Bayer’s culture makers

Highlights Guaranteed

A separate department of Bayer, Bayer Arts & Culture, is involved in arranging a wide-ranging offering of music, theatre and art. Its manager, Dr. Volker Mattern, has been providing initiatives there since 2008 that have been a great success with audiences.

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The Bayer cultural team

An institution rich in tradition, the cultural department, provides for cultural highlights at Bayer locations. Fourteen employees under the management of Dr. Volker Mattern generate an annual program of around 150 events covering theatre, music, dance and the visual arts. An expert is in charge of each of these areas, while other employees are responsible for tasks such as administration, ticketing and relations with artists.

Bayer Arts & Culture also organizes projects and seminars involving artists and Bayer trainees.

The programme prepared by Bayer Arts & Culture is extremely well received. Around 50,000 people, roughly 6,000 of whom are subscribers, attend each season’s concerts, performances and exhibitions.

Six Managers in over 100 Years

Bayer cultural work is based on a longstanding tradition. Bayer Management Board member Dr. Carl Duisberg set up what is now the cultural department back in 1907. At that time it was called the “Abteilung für Bildungswesen” (Department for Educational Affairs). Dr. Hugo Caspari, who was in charge of the works library, became its first manager. Until now, Caspari has had only five successors: Dr. Ferdinand Gerhard (director from 1934 to 1942), Dr. Erna Kroen (1946 to 1972), Dr. Franz Willnauer (1973 to 1986), and Nikolas Kerkenrath (since 1986 to 2008) and Dr. Volker Mattern (since 2008).