Donor's meal with high proceeds

The donor's meal in the large ballroom of the town hall is the annual highlight of the Hamburg Cultural Foundation's collection of donations. On Tuesday evening, 331 guests enjoyed the cultural programme, which alternated with a four-course menu, donated by event caterer “Traiteur Wille – Feine Kochkunst” and Weinhaus Gröhl. The classical Atlas Quartet of the Hamburg Youth Chamber Music Initiative kicked off the musical program under difficult concert conditions. The musicians played in the anteroom of the halls for the sponsors and patrons who passed by when they arrived.

At the opening of the evening, Culture Senator Carsten Brosda (SPD) recalled - also with a view to the parallel midterm elections in the USA - the responsibility that freedom entails and the social task of negotiating after the pandemic, like the public how public spaces should be used and designed in the future. Immediately afterwards, Gesa Engelschall, Managing Director of the Cultural Foundation, provided part of the answer when she quoted the Austrian poet and playwright Hugo von Hofmannsthal in her opening words for the evening: “What is culture? Knowing what concerns you and knowing what concerns you.” Engelschall also referred to the life-enriching effect of culture.

The tenor Oleksiy Palchykov from the ensemble of the Hamburg State Opera, accompanied by Camille Lemonnier on the piano, performed the first artistic performance in the hall, performing the Ukrainian folk song "Chornii Brovy" in addition to songs by Donizetti and Rossini. Later, Marie Schroeder (harp) and Michel Schroeder (trumpet) enriched the program as a duo, before the highlight of the evening was actress Sophie Rois, who, as usual, carried the audience into another world, with an abridged version of the text "Willkurliche Akte der Freundlichkeit". read the book "My 500 Best Friends" by Johanna Adorján.

The subsequent, traditional auction of the ten "cultural experiences that you can't buy", carried out by Eva-Maria Uebach Kendzia and Amadeus Templeton, brought in 99,200 euros. The classic "Dinner on the Stage of the St. Pauli Theater" for eleven people with a surprise program and the title "With Klaus Biesenbach in the New National Gallery" including an overnight stay in Berlin's "Chateau Royale" achieved top prices of 20,000 euros. Equally popular: "With Sophie Rois in the Deutsches Theater" (13,000 euros), a "House music evening with Marie and Michel Schroeder" (13,000 euros) and "Rehearsal and concert with Cecilia Bartoli in the Elbphilharmonie" (12,000).

The cultural foundation achieved further income that evening from donations of around 140,000 euros. In the two Corona years 2020 and 2021, the Hamburg Cultural Foundation was able to distribute a total of 5.7 million euros in Corona aid for 1200 artists and for 250 cultural projects of the regular funding thanks to generous donations and help to help get through the difficult times.