Axel Halling

Cultural Manager at the Lenau-Haus in Pécs, Hungary, 2004-2007

At the Lenau-Haus, a cultural center run by the German minority in Hungary, Axel Halling devoted himself to the conceptual and programmatic advancement of the institution. He built a national network in the areas of culture and education through which he conducted projects in the areas of education, art and media for a diversified audience.

Background

Axel Halling studied Eastern European Studies, Southeast and Eastern European History at the Freie Universität Berlin and Hungarian Studies at the Humboldt Universität in Berlin with semesters abroad at the Sorbonne Nouvelle/INALCO Paris and the ELTE Budapest. From 1996-2000 he worked as Press Spokesman and Program Employee at the Hungarian Cultural Institute Berlin.

Since 1996 he participated as co-author and co-editor in a project and two publications about the memoirs of Tscherniwzi Jews from the Ukraine and Israel: “Zwischen Pruth und Jordan. Lebenserinnerungen Czernowitzer Juden”, Cologne, Böhlau Verlag 2003; “Czernowitz is gewen an alte jidische Stodt”, Tscherniwzi 1998 and Heinrich Böll Foundation 1999; the latter appeared in 2009 in a completely revised edition with audio-CD from the Deutsche Kulturforum Östliches Europa Potsdam under the new title "…und das herz wird mir schwer dabei".

From 1999-2000 he was co-founder and Director of the Barakk Gallery, Berlin. From 2000-2004 he worked for the faculty of Eastern and Central European History at Humboldt University of Berlin and in the editing and news service of the media watch organization “Ausschnitt GmbH”.

Current

He is currently project manager of the "Community Foundations Initiative" (Initiative Bürgerstiftungen) and the “Community Foundations Initiative East” (Initiative Bürger- und Gemeinschaftsstiftungen Ost) in the Association of German Foundations (Bundesverband Deutscher Stiftungen), Berlin, since 2008.

He is also continuing the exhibition and book project “Homes, Residents” with exhibitions in Budapest and Stuttgart; a book in german and Hungarian language was published 2008 by kijárat kiadó in Budapest: Axel Halling, N. Kovács Tímea, Lidia Tirri: “A legmodernebb lakótelep – die modernste Wohnsiedlung“.

Since 2008 he is an active member of the Robert Bosch Kulturmanager Alumni in ECE network and was co-organizer of the Alumni-meetings in Berlin 2009, Brussels 2009, Berlin 2010, Pécs 2010 and Essen/Ruhrgebiet 2010.