Thorsten Strauß remains at the helm of the Board of Trustees of Prussian Cultural Heritage: Representatives of German business accompany the transformation of the SPK
Press release from 06/12/2020
Thorsten Strauß, representative of Deutsche Bank AG on the Board of Trustees of Prussian Cultural Heritage and Managing Director of Thor Advisors GmbH, will continue to head the Board of Trustees of Prussian Cultural Heritage for another year. He was unanimously confirmed as Chairman at the end of May and was already involved in the previous Board of Trustees of the Museum Island. Dr Helen Müller, Head of Cultural Affairs and Corporate History at Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA, was elected as his deputy. She succeeds Anne Reidt, Head of Cultural Affairs at ZDF.
The Board of Trustees of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation is an association of leading German commercial enterprises with the aim of promoting selected activities of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation as part of a strategic partnership.
The following companies are members of the Board of Trustees, which was founded in 2014: Bayer AG, Bertelsmann SE & Co KGaA, Daimler AG, Deutsche Bank AG, Linde, KPMG AG, SAP SE, Siemens AG, Würth Group and ZDF.
Thorsten Strauß said after his re-election: "The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation is the most important cultural player in Germany with unimagined possibilities. At the same time, it is clear that the SPK is not facing easy times due to the coronavirus crisis. For the companies of the Board of Trustees of Prussian Cultural Heritage, however, it is clear that we are standing by the SPK right now. Even if we all don't yet know how the economic situation will develop, we still need a healthy cultural and artistic landscape in the future."
Strauß emphasised that the Board of Trustees is not just about sponsorship: "The projects we support should be sustainable and make the SPK as a whole more modern, more powerful and more tangible." A key issue and a major challenge is the digital transformation: "The Foundation's collections are public and must therefore be accessible to everyone. Digitalisation is playing an increasingly important role in this. It is of immense importance to present ourselves in a contemporary way and to provide customers and visitors with offers that are up to date. Technology, structures and communication must be adapted to developments, which means enormous effort and expense. We have also been experiencing this challenge in our companies for several years and would therefore like to support SPK in this endeavour. The SPK needs to become even faster here - but an incredible amount has already been achieved for visitors."
Hermann Parzinger, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, on the collaboration: "As Germany's largest cultural organisation, we are in constant competition with many other organisations. We want and need to be state of the art in order to fulfil our role as a leading cultural institution. The Kuratorium Preussischer Kulturbesitz supports our work in an exemplary manner. I would like to thank all members of the Board of Trustees for their financial commitment and constructive cooperation and look forward to continuing the partnership!"