Kuratorium Preußischer Kulturbesitz - Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz

The Kuratorium Preussischer Kulturbesitz brings together companies committed to culture to support selected projects of the foundation as part of a strategic partnership.

Founded in 2014, the Kuratorium Preussischer Kulturbesitz is an association of culturally committed commercial enterprises. The aim of the Board of Trustees is to support the foundation in the realisation of selected projects as part of a strategic sponsoring partnership. The main focus here is on cultural education and mediation as well as digital transformation. The Board of Trustees also supports exhibitions, research projects and event series. The Board of Trustees of Prussian Cultural Heritage also supports the foundation in expanding its networking activities and provides its expertise on the strategic development of various topics.

The following internationally active companies are currently members of the Board of Trustees: Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA, Mercedes-Benz Group AG, Siemens AG, Würth Group and ZDF. The Chair of the Board of Trustees is Dr Helen Müller, Head of Cultural Affairs and Corporate History Corporate Communications at Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA. The Deputy Chairman is Prof. Dr Stephan Frucht, Head of Cultural and Sponsoring Programmes and Artistic Director of the Siemens Arts Program at Siemens AG.

Strategic support for sustainable projects

As a universal cultural institution, the SPK bears responsibility for its excellent collections, their preservation, research and, above all, communication. This is where the Board of Trustees comes in with its support.

Access and participation for all

The core objective of the commitment is to support public access and participation. The promotion of educational and mediation programmes is particularly important to the Board of Trustees. For example, the programme work at Haus Bastian with the project ‘Welcome to Museum Island! Welcome to Haus Bastian!’ and the successful summer programme “Connections” were realised with the help of the Board of Trustees.

The innovative ‘Design Lab’ series of events at the Museum of Decorative Arts invited selected design studios, students and activists to work on current socially relevant topics and enter into a dialogue with the collection of the Museum of Decorative Arts thanks to the support of the Board of Trustees.

The innovative event series ‘Making Spaces: A Programming Series in Solidarity with Ukraine’ was also realised thanks to funding from the Board of Trustees. Here, Ukrainian art and culture took centre stage in talks and performances.

Another important concern of the Board of Trustees is to advance the Foundation's digital transformation. The large-scale, foundation-wide data portal ‘SPK Lab’, which went online in 2023, could only be realised with the help of the Board of Trustees. The web magazine was also made possible by the Board of Trustees.

Selected research projects are also funded by the Board of Trustees, for example on the subject of provenance research.

The Kuratorium is also involved in the Dahlem Research Campus and supports the ‘DenkRaum’ sub-project in particular. The magazine and the online programme entitled ‘In weit Ferne so nah’ (‘So close from afar’) complement the Kuratorium commitment to the Dahlem research campus.

The members of the Kuratorium also support the ‘Forum Hamburger Bahnhof’. This area of the Hamburger Bahnhof, which has been redesigned since June 2023, is permanently open to the public free of charge. The ‘Forum Hamburger Bahnhof’ not only takes up the history of the building, but above all aims to be a place of dialogue that invites visitors to help shape new concepts for the museum.

Exhibition projects are also part of the companies' funding portfolio: Without the Board of Trustees, it would not have been possible to have the room on the third floor of the Humboldt Forum dedicated to Chinese court art designed as a permanent installation by the architect and Pritzker Prize winner Wang Shu. In 2023, the Kuratorium supported the successful special exhibition ‘Archaeological Treasures from Uzbekistan’. The show ‘Frans Hals. Master of the Moment’ was also sponsored by the Kuratorium and was a crowd-puller at the Gemäldegalerie am Berliner Kulturforum from July to November 2024.