From an entrepreneur to a sponsor of culture

His parting from ultrafilter has opened up free space that he was denied for decades as an entrepreneur. Dirk G. Kronsbein has been a lover of aesthetics, and a fan of art and culture, since he was young. Now his mind and heart are free to devote themselves to these. As a fan of musicals, fate first took him to London and the world of piano music against his will (“I asked for a seat right on the edge so that I could leg it at any moment”).He heard Daniel Barenboim play at the Royal Albert Hall, and the concert was to be a key moment. Since then Dirk G. Kronsbein has been a joyous traveller through the world of classical music, and a regular guest at major events in Milan, Vienna, Salzburg, Munich, London and New York. Alongside this, his heart belongs to the visual arts.

But not only to them. Dirk G. Kronsbein may well have devoted his new life to the fine art, but dying for beauty is not his thing. He is and remains a visionary and an achiever, but more than ever also a patron. As a collector and sponsor, today he looks for and creates success for young or unknown talents. But this has long been a question of providing much more than just financial support. His protégés also benefit from the vast “Kronsbein network”, which the entrepreneur has built up and maintained over the decades. Just as was once the case in sales, today it gives him enormous pleasure to bring together people that belong together: classical fans and young pianists, painters and photographers with the “right” collectors, artists and the public. With his own intuition and the persistence that his business partners once praised, today he selects art and artists, creates the framework, and ensures the essential media coverage. Since 2013 Dirk G. Kronsbein’s own “Galerie Kronsbein” in the heart of Munich has functioned as a creative hub and pivotal point.

Nonetheless, the question of whether he himself might produce any artistic creations brings a smile to his lips: “Painting in the sense of pictures for the soul - perhaps. But I won’t be touching any instruments – I could never learn them well enough now that other people and I would both like it.”