The literary salon came into fashion in Germany in the 18th century as a part of bourgeois sociability, a meeting of intellectuals in the salons (hence the name) of rich, distinguished and above all educated families. The Berlin salons of Rahel Varnhagen and Henriette Herz, Bettina von Arnim and Helene von Nostiz, and the Viennese salons of Pauline Metternich and Berta Zuckerkandl were particularly popular.
The Jahreszeitengespräche® (The Season Talks) were Four times a year in Berlin, later in Potsdam, now the “Neue Jahreszeiten-Gespräche” (The New Season Talks) in the center of Berlin’s Historische Mitte by the Fenner Group and the LIVING BAUHAUS Kunststiftung in Kleine Jägerstraße 3 in 10117 Berlin.
Until now it was more of an economic-political salon with a total of 28 events and now this preference is to serve the public benefit of art in the best sense of the word and be reserved for politics.
Donations of all kinds for the promotion of art & culture are therefore always welcome and the non-profit LIVING BAUHAUS Art Foundation, established since 2012, provides the premises in this regard within the framework of your statutes.
It all started with Wilhelm von Boddien, the city castle developer, in the private apartment of the business and personnel consultant Uwe Fenner in the Friedenau district of Berlin. Later speakers and guests of honor General Werner von Scheven, Ignaz Bubis († 1999) personally guided the seasonal round through the freshly completed Centrum Judaicum. Klaus Töpfer, then still Federal Minister of Construction, Guido Westerwelle († 2016), later Foreign Minister, Helmut Schäfer, Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office, ex-Minister Presidents Manfred Stolpe and Matthias Platzek, ex-Federal Minister of Economics Günter Rexrodt († 2004) as well as Rainer Brüderle, Morgan Stanley Chef Lutz Raettig, Deutsche Börse board member Jörg Franke and Rolf-E. Breuer, the head of Deutsche Bank, BDI Chief Executive Ludolph Frhr. v. Wartenberg, fairleader Manfred Busche, Siemens England President Sir Jürgen Carlos Gehrels, ex-US Ambassador to Berlin Daniel Coats.
The list of guests also included ex-railway chief Heinz Dürr, Siemens Berlin chief Gerd von Brandenstein, Schering CEO Hubertus Erlen. In addition, numerous owners and managers of important medium-sized companies, such as Ruth Cornelsen, Thomas Guth, Hartwig Piepenbrock († 2013) and Detlef Hesterberg († 2010). Politicians, such as Jörg Schönbohm, Brigitte Zypries, ex- Federal Minister of Transport Matthias Wissmann (President VDA), Kohl’s government spokesman, the ambassador Jürgen Sudhoff, important lawyers, Dieter Feddersen († 2016), Hartmut Fromm, Andreas Pochhammer, Kolja von Bismarck, Karlheinz Knauthe, Cord-Henning Brandes, Hans-Eike von Oppeln- Bronikowski, bankruptcy lawyer Graf Christian Brockdorf and Joachim Sedemund, and doctors, Stephan Ziegler, Roland Hetzer, Gernot Badtke, and corporate and tax consultants, Heinz O. Minkwitz and Christian Schulz-Wulkow, partners at Ernst & Young. Media people, such as Matthias Döpfner (Axel Springer), Wolfram Weimer, Hildegard Stausberg (Deutsche Welle, later DIE WELT), Wilfried Rott († 2011), Gerd Appenzeller, Bernd Schipphorst, Hermann Rudolph and ntv-Magazine boss Wolfram Schweizer († 2016), Ufa boss Wolf Bauer as well as Foundation President of Prussian Cultural Heritage Klaus-Dieter Lehmann, regional bishop Wolfgang Huber as guests and discussants. Artists, the painters Salomé and Rayk Götze, Bayreuth conductor Christian Thielemann, opera director Albert Kost, drama school “Ernst Busch” -chancellor Count Kaspar Rex and Bar jeder Vernunft and Tipi owner Holger Klotzbach, gallery owners, Renate Siebenhaar, Matthias Arndt, Bernd Schulz (Villa Griesebach). In addition, “Beautiful People”, such as Wolfgang Joop, Nadja Auermann, Shawne Fielding (and Thomas Bohrer), Franziska Knuppe, Giesela von Schenk, several members of the House of Prussia. Constitutional lawyer Ullrich Battis and contemporary historian Arnulf Baring.
The New Seasons Talks® continue the tradition of the past, but they will no longer take place in such a huge circle as in the past; it will be more intimate and personal. The Kunststiftung’s townhouse at Kleine Jägerstraße 3 in Berlin’s Mitte district (10117 Berlin) will contribute to this.
The organizers of the New Seasons Talks® are the Fenner Group & LIVING BAUHAUS Kunststiftung.
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