Johanna Oetker
Johanna Oetker is currently on leave. We are looking forward to welcoming her back to New Leipzig Talents soon.
Johanna Oetker was born in 1979. During her master’s program in History and German Romanic languages at the Humboldt University of Berlin, she founded the hostess agency allez-y. After her graduation, she worked actively for different internal and external European opera houses in the area of dramaturgy. She has been a guest member of the board of the COGNOS AG since 2012.
Johanna Oetker lives in Berlin, where she is involved in the local committee of the human rights organization Human Rights Watch.
Johanna's confessions
Q. DO YOU HAVE A ROLE MODEL OR LIFE MOTTO?
A. My role models change with the stages in my life. In general I look up to down to earth people that are enthusiastic about various things and build bridges between different areas of life.
Q. WHAT EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE STANDS OUT IN YOUR MEMORY?
A. My professor at Frankfurter Lessing-Gymnasium made a mark on all of us as students and as people in a very positive way. His wise natural authority developed our class from inspiring fear on campus to becoming respectful students. In terms of education in the strict sense: I believe I learned immensely from the discussions with one of my literature professors at Humboldt University.
Q. WHAT Can you not laugh about?
A. Violence.
Q. WHAT’S A BEAUTIFUL THING YOU bought yourself RECENTLY?
A. A summer dress.
Q. WHAT BOOK WOULD YOU NEVER GIVE AWAY?
A. To choose only one would be very difficult. I would choose three: Fontane’s “Trials and Tribulations”, Philip Roth’s “Goodbye Columbus” and Urs Widmer’s “Der blaue Siphon”.
Q. WHEN DO YOU FEEL MOST ALIVE?
A. In the theater, the concert or the opera, and in nature.
Q. WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IN?
A. Education and culture.
Q. WHERE IS YOUR MOST PEACEFUL PLACE?
A. In nature with certain landscapes.
Q. What was the last good deed you did?
A. My last important good deed was collaborating in the successful implementation of the recent Berlin Fundraising Dinners at Human Rights Watch. For some time I have been involved in this remarkable human rights organization in Berlin.
Q. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MUSIC?
A. Again, very hard to decide, I like so many types! But if I must choose: Stevie Wonder and Franz Schubert.
Q. Beginning or finishing? Which is harder to do?
A. It depends! But the saying is probably correct: “Every beginning is difficult.”