The Gift of a New Opera House, With a Grim Family History Attached
As images of models dressed in gender-bending costumes flashed across the screen at a presentation in March, Kratzer outlined a season of reinvented classics and new commissions that combined avant-garde stagings with big political themes.
The creative shift is happening alongside an even riskier development for the institution: a flashy new opera house near the city's waterfront. Sitting alongside Kratzer, Hamburg's culture minister, Carsten Brosda, unveiled the plans for the new building, which is expected to cost approximately 340 million euros, around $394 million.
In a rarity for Germany, where flagship cultural projects are usually financed with public funds, the construction will be financed by a private benefactor. The city will only need to provide the land and some infrastructure, like flood protection measures. Brosda said it was 'incredible' that someone was willing to 'donate an opera house to a city.'
Brosda didn't mention that benefactor's name: Klaus-Michael Kühne, 88, a German billionaire. Nor did Brosda mention the controversy around the source of Kühne's fortune. His family's company, Kühne + Nagel, is one of the world's largest logistics firms, and collaborated with the Nazi regime to transport goods stolen from Jews during World War II.
Unlike the leadership of most other companies implicated in the crimes of the Third Reich, Kühne has resisted calls for an investigation by independent historians into its actions during the war and publicly stated that its behavior in the Nazi era is no longer relevant.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
ASM second-quarter bookings disappoint, cites order timing
By Nathan Vifflin AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -Computer chip equipment maker ASM International reported second-quarter bookings below market expectations on Tuesday, citing uneven order timing from chipmakers making advanced chips. The Dutch firm said order intake was "lumpy" and it expects orders from those chipmakers to pick up again in the third quarter. Analysts consider ASM one of the firms best positioned for the coming years as its sales mix is geared toward the cutting-edge segment strongly benefiting from the artificial intelligence race. But the global semiconductor equipment sector faces headwinds including tariff uncertainty, weaknesses at major customers Intel and Samsung and a sustained downturn in all other chip markets. "Second-quarter profits beat, but bookings and outlook for the third-quarter bookings point to stagnation", Degroof Petercam analyst Michael Roeg said. Bookings, the industry's most closely watched figure, came in at 702.5 million euros ($825 million) in the second quarter, against the 843 millions euros that analysts were expecting, according to a consensus compiled by researcher Visible Alpha. ASM also projected orders in the third quarter would fall below third-quarter sales, which it said would flat to slightly lower than the second quarter's 835.6 million euros. Second-quarter adjusted operating earnings were 263 million euros, a 31.5% margin, against market expectations of 223 million euros. "The market environment continued to show a mixed picture in the second quarter. Growth in AI is fueling ongoing capacity expansion... Conditions in most of the other market segments are still slow," the company said in a statement. On Wednesday, peer ASML warned of delayed orders as chipmakers building factories in the U.S. await clarity on the potential impact of tariffs. ($1 = 0.8512 euros) Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Skift
an hour ago
- Skift
KKR Becomes ‘Significant Minority Investor' in Booking.com Partner eTraveli Group
sees growing its flights business as a strategic priority. An eTraveli deal may still be on its agenda if it can get the courts to overturn a competition decision. If Booking Holdings gets the chance to again try and acquire its flight-services partner eTraveli Group, it likely would have to pay nearly double the $1.8 billion the two parties agreed to in 2021. eTraveli Group announced this week that private equity firm KKR became "a significant minority investor," and Bloomberg quoted sources as saying that the valuation was $3.1 billion. Fellow private equity company CVC Capital Partners is the majority investor. Amsterdam-based Booking and Stockholm-headquartered eTraveli Group, which powers growing flights business, agreed to the $1.8 billion deal in 2021, but the European C
Gizmodo
an hour ago
- Gizmodo
RIP Ozzy Osbourne, Music Legend and Master of the Macabre
Ozzy Osbourne, famed heavy metal singer, has died at the age of 76—just a few weeks after performing in Black Sabbath's last official concert. He also enjoyed a robust solo career as well as fame that went beyond music. That included stints as a reality TV superstar thanks to MTV's hit series The Osbournes, but also as a touchstone figure for fans who revered his notorious antics over the years as 'the Prince of Darkness.' While many obituaries will go out today highlighting Osbourne's many contributions to music, it's also worth remembering his contributions to culture even offstage. His status as a metal superstar meant his influence filtered into adjacent media—including video games: he appeared in a World of Warcraft commercial and had songs included in Guitar Hero. He also became something of a counterculture hero, especially during the 'Satanic Panic' era of the 1980s and beyond, when the powers that be seized upon supposed hidden meanings in his songs—and fans found their own sources of strength in music that encouraged listeners to expand their minds beyond the status quo. Films and TV shows looking to create characters with similarly edgy outlooks often tapped into Black Sabbath songs and artwork as shorthand for conveying that—or just used the tunes as they made sense thematically. What would Marvel's Iron Man be without that 'Iron Man' needle drop, to name one example? Osbourne was known to be having serious health problems, which were evident onstage at the 'Back to the Beginning' farewell concert earlier in July—but given the colorful way he'd lived his life (his Behind the Music episode offers a vivid primer), we were lucky to have him as long as we did. Horns up to a legend whose voice will live on forever. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
