DEAG Classics Acquires Literature Festival Lit.Cologne in Germany

lit.cologne MD Rainer Osnowski talking during this year
lit.cologne/Ast/Juergens – lit.cologne MD Rainer Osnowski talking during this year
Osnowski and his team remain in their respective roles after the DEAG Classics acquisition.

Deutsche Entertainment AG (DEAG), through its wholly owned subsidiary DEAG Classics, announced the acquisition of 66.6% of the shares in lit.cologne, one of Europe’s largest literature festivals.

Rainer Osnowski, managing partner and co-founder of lit.cologne, will remain on board as a shareholder and managing director and continue to run the company in the long term together with his team, which will remain entirely with the company, according to the announcement.
Through the acquisition, DEAG is expanding its activities in the field of “Literatainment, bringing the most exciting names in culture and entertainment to audiences in Europe and beyond. Both partners expect synergy effects from the cooperation in the development of new formats as well as in the acquisition of new venues and in the ticketing business,” the announcement continues.
Founded in Cologne in 2000, the festival’s audience grew to more than 100,000 at the last physical edition in 2019. Up to 200 events take place as part of lit.cologne’s program each year, a dedicated program for children and teenagers was added in 2011 in the for of lit.kid.cologne. This year, 
lit.cologne went down as a digital edition with a total of 54 events.
The live formats include traditional author readings, dramaturgically staged versions as well as meeting of minds and conversations between renowned authors and actors. 
The guest list of recent years includes T.C. Boyle, Bret Easton Ellis, Susan Sonntag, Karl Lagerfeld, Daniel Kehlmann, Jonathan Franzen, John Irving, Juli Zeh, Henning Mankell, Patti Smith, Herbert Grönemeyer, Matthias Brandt, Iris Berben, Charles Aznavour, Doris Lessing or Christoph Waltz.
DEAG already announced, that it “sees further, highly interesting European companies in which the company would like to invest in the coming months and years. For this reason, DEAG’s Executive Board has commissioned a renowned American investment bank to identify further new international investors for the company, so that DEAG can continue its growth path outside its current core markets.”
Peter Schwenkow, CEO of DEAG, and Jacqueline Zich, divisional board member of DEAG Classics AG, released a joint statement: “We are very pleased with our partnership with Rainer Osnowski and his team, who have built up Europe’s largest literature festival and also know how to inspire their audiences with new formats such as lit.ruhr and phil.cologne. Being able to contribute to the further development of formats and support the long-term direction of the festivals with our live expertise and our European network fills us with great joy.”
 
Rainer Osnowski added: “The partnership with DEAG Classics in this form, which leaves the festival as such untouched in terms of content and structure, is certainly something of a rarity these days. On the one hand, this partnership is a further step towards securing the long-term future of the festival alongside the great commitment of our main sponsors and partners. On the other hand, this alliance offers the mutual know-how in the live sector and the passion for first-class live events many opportunities for further joint development. I am very pleased about this and look forward to working together.”