Festival Middle Europe

The Middle Europe Festival was a cultural festival that took place annually in June, July and August in various locations in the German states of Bavaria and Saxony as well as in the Czech Republic until 2015 .

history

Precursor of the festival was the international vocal master class "Encounters", which in summer 1990 by the German concert and opera singer, chamber singer Thomas Thomaschke , and his wife, the Czech art historian Ivana Thomaschke-Vondráková in Misslareuth (Saxony) with young singers from Eastern and West Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Holland. Due to the location of the place in the border triangle of Saxony, Bavaria and the then Czechoslovakia on the already open German-German border, a political preoccupation with the problems of the “ Iron Curtain ” was achieved in addition to artistic activity .

In the summer of 1991, in addition to the second vocal master class "Encounters", the "Zero Year of the Festival Middle Europe - Bavaria · Bohemia · Saxony " took place as a pilot project . A declaration for cross-border cultural cooperation between the Saxon association "Misslareuth 1990. Mitte Europa" eV and the forerunner of the Czech association Euregio Egrensis was signed.

The opening of the first year of the festival took place on July 14, 1992 with a concert by the Bamberg Symphony under the direction of Jiří Bělohlávek in the St. John's Church in Plauen . It connected 30 Bohemian, Saxon and Bavarian towns across borders. Since 2004, over 65 municipalities from the participating countries have been involved in the festival. It thus united the three European regions Euregio Egrensis , Euroregion Erzgebirge / Krušnohoří and Euroregion Elbe / Labe as an outstanding German-Czech cultural project .

The main focus of the festival was on musical events, as well as exhibitions of visual arts, literary events, workshops, symposia, forums and summer courses. The festival was a member of the European Festivals Association and the Association of Czech Music Festivals.

organization

The legal entity of the festival was the non-profit association "Misslareuth 1990. Mitte Europa" eV The festival management had from 1991 to 2014 chamber singer Prof. Thomas Thomaschke. Ivana Thomaschke-Vondráková directed the Czech festival site. Both received the Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon for their work in 2004 and the Jan Masaryk Medal of the Czech Republic in 2014. The project was financed by the German-Czech Future Fund, the participating municipalities, cultural areas and districts , the federal states of Saxony and Bavaria, the BKM, the European Union as well as sponsors and the association's own funds. The festival's patrons were the Federal Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic and the Prime Ministers of the Free States of Bavaria and Saxony.

At the beginning of 2016, the festival's sponsoring association filed for bankruptcy .

Quote

“The Central Europe Festival melts borders.” - Yehudi Menuhin , who participated in the festival every year from 1992 to 1998.

literature

• Ludger Stühlmeyer : The Festival in Central Europe. In: Ludger Stühlmeyer: Curia sonans. The music history of the city of Hof. A study on the culture of Upper Franconia. From the foundation of the Bamberg diocese to the present. Dissertation. University of Munster. Heinrichs, Bamberg 2010, ISBN 978-3-89889-155-4 , p. 323f.

Web links

• List of participating artists 1992–2015 (PDF; 239 kB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Festival Mitte Europa will not take place this year ( Memento of the original from May 10, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the festival website