="0"></lang> </cms_value> <cms_value name="target"> <lang id="§" set="0"></lang> </cms_value> </templatecontent> </cms_link> and the GAZPROM Germania GmbH, as well as by Dussmann AG &amp; Co. KGaA and the Deutsche Kreditbank AG

Gropius Bau

Gropius Bau 2023

Macht und Freundschaft. Berlin–Sankt Petersburg 1800–1860

Power and Friendship. Berlin–Saint Petersburg 1800–1860

Pressekonferenz „Macht und Freundschaft. Berlin–Sankt Petersburg 1800–1860“

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Located in the centre of Berlin, the Gropius Bau is a lively place for encounters with art and each other. As an internationally renowned exhibition centre, it offers space for major exhibitions and performances by contemporary artists.

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The Practice – What Moves Artists&nbsp;is a new book series by Gropius Bau, that invites artists to showcase a practice that they pursue, that has influenced them or that has been with them for a long time. In the first volume of the series,&nbsp;On Making Less, the artist Rirkrit Tiravanija compiles various ideas and approaches to this topic.

The Practice – What Moves Artists

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For the second edition of our new event series Sp&auml;tschicht, we’re teaming up with Volksb&uuml;hne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz to present a free live programme featuring a book launch and conversation with Vaginal Davis, a screening by the Berlin-based art collective CHEAP, a DJ set by Bobby Beethoven and concerts by Dylan Kerr and Cortisa Star.

Sp&auml;tschicht x Volksb&uuml;hne

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YOKO ONO: MUSIC OF THE MIND

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Only until 19 January 2025 – we’ll be back for you in March! 🐛

BAUBAU

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Performing Exiles is an international and interdisciplinary festival produced by the Berliner Festspiele, that seeks to make diasporic lives in the city of Berlin visible and explore the contemporary meaning of exile. A preview of the programme has already been published. &nbsp;

Performing Exiles

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Tanz im August, presented by HAU Hebbel am Ufer, is a festival of contemporary dance in Berlin. With three productions, it will once again be a guest at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele this year. The pre-sale of some programme highlights has already started.

Tanz im August

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Eight selected concert highlights of Musikfest Berlin 2025 have already been published and are on sale. These include guest performances by the world’s best symphony orchestras and choirs from the Netherlands, France, Belgium and Italy, which are rarely heard in Berlin.

Musikfest Berlin

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The international literature festival berlin, or ilb for short, is considered one of the most important literary festivals in the world. The programme for the 25th&nbsp;ilb will take place from 11 to 20&nbsp;September 2025. The Young Programme will run from 15 to 24&nbsp;September 2025. The main venue is the Haus der Berliner Festspiele, with additional locations for the Young Programme including Theater an der Parkaue and the Gelbe Villa.

25th international literature festival berlin

More Berliner Festspiele

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A&nbsp;Play Space for Kids

Playing, laughing, making noise, letting off steam, doing nothing – all in an exhibition venue! With BAUBAU, the artist Kerstin Br&auml;tsch designed an&nbsp;admission-free play space for kids, where more is allowed than forbidden. On the Gropius Bau’s ground floor, colourful wallpapers, structures, objects and open-ended material called “loose parts” configure flexible spaces that are shaped by children’s activities.

BAUBAU

Spielen in der Stadt

A Short History from 1900 to the Present

What has been the role of play in public space, both historically and in the present? Complementing BAUBAU, our free play space for kids, Gabriela Burkhalter’s&nbsp;Playing in the City&nbsp;presentation traces the history of playgrounds since their emergence in 1900 to today. The free presentation is open to all and can be seen in two rooms next to the play space’s entrance.

Playing in the City

Now at Gropius Bau

BAUBAUA&nbsp;Play Space for Kids

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For more than three decades, Rirkrit Tiravanija has been expanding the possibilities of what can happen in an exhibition space. As part of his practice, the artist creates situations that offer space to eat and drink, play and rest. They encourage chance encounters, relationships and their failure – in other words: life.&nbsp;The exhibition&nbsp;DAS GL&Uuml;CK IST NICHT IMMER LUSTIG&nbsp;(Happiness is not always fun)&nbsp;presents more than 80 of the artist’s works created between 1987 and 2024.

Rirkrit Tiravanija:&nbsp;DAS GL&Uuml;CK IST NICHT IMMER LUSTIG

Now at the Gropius Bau

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With Queer Ping Pong, Jimmy Robert’s Class, Team Ping Pong, Planningtorock, Meg10 and Wa22ermann

Sp&auml;tschicht x Pop-Kultur Festival

Located in the centre of Berlin, the Gropius Bau is a lively place to encounter art and each other. The internationally renowned institution stages large-scale exhibitions and performances by contemporary artists. Its diverse events focus on exchange and discussion, bringing together local and global perspectives.&nbsp;

About the Gropius Bau

We are looking forward to welcoming you back in mid-March with the reopening of our play space, <a href="${link:{uuid:{df42e57d-a14a-4b44-a5e4-9d3e7dcab5a6},repository:{website},path:{/bfs-de/gropius-bau/programm/baubau}}}">BAUBAU</a> (on 22 March), and two exhibitions, <a href="${link:{uuid:{55d64239-53fe-4b12-8567-a63191c6cae4},repository:{website},path:{/bfs-de/gropius-bau/programm/2025/ausstellungen/vaginal-davis}}}">Vaginal Davis: Fabelhaftes Produkt</a> (from 21 March) and <a href="${link:{uuid:{9618c701-bd05-432e-b688-5943e1f7fc57},repository:{website},path:{/bfs-de/gropius-bau/programm/2025/ausstellungen/yoko-ono}}}">YOKO ONO: MUSIC OF THE MIND</a> (from 11 April). For details on opening hours and tickets, please visit our <a href="${link:{uuid:{62c3018b-bb40-46ce-8019-646ec5cd2e4a},repository:{website},path:{/bfs-de/gropius-bau/besuch/informationen}}}">Information &amp; Tickets</a> page. We look forward to seeing you soon!

See you in March!

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Becoming more accessible – with the help of Artificial Intelligence: the new AI-based app Gropius Bau Prisma allows you to translate exhibition texts into 36 languages, play them as audio, ask questions about the works on display and activate subtitles in various languages during events.

Gropius Bau Prisma

Key Visual Neu

Marking twenty years since artist, writer and performer Vaginal Davis made Berlin her home, Gropius Bau presents the first comprehensive solo exhibition of her work in Germany. In her expansive oeuvre, punk meets glamour, queer activism meets Black counter-culture and resistance meets desire.&nbsp;Vaginal Davis: Fabelhaftes Produkt&nbsp;features installations, paintings, video and film works, zines, writing, music and performances, offering an overview of Davis’ practice and artistic collaborations.

Vaginal DavisFabelhaftes Produkt

Since the 1950s, Yoko Ono has been ahead of her time, leaving her mark on visual arts, music and activism. To honour her groundbreaking work, Gropius Bau presents the comprehensive solo exhibition&nbsp;YOKO ONO: MUSIC OF THE MIND. Spanning the first floor and the atrium of Gropius Bau, the show brings together over 200 works from seven decades, revealing her radical approach to language, art and participation that continues to speak to the present moment.

YOKO ONOMUSIC OF THE MIND

Current Exhibitions

Marking twenty years since artist, writer and performer Vaginal Davis made Berlin her home, Gropius Bau presents the first comprehensive solo exhibition of her work in Germany. In her oeuvre, punk meets glamour, queer activism meets Black counter-culture and resistance meets desire.&nbsp;Fabelhaftes Produkt&nbsp;offers&nbsp;an overview of Davis’ practice and artistic collaborations.

Playing, laughing, making noise, letting off steam, doing nothing – all in an exhibition venue! With BAUBAU, the artist Kerstin Br&auml;tsch designed an&nbsp;admission-free play space for kids, where more is allowed than forbidden. On Gropius Bau’s ground floor, colourful wallpapers, structures, objects and open-ended material called “loose parts” configure flexible spaces that are shaped by children’s activities.

Currently at Gropius Bau

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Located in the centre of Berlin, the Gropius Bau is a lively place to encounter art and each other. The internationally renowned institution stages large-scale exhibitions and performances by contemporary artists.

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The Gropius Bau is closed on Tuesdays.

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Gropius Bau 2025

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<h3>Rediscovering an era of European History</h3>
The intensity of German-Russian cultural exchange during the first half of the Nineteenth century is unparalleled. This was defined by both the political constellation in Europe and the close personal relationships binding the Prussian and Russian ruling houses. In this exhibition, these singular relations between Prussia and Russia are highlighted for the first time.
“Power and Friendship. Berlin – St. Petersburg 1800–1860”, to be shown in the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin from 13th March to 26th May 2008, has been a long-term project of the Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg in collaboration with partners such as the State Hermitage Museum St. Petersburg and the Peterhof State Museum-Reserve as well as five further lenders in Russia and numerous national and international lenders.
Moscow has repeatedly been the subject of attention, and now the view turns to the city known since its foundation in 1703 as the “window to Europe”, capital of the Russian Empire from 1712 to 1917.
The relations between Prussia and Russia, characterized in equal measure by political circumspection and intense cultural activity, stand at the centre of the exhibition “Power and Friendship. Berlin-St. Petersburg 1800-1860”. The Napoleonic Wars and the resultant “Holy Alliance” between Russia, Prussia and Austria, the revolutionary events of 1830/31 and 1848 lend these relations a pan-European aspect. In the battle against Napoleon, close personal relationships arose between the allies, Czar Alexander I, King Friedrich Wilhelm III and Queen Luise. The wedding in 1817 of the Russian Grand Prince Nikolai Pawlovitsch, later to become Czar Nikolas I, and the then Princess Charlotte of Prussia, later to become Alexandra Feodorovna and Czaress of Russia following her conversion to the orthodox faith, lent these relationships a more private character defined by affection and sympathy. Both levels, made transparent within the exhibition, defined the cultural climate in Berlin and St. Petersburg.
Particular attention is paid to the lively mutual artistic and cultural exchange involving the architects Wassily Stassow and Karl-Friedrich Schinkel, academics Alexander von Humboldt and Wassily Shukowski, the painters Franz Krüger, Eduard Gaertner and Grigori Tschernetzow and the sculptors Christian Daniel Rauch, Carl Friedrich Wichmann and Baron Peter (Pjotr) Clodt von Jürgensburg. The development of cultural landscapes and collections in Berlin and Potsdam, St. Petersburg and its environs today reveal many parallels: a Russian village, Alexandrowka, and a Russian church were built in Potsdam; Berlin came by its “Alexanderplatz”. Nikolas I, for his part, had the famous Peterhof summer residence designed along the lines of the Potsdam model. The construction of the Roman Baths in Sanssouci rendered the blueprint for the Czar Pavilion, and in Sanssouci and in Peterhof the same sculptures were installed. The most visible symbol of Prussian-German mutuality were the famous “Horse Tamers“ installed on the Anitschkow Bridge in St. Petersburg in 1841; their twins were placed before the Berlin City Palace in 1844.
Visual testimonies on canvas, paper and porcelain as well as requisites of court happenings such as the “Lalla Rookh” festival in Berlin in 1821, the “Festival of the White Rose” in Potsdam in 1829 and the Kalisch Parade in 1835, as well as the travel journals kept by Friedrich Wilhelm IV bring this époque to life; an époque that was politically conservative and yet still affected by harbingers of the modern. The incipient division between “public” and “private” begin here. This is manifest in the contrast between major urban neo-classicist projects on the one hand and the design of the living spaces of both the Czar’s and the Royal family – almost suggestive of the Biedermeier style – on the other. Both will be presented in the exhibition in their own exhibition rooms with architectural plans and depictions of the interiors.
<h3>Exhibition Concept</h3>
The exhibition parcours emphasizes the interchange between rooms with specific themes and different structures. Sparse rooms devoted to politics contrast with those filled with artworks of various types and which make the flourishing cultural exchange tangible. The selection of the exhibits mirrors the medial predilections of the era.

Macht und Freundschaft.

Power and Friendship.

Veranstaltungen Macht und Freundschaft

Ausstellungen 2008

Exhibitions 2008

2008

Programm

Programme

The Berliner Festspiele organise a range of festivals and art exhibitions, concerts, dance and theatre performances, readings, lectures, debates and much more throughout the year. These events are presented at a range of locations across Berlin but are concentrated primarily at their own two venues: the Gropius Bau and the Haus der Berliner Festspiele.

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Today’s Events

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The international and interdisciplinary festival produced by the Berliner Festspiele

Performing Exiles

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37th&nbsp;International Festival Berlin

Tanz im August

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The international literature festival berlin, or ilb for short, is considered one of the most important literary festivals in the world.

25th international literature festival berlin

Leichte Sprache

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You can listen to some of our events this year digitally in the Berliner Festspiele Media Library after the live concerts.&nbsp;In addition, On Demand offers from past years are available.

Musikfest Berlin in the Media Library

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The international Jazzfest Research Lab&nbsp;welcomes academics and students to take a critical look at the festival’s archive, its programmes, creators, musicians and – last but not least – its myths. In two seminars during the summer semester of 2024, students from the Berlin University of the Arts and the University of Hildesheim have explored the festival’s history from various perspectives. In this film, the participants give a first look at how they dealt with their research subject.

Introducing: Jazzfest Research Lab

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To mark its 60th anniversary, Jazzfest Berlin is celebrating the cultural diversity of the neighbouring district of Moabit in collaboration with around 35 official partners and initiatives and with over 350 participants of all ages.&nbsp;In June 2024, interviews were conducted with 20 partners who presented their perspectives, wishes and ideas for the Jazzfest Community Lab Moabit. You can get a first impression with this film.

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Curated by&nbsp;Meron Mendel and Saba-Nur Cheema&nbsp;

From 13 to 16 June 2024, the interdisciplinary themed days “Reflexes &amp; Reflections” on the Israel-Palestine conflict and its consequences for society in Germany took place at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele. You can now find video and audio recordings of the discourse events in the Berliner Festspiele Media Library!

Reflexes &amp; Reflections. 7 October, the war in Gaza and the debate in Germany

In the Media Library

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The 10 Remarkable Productions 2024

On 26 January, the Theatertreffen’s jury of critics announced their selection of 10 remarkable productions for the 2024 Theatertreffen at a press conference. Our congratulations go to the nominated production teams and all participants! The programme will be published on 5 April.

Theatertreffen 2024

“Radical Playgrounds”, an art parcours at the Gropius Bau, is spending eleven weeks exploring the differences between the concepts of play as competition and free play. Visitors are invited to walk and climb on the various installations and sculptures, to activate them and to shape the project collectively.

Summer School 2025

As part of Performing Exiles there will be a Summer School from 16 to 28&nbsp;June 2025. This will offer workshops, seminars and mentoring. The participants will see the performances and guest productions in the festival programme and visit artistic initiatives and cultural institutions in Berlin that operate across a wide range of disciplines and contexts. A public presentation of the participants’ current work and research at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele will complete the programme.

Open Call

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The massacre, hostage-taking and rocket attacks by Hamas have shaken us deeply. The grue-some attack on Israel on 7&nbsp;October left us stunned and initially lost for words.

The Berliner Festspiele on Current Events in Israel, Gaza and Germany

With this letter of intent, we, the signing cultural organizations, express our intention to welcome, host and stage Ukrainian theatre artists in our venues, to make Ukrainian dramatic work visible to the European community.

Support of the Ukrainian Cultural Scene