Prof. Dr. h. c. Jürgen Flimm

Artistic and stage director

Jürgen Flimm was born in Gießen in Germany on 17 July 1941 and grew up in Cologne.

After his studies of German language and literature, theatre studies and sociology he started his career in 1968 as assistant director at the Münchner Kammerspiele, becoming artistic director of the Schauspiel Köln in 1979 and the Thalia Theater, Hamburg in 1985. Flimm has staged productions at all major theatres and opera houses in the world, including New York, Milan, London, Berlin, Vienna, Zurich, Bayreuth and Salzburg. In 2002 he became theatre manager and in 2007 artistic director of the Salzburg Festival. From 2005 until 2008 he took over the direction of the Ruhrtriennale. From 2010 until 2018 he was artistic director of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin.

Flimm is a member of several academies of the arts and an honorary doctor of the University of Hildesheim. His awards include the Grimme Prize, the Medal for Art and Science of Hamburg, the Konrad-Wolf-Prize of the Akademie der Künste Berlin, the Federal Cross of Merit as well as the Austrian Cross of Honour for Art and Science and the Medal of Honour of the Province of Salzburg.

From 1999 to 2003 Flimm was President of the German Stage Association. Flimm had a visiting professorship in Harvard and New York and a professorship in Hamburg.

Book publications, among others:

Götterdämmerung, Propyläen Verlag 2000

Theatergänger, Steidl Verlag 2004

Theaterbilder, Steidl Verlag 2008

Das Salzburger Kapitel, Müry Salzmann Verlag 2010

Die gestürzte Pyramide, Müry Salzmann Verlag 2010