New Capital City Contract Extends Berliner Festspiele Programme

The Capital City Financing Contract that has been signed today extends the programme of the Berliner Festspiele with the Gropius Bau by integrating the International Literature Festival Berlin (ILB) and the funding programme for special exhibitions for large audiences.

The ILB was founded in 2001 by the cultural manager and author Ulrich Schreiber and has since been presented by the Peter-Weiss-Stiftung für Kunst und Politik e.V. Lavinia Frey was appointed Festival Director in 2023. The Haus der Berliner Festspiele has been the festival’s principal venue on a regular basis since 2005. 

Matthias Pees, Director of the Berliner Festspiele states: “The Berliner Festspiele have been closely connected with the International Literature Festival Berlin for over 20 years. The new structural and conceptual integration of the ILB into the Berliner Festspiele’s wide ranging international programme envisaged by the Capital City Financing Contract is therefore a logical step. It ensures the long-term future of Germany’s most effective literary festival with its global reputation, while also enriching the spectrum of federally funded cultural events in Berlin, to which the Berliner Festspiele belong, by adding the field of literature to the multidisciplinary artistic platform.” 

The announced integration of the funding programme for special exhibitions for large audiences with the Gropius Bau and its extension to include museums and exhibition venues from all over Germany open up new and expanded opportunities. Jenny Schlenzka, Director of the Gropius Bau comments: “This reorganization strengthens national networks in the field of visual arts. We look forward to developing plans for large-scale exhibitions with new partner institutions in Germany and working together to make projects of national and international relevance visible in Berlin.”   

Matthias Pees emphasises: “The Berliner Festspiele see the transfer of these additional roles as both proof of trust and a responsibility. Especially in the 75th anniversary year, the planned innovations are gratifying and encouraging developments for the Berliner Festspiele with the Gropius Bau that strengthen the capital city Berlin as a cultural hub while simultaneously opening up new possibilities for collaborations across the whole of Germany.” 

To the Press Release of International Literature Festival Berlin