So long, Rainer Rother

Press release, 9 April 2025

After 19 years, the Deutsche Kinemathek is saying goodbye to its artistic director, Rainer Rother, who has been the institute’s public face for many years. On May 1, 2025, he will start his retirement.

Rother has played a key role in the Kinemathek’s development for nearly two decades. He has curated approximately 50 exhibitions, including “Loriot,” “Martin Scorsese,” “Wenn ich sonntags in mein Kino geh,” and, most recently, “Der deutsche Film,” in which he coupled his curatorial aims with a political perspective. Rother has initiated projects across different media such as “Wir waren so frei!” and interdisciplinary conferences, such as “Hitler darstellen.” From the outset, he has supported the integration of television into the scope of the Kinemathek’s work. He also expanded exhibition formats to include material for children. Thanks to Rother’s dedication, the film heritage festival, Film Restored, now in its tenth year, has become an integral part of the Kinemathek’s operations. Under Rother’s aegis, the institute has taken on the pre-mortem bequests and estates of significant artists such as Ken Adam, Ulrike Ottinger, and Werner Herzog. 

Before joining the Kinemathek, Rother curated highly acclaimed exhibitions at the German Historical Museum (DHM) such as “Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit. Wege der Deutschen 1949–1999” and “Der Weltkrieg 1914–1918” while making his mark as the director of the Zeughaus cinema and contributing his expertise to the Kinemathek. 

When he took up his role as artistic director of the Kinemathek, he stengthened the international exchange on the future of audiovisual heritage by cooperating with the FIAF (Fédération Internationale des Archives du Film) among others. It is largely thanks to Rother’s efforts that the FIAF Congress will take place in Berlin in 2027. As an honorary member of the German Film Academy and the chair of the coordinating council of the Association of German Cinematheques, he has also reinforced German networks in the film industry and heritage sector. He was a formative influence in discussions on digitizing German film heritage and developed the three-pillar model in 2019: this incorporated the concept of equal funding to analyses of perspective, conservation requirements, and curatorial interest into the film heritage funding program. 

Rainer Rother is known to a wider audience as an author and publisher, as well as the director of the Berlinale Retrospective. His last Berlinale retrospective in 2025 was dedicated to the German genre film of the 1970s, provocatively titled: “Wild, Weird, and Bloody.” His commitment to raising public awareness about the importance of audiovisual heritage stems from his belief that images, voices, and stories must be preserved for future generations. Rother is an advocate of a future film house in Berlin which will raise the profile of cinema in the capital and provide a forum to meet and exchange ideas.  

Rainer Rother will hand over the reins of a transformed institution at a new location: In November, the Kinemathek will reopen to the public with a variety of presentations on film and television at its new location in E-Werk. Heleen Gerritsen will take over as artistic director in June. 

Rainer Rother: “I would like to thank all my colleagues for their wonderful commitment and inspiring collaborations. I wish Heleen Gerritsen the same joy I have felt while working at the Kinemathek, the desire to explore new paths — and a curious audience.”  

We, his colleagues, wish Rainer Rother all the best for his time after the Kinemathek! 

The Deutsche Kinemathek receives funding from the German Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media. 

Die Deutsche Kinemathek wird gefördert von der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien.