From Tatort star Ferdinand Hofer to Frauke von der Haar, the director of the Munich City Museum, many have come to meet the new director of the BR. But not everyone readily admits that.
It has not even begun, it is already beginning: In the background the sun is setting, in the foreground the first guests of the SZ Kultursalon are discussing festivals or productions, the revived cultural life in the city or the consequences of the lockdown. Due to the pandemic, the number of seats in the panorama lounge of the SZ-Verlag high-rise is still limited, the chairs have been set up at an airy distance from each other, the view is magnificent. Diana Iljine also looks outside, the boss of the Munich Film Festival says: “Bayerischer Rundfunk is one of our shareholders, so I’m naturally interested in what Katja Wildermuth has to say.” In other respects, too, there is great curiosity, many meet the director for the first time: she has only been in office since February.
BR director Katja Wildermuth and the boss of the Munich Film Festival, Diana Iljine in conversation in the SZ high-rise.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
In the first few months she spent her evenings reading minutes or financial plans, she says, there were no events. She is all the more pleased about real encounters. After the conversation with the SZ journalists, there is time for this: Elevators take you to the first floor, and discussions continue in the large atrium of the SZ high-rise. The mix of guests is colorful and is made up of a wide variety of social areas, the society reporter Marie Waldburg stands next to the art collector Moritz von Crailsheim, the managing director of Süddeutscher Verlag, Karl Ulrich, and Annette Heuser from the Beisheim Foundation. Ministerialdirigent Angelika Kaus from the Ministry of Art is also a sought-after discussion partner, as is the deputy director of the Residenztheater, Ingrid Trobitz.
Society reporter Marie Waldburg, the deputy director of the Residenztheater Ingrid Trobitz and author Lothar Strobach.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
Frauke von der Haar, director of the Munich City Museum, and Tanja Graf, director of the Literaturhaus, are also welcome guests of the Kultursalon. The auditor Jürgen Peters talks about his project “Impro macht Schule”, which promotes self-confidence and sovereignty among young people at focus schools, the actor Ferdinand Hofer is enthusiastic about it and promises to support Peters and the kids.
Kurt Kister (SZ) and Tanja Graf, the director of the Literaturhaus München, at the reception after the Kultursalon talk.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
The evening is also designed as a networking platform. For Hofer, who most viewers know as Kalli, the assistant to the Munich “Tatort” commissioners, it is the first SZ culture salon. He has just come back from filming the latest Eberhofer crime comedy “Guglhupfgeschwader”, which is due to hit the cinemas next year. When asked whether he might have stopped by because of his new boss, who is just as responsible for the “crime scene” as Eberhofer, the actor winks happily and laughs: “Why, Ms. Wildermuth is here to meet me, isn’t she? “