Europe (label)

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Europe

logo
legal form GmbH
founding 1965
Seat Munich
management Patrick Mushatsi-Kareba, Daniel Lieberberg, Julie Greifer Swidler, James Mullan
sales € 60 million (2009)
Branch Audio and video productions for children, young people and adults
Website play-europa.de

Europa (own spelling: EUROPA , label code 00967) is an audio book publisher under which the Quickborn company Miller International Schallplatten GmbH has been producing and publishing radio plays for children and young people very successfully since 1965 .

Today Europe is a label of Sony Music Entertainment Germany GmbH.

history

Established as Miller International

In 1961 the American David L. Miller founded Miller International Schallplatten GmbH together with Andreas Beurmann and Wilhelm Wille in Hamburg . In 1957 Miller created the Orchestra 101 Strings with musicians from the Hamburg State Opera and the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra . This recorded light music , dance music , evergreens and folk classical music on records, which were sold on the US market at an extremely affordable price. The concept was very successful, and Miller also wanted to reach the German market by founding Miller International . At the beginning, in addition to the music albums , the first fairy tale readings were sold under Miller's Somerset label .

Introduction of the Europe label

The Europe label, including the then rectangular trademark, was largely invented by Andreas Beurmann. The idea was closely related to his heart's desire for a united Europe, which at that time still seemed a long way off. From 1965 onwards, Miller International sold its records in Germany under this new label for the standard price of five marks and significantly undercut the prices of twelve to 25 marks for comparable productions that were customary at the time. As a result of the success that ensued, the company grew and the company headquarters was relocated from Hamburg to a larger building in the nearby municipality of Quickborn . In 1966 the EUROPA children's series was set up. Initially, the success of the fairy tale readings and adventure radio plays published therein was limited, as they were a novelty for the children and parents of the time. You have been mocked as an electric grandmother . The first official title in the series is Struwwelpeter , read by Hans Paetsch .

Crisis and renaissance

From the end of the 1980s, radio play production stalled due to poor sales. The main reason was a shift in the interests of children and adolescents, as computer games became more and more important. In the early 1990s, practically only the three - ??? - and TKKG radio plays produced.

From the end of the 1990s, radio plays experienced a renaissance. With the advent of the Internet , the “listeners from back then” were able to exchange ideas, and interest in old radio plays and new productions rose sharply. Proof of this was also the immense number of cassettes and long-playing records that were offered at flea markets. The mostly high prices made another radio play boom possible. From 1999 on, Europe successfully reissued the old radio plays under the motto Return of the Classics . When these "classic" radio plays were reissued, however, inter-music was replaced for some titles due to legal disputes. This met with rejection from many fans, since for them this music made up the special dramatic atmosphere in the radio plays, which was now missing. Because many of the old fans had known these "classic" audio games, in the version originally accompanied by music, since their childhood.

There was also a great deal of interest in the series The Three ??? , the flagship of the label. However, new series were only produced for the very young listeners.

After a long period of time, Europe brought a new series onto the market in October 2005. The Teufelskicker series started with three episodes as an official licensed product for the 2006 World Cup , followed by another three. The radio plays are produced by Frauke Nahrgang based on the books of the same name .

Due to a license dispute with Franckh-Kosmos , the publishing house of Die-drei - ??? Books, the successful radio play series was replaced by DiE DR3i in November 2006 . Only after months of litigation was the series Die drei ??? continued with episodes 121 and 122 and the series Die Dr3i was discontinued.

In the summer of 2019, the publisher announced a long-term cooperation with Playmobil , which begins with a radio play on the Playmobil movie. As part of the collaboration, Playmobil radio play series are to be created in several countries and languages. a. England, France and Spain.

Manifestation

Europe announced in September 2011 that from 2012 onwards no more radio plays will be produced on audio cassettes . These will then only be available on CD and as an MP3 download. Only the detective series The Three ??? will continue to appear on audio cassette due to the relatively high demand. The reasons for the discontinuation are, on the one hand, the ever decreasing demand for audio cassettes and, on the other hand, the discontinuation of the production of magnetic audio tapes .

Directors

The radio play production in Europe from 1966 to 1973 was shaped by three directors . Heikedine Körting has been responsible for the radio play production of many series since 1973 . After Körting took over the director's chair, the radio plays definitely surpassed the music productions in terms of their economic importance for the company. In 1974, due to the first oil crisis , the unit price of sound carriers had to be increased from five to six marks for the first time.

Sieglinde Dziallas

The then partner of co-founder Andreas Beurmann, Sieglinde Dziallas, directed from 1966 to 1968 under the pseudonym Claudius Brac . In the course of time, Beurmann was able to win more and more Hamburg stage actors for the radio plays, and in the first few years actors such as Hans Paetsch, Benno Gellenbeck , Peter Folken, Horst Fleck and Marga Maasberg could be heard. Dziallas and Beurmann also edited the book templates.

Konrad Halver

In 1968 Sieglinde Dziallas died unexpectedly, and Beurmann initially withdrew from active radio play production. Konrad Halver took over the direction and editing of the templates. Under his aegis, in addition to a radio play version of the Winnetou series with himself in the lead role, around 75 radio plays were produced and published. The later main director Heikedine Körting began her career in Europe under Konrad Halver with the radio play scripts The Little Mermaid and The Snow Queen . Konrad Halver left Europe in 1972.

Dagmar von Kurmin

Konrad Halver's successor on the director's chair was Dagmar von Kurmin . In the short period of her directing until 1973, 15 radio plays were published, including several other Karl May settings and a radio play version by Moby-Dick .

Heikedine Körting

In 1973, Heikedine Körting , Andreas Beurmann's new partner and later wife, took over the almost sole direction of the European radio plays after her debut in 1969 and is still in this position today. By 1985, 1,200 radio plays had been released under her direction. Her productions have received numerous gold and platinum records .

Productions

Current productions

While the successful large radio play series ( Die drei ??? , TKKG , Fünf Freunde etc.) continue to be produced under the direction of Heikedine Körting, Europe is increasingly relying on different recording studios and directors for new series.

series Director year
Five friends Heikedine Körting 1978–1983,
1988–1991,
since 1999
The three ??? 1979–2005,
since 2008
TKKG since 1981
The Teufelskicker Thomas Karallus since 2005
Hui Buh, the castle ghost Simon Bertling ,
Christian Hagitte 		since 2008
The three !!! Thomas Karallus since 2009
The three ??? Kids Ulf Blanck since 2009
Filly Thomas Karallus since 2011
Kati & Azuro since 2011
The punkies since 2016
The little Hui Buh Simon Bertling ,
Christian Hagitte 		since 2016
The fox gang Johanna Steiner since 2017
Smart as four Thomas Karallus since 2017
TKKG Junior Frank Gustavus since 2018

Other employees

The many radio play scripts and template edits by HG Francis also played a major role in the success of European radio plays in the 1970s to 1980s .

Douglas Welbat , Katja Brügger and Bertram von Boxberg were responsible for the scripts of the controversial and yet (or perhaps because of it) successful series Macabros and Larry Brent . Welbat directed these horror thriller radio plays, which were unique at the time, under the pseudonym Charly Graul and also played the leading role in Macabros.

Peter Lerf wrote and produced the first season of Dragonbound for Europe . Europe was not interested in a second season, since then Peter Lerf has been distributing the series himself under the audio game label Gigaphon.

Another aspect was Carsten Bohn's music as background music for some European radio plays. In this regard, there was a legal dispute between Bohn and Europe, as a result of which these compositions have not been used in radio plays since 1986.

Label affiliation

  • 1965–1969: Miller International Schallplatten GmbH
  • 1969-1989: Music Corporation of America (MCA); David L. Miller sold Miller International to MCA, but remained with the company as a consultant until his death in 1985.
  • 1989–2004: Bertelsmann Music Group; Miller International was integrated into the entertainment product division BMG of the Bertelsmann group in 1989 and has operated under the name BMG Ariola Miller since then.
  • 2004–2008: Since the merger of Sony Music Entertainment with the Bertelsmann Music Group to form Sony BMG Music Entertainment , the name Miller has completely disappeared and Europe is part of the family entertainment product division of the major label . The company headquarters were moved back to Hamburg in 2004. In October 2007 the company headquarters was relocated to Munich. The move goes hand in hand with a change in the direction of the entertainment division - from now on Sony BMG Family Entertainment intends to focus more on the distribution of associated merchandising products in addition to radio plays.
  • 2008 – today: The two companies Bertelsmann Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment have separated again. Bertelsmann has given its 50 percent stake in the music company Sony BMG to Sony. Europe is still based in Munich and belongs to Sony Music Entertainment Germany GmbH , a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony.

Awards

Gold and platinum records

See also

Europe's biggest competitors on the German-speaking radio play market were Deutsche Grammophon and the Karussell label that belonged to it at the time and the Maritim label .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ EUROPE Fact Sheet. Archived from the original on June 5, 2015 ; accessed on February 25, 2018 .
  2. ↑ europa-vinyl.de: Special No. 4: The "company" Europe
  3. ↑ a b Radio plays for children and young people as a mass phenomenon. In: europa-kinderwelt.de. Retrieved October 11, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Audiobook publisher Europe produces radio plays for Playmobil. Retrieved on August 23, 2019 (German).
  5. ↑ Sony Music subsidiary Europe starts radio play partnership with Playmobil. Retrieved August 23, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Press release: Until the end of all tapes - The radio play label EUROPA says goodbye to the MC ( Memento from February 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 27 kB)

literature

Web links