The musicians of the Berliner Philharmoniker are saddened by the passing of Ulrich Eckhardt, who died in Berlin on 30 December 2025 at the age of 91. A lawyer, musician and cultural manager, he served as General Manager of the Berliner Philharmoniker in 1989–90. During his brief tenure, he oversaw the appointment of Claudio Abbado as Chief Conductor and initiated far-reaching reforms.
Born in Rheine, Westphalia, and raised in Freiburg, Ulrich Eckhardt initially studied law. He earned his doctorate at the age of 26, and simultaneously embarked on a rigorous musical education. In Freiburg, he joined the class of renowned pianist Carl Seemann; in Berlin, he studied conducting with Herbert Ahlendorf. He gained practical experience at the Municipal Theatres in Münster, where he worked for a time as répétiteur and Kapellmeister. After further positions at the University of Münster and the Federal Administrative Court in Berlin, Ulrich Eckhardt moved to Bonn City Hall as Cultural Affairs Officer in 1968. In January 1973, he was appointed Director of the Berliner Festspiele, marking the beginning of a success story that continued for 28 years, until his retirement. Under Eckhardt’s leadership, the Festspiele brought the city countless artistic highlights, fostered interdisciplinary reflection on the new and unfamiliar, and contributed to Berlin’s standing as a centre for artistic and intellectual inquiry.
Ulrich Eckhardt had felt closely connected to the Berliner Philharmoniker since the era of Herbert von Karajan. In the years of political change surrounding Berlin’s reunification in 1989–90, alongside his work at the Festspiele, he served as interim General Manager of the orchestra, accompanying the appointment of Claudio Abbado as Chief Conductor and, together with him, presiding over a period of institutional renewal. Within a few months, Abbado and Eckhardt developed genre-spanning cycles and launched the major interdisciplinary projects Prometheus (1991), Hölderlin (1992) and Antiquity (1993). Eckhardt consistently pursued an interdisciplinary approach that brought music, literature and the visual arts into dialogue, establishing new benchmarks for curatorial practice in the early 1990s. Objective and free of pretension, curious and sensitive, courteous and considerate, yet decisive and determined, Eckhardt modernised the administration of the Berliner Philharmoniker during his short period in office.
Even after his retirement in 2000, music remained Eckhardt’s passion. He was particularly committed to the great Schuke organ of the Berlin Philharmonie. In 2008, he persuaded the General Manager of the Berliner Philharmoniker, Pamela Rosenberg, to realise his idea of presenting organ matinées on four Sundays each season. The organ series he curated quickly evolved from an insider tip to a major success. Eckhardt also ensured that essential repairs and modernisation work were carried out on the instrument. The fact that the Philharmonie Berlin is now home to one of the most important concert-hall organs in Europe is due in no small measure to his efforts.
With Ulrich Eckhardt, the world loses not only an influential cultural manager, but an impresario of the old school and a person of rare refinement. “He realised our dreams,” wrote Claus Peymann on the occasion of Eckhardt’s farewell in 2000. “He approaches people with kindness, and he respects artists because he loves them.”