News | Berlin, 02/09/2014

Bertelsmann Celebrates Caligari Premiere at Berlinale with Reception

More than 300 public figures from politics, culture and society expected at Bertelsmann ‘Unter den Linden 1’ in Berlin

Berlin, February 9, 2014 – More than 300 public figures from politics, culture and society are expected to attend a reception hosted by the international media company Bertelsmann on Sunday at its “Unter den Linden 1” premises in Berlin. The occasion is the grand premiere of the silent film classic “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,” digitally restored with the support of Bertelsmann, at the Berlin Philharmonic shortly beforehand. The performance is a highlight at this year's Berlinale Classics. 

“94 years after its original premiere, this masterpiece of expressionist film can finally be screened in digital cinema quality for the first time today,” said Bertelsmann Chairman and CEO Thomas Rabe. He also thanked the project partner, the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation, for the good and successful cooperation. “There are thousands of other worthy films in the German film archives that urgently need to be digitized for posterity – a task that the archives must not be left alone with,” said Rabe. As a media company that has worked with creative content for almost 180 years, he pointed out, Bertelsmann continues to work to safeguard and preserve important cultural assets from the past in this age of digitization.

Robert Wiene's 1920 silent film “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” was digitally restored under the auspices of the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation in nearly two years of meticulous work. The musical accompaniment at its sold-out screening at the Berlin Philharmonic will be provided by the New York composer John Zorn.

Notable guests who have confirmed their attendance at the Philharmonic and/or the subsequent reception at Bertelsmann’s premises include Germany’s new Culture Minister Monika Grütters, the Oscar-winning German director Volker Schlöndorff, President of the Federal Film Board (FFA) Eberhard Junkersdorf, and UFA CEO Wolf Bauer. Actors Joachim Król, Rufus Beck, Teresa Weissbach, Francis Fulton-Smith and Gerd Wameling also plan to attend, along with presenter Dunja Hayali, columnist Harald Martenstein, and the German photographer Jim Rakete. Public figures from politics and business are also expected at the event, including Berlin’s Economics Senator Cornelia Yzer and Environment Senator Michael Müller, the new head of European policy department at the Foreign Office, Martin Kotthaus, as well as BDI Directors Dieter Schweer and Holger Lösch, and the ambassadors of Britain, Italy, Ireland, Austria and Luxembourg. The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, the New National Gallery, the Berlin State Library, and the city’s Museum of Natural History are also sending prominent representatives.

The premiere at the Berlinale is an International Film Festival in Berlin collaboration with the Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek, the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation, the Stiftung Berliner Philharmoniker, ZDF, ARTE and 2eleven || zeitgenössische musikprojekte. The Foundation collaborated with the German Federal Film Archive in Berlin and other archives for the restoration. In addition to Bertelsmann as the main sponsor of the restoration, the Verwertungsgesellschaft für Nutzungsrechte an Filmwerken (VGF) and the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media helped to fund the project.

About Bertelsmann
Bertelsmann is an international media company whose core divisions encompass television (RTL Group), book publishing (Penguin Random House), magazine publishing (Gruner + Jahr), services (Arvato), and printing (Be Printers) in some 50 countries. In 2012, the company’s businesses, with their more than 100,000 employees, generated revenues of €16.1 billion. Bertelsmann stands for a combination of creativity and entrepreneurship that empowers the creation of first-rate media, communications, and service offerings to inspire people around the world and to provide innovative solutions for customers.