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Culture news, previews, reviews and essays – newest first.

3 Nov
16:59
STAGEThree at the Top: What Munich Wants to Adopt from BaselA director, a dramaturg, an actor: the Kammerspiele’s incoming leadership team is bringing a Basel model to Munich — with questions still open.
3 Nov
16:59
MUSICHearing Biermann without seeing only the dissidentFor his 90th birthday: why Wolf Biermann’s songs cannot be reduced to their political history.
3 Nov
16:58
VISUAL ARTSSophie Calle and the Museum as a Site of MemoryAt Hamburger Bahnhof, Sophie Calle links memories of Berlin with the museum’s history — and creates a work for its 30th anniversary.
3 Nov
16:58
STAGETwo Bodily Orders Set to StravinskyA Greek god and a community engaged in ritual: La Scala brings two very different Stravinsky ballets together in one evening.
3 Nov
16:58
VISUAL ARTSExhibiting fear without exploiting itThree artistic approaches at Vienna Art Week present fear as a bodily, political and social experience – and seek ways of dealing with it.
3 Nov
16:58
STAGERosa Luxemburg across mediaAnica Tomić brings Rosa Luxemburg’s story to the stage at the Deutsches Theater, following its treatment in film and a graphic novel.
3 Nov
16:58
LITERATURENon-fiction as public self-examinationPolitics, artificial intelligence, vulnerability: three shortlisted titles show just how wide-ranging the questions addressed by socially relevant non-fiction can be.
3 Nov
16:57
FILMFatih Akin’s ‘Geister’ (Ghosts): A Love Between Dream and RealityAn encounter, a sudden loss, forty nights in dreams: Fatih Akin’s new film ‘Geister’ (Ghosts) opens in German cinemas on 5 November.
3 Nov
16:57
CULTURAL POLICYWhat binding commitments Berlin should make to its cultural sectorA cultural funding law could put procedures on a firmer footing. But the crucial question – how much money is available – will still be decided through the budget.
3 Nov
08:25
STAGEThree new works, one company: how Semperoper Ballett is developing its identityWith “Different Grounds”, three choreographic voices meet a classically trained company. The result is more than an evening of three world premieres: an attempt to make an institution legible in a new way.
3 Nov
08:25
MUSICWhen a Festival Leaves the Concert HallBetween a former factory, a sound installation and a concert hall, listening becomes a question of place – and of the attention it demands.
3 Nov
08:24
ARCHITECTURE & DESIGNAdam Szymczyk at the Swiss Architecture Museum: Architecture as DebateAn art curator is leading Basel’s architecture museum. The changes under Adam Szymczyk are initially emerging through questions about exhibitions, the institution and its audience.
3 Nov
08:24
CULTURAL POLICYMentoring in the Cultural Sector: Career Support or a Shift in Power?26 women are joining the German Cultural Council’s six-month mentoring programme. The greater test, however, lies with institutions and their staffing and decision-making processes.
3 Nov
07:51
LITERATUREJohn Berger: Who owns the gaze?Berger connected close attention to images with questions of power and everyday life. But when does social criticism itself become a template?
3 Nov
07:50
FILMShida Bazyar between a literary prize and the big screenOne novel becomes a film, while its author wins an award for another book: what this double attention means for Bazyar’s themes.
3 Nov
07:50
ARCHITECTURE & DESIGNWhat holds the city together, for the time beingThey guide routes, protect people and make repairs possible: the Architekturzentrum Wien brings the often overlooked infrastructure of the provisional into the spotlight.
3 Nov
07:35
LITERATUREKlaus Mann: Literature as an Organised Public SphereIn exile, Klaus Mann created forums against isolation through magazines. Their ambitions were great, their existence precarious.
3 Nov
07:34
VISUAL ARTSKaren Kilimnik: Who Owns the Images of Desire?Two exhibitions explore Karen Kilimnik’s visual universe of fairy tales, ballet and glamour – and the question of who is allowed to belong within it.
3 Nov
07:33
STAGEEwald Palmetshofer and the question of what people hold on toThe award-winning playwright places his characters in a world where old certainties are fading. His plays ask what follows.
1 Nov
21:34
VISUAL ARTSWho builds the apparatus of our perception?In Appenzell, open sculptural systems meet videos about language, images and power. Two exhibitions place different emphases.
1 Nov
21:32
STAGEHow a ballet is passed onCranko’s Romeo and Juliet returns to the stage in Stuttgart. A look at what is preserved when choreography is passed on — and what is allowed to change.
1 Nov
21:29
LITERATUREReading Cohen without hearing the melodyHis songs are so familiar that they interrupt us as we read. An essay on Cohen’s poetry, prose and the power of our own expectations.
1 Nov
21:27
MUSICErfurt’s opera handover begins before the new team takes officeThe new managing director starts in 2026, the incoming general director not until 2028. How Erfurt needs to organise the long transition.
1 Nov
21:24
VISUAL ARTSAn art prize as a decision about the collectionThe Wolfgang Hahn Prize honours Lee Ufan – and channels money into the Museum Ludwig’s collection. Who makes the selection, and what does it mean for the collection?
1 Nov
21:21
STAGEWhose present speaks through ‘Hamlet’?A prince wants to put the world right. At the Berliner Ensemble, Ersan Mondtag and Wilke Weermann examine the violence inherent in that ambition.
1 Nov
21:20
FILMWhich Images Explain the Holocaust – and Which Replace Critical Thought?From camp fences to deportation trains: cinema has established motifs that support remembrance – but can also obscure historical complexity.
1 Nov
21:15
VISUAL ARTSMel e Logan explores the body's invisible worlds in ViennaMicrobes, bodily fluids and sound: Mel e Logan invites visitors to an exhibition between art and research at the Heiligenkreuzerhof.
1 Nov
21:14
ARCHITECTURE & DESIGNAfter the service: who sustains the open church?New designs reimagine churches as cultural venues. Bochum makes clear that the crucial question often only arises after the architectural model.
1 Nov
21:11
CULTURAL POLICYFunding without ideological conditions: where does interference begin?Funding requires evidence of how money is used. Disputes begin where political objectives encroach on artistic decisions.
1 Nov
20:57
LITERATUREBetween the shortlist and the encounterA nomination is not the end of reading, but often its public beginning. How a list becomes conversations and encounters with books.