International Days

The International Days are a Cultural Commitment of Boehringer Ingelheim. Since 1959.

The Ingelheim International Days are a cultural commitment of Boehringer Ingelheim. Since 1959. They take place annually, always between May and July.

To get to know Japanese woodblock prints and masks from the South Seas, antiques from Pergamon and works by Picasso, the Viennese Biedermeier period or the spirit of the 1950s in Paris, you don’t necessarily need to travel to the great museums of the world. For over four decades, the International Days have offered insights into the art and culture of our world, when the Old Town Hall in Ingelheim am Rhein becomes the venue for thematic or monographic exhibitions every year.

In the beginning, there was the idea of providing insights into the life and culture of other nations and peoples in the environment of an internationally active company: the guiding principle of cultural openness and further education prompted Dr. Ernst Boehringer, as co-owner of the family company Boehringer Ingelheim, to organize a cultural festival in 1959. The group of International Days was led for almost three decades by the Swiss Dr. François Lachenal (1918–1997).

The first International Days were dedicated to Switzerland and included a small exhibition and a colorful program of lectures and culinary specialties. The blueprint for the future had been drawn, and the International Days were to develop with their own dynamic.

The exhibitions soon became the focal point of the now weeks-long event, and in 1966, with “Goya,” an individual artist could be presented for the first time. From 1988, the International Days were headed by Dr. Patricia Rochard, who set new accents in much-acclaimed monographic and thematic exhibitions, especially with art after 1945 and the medium of photography. In 2013, Dr. Ulrich Luckhardt took over the management of the International Days, focusing on classical modernism, especially printmaking. In 2023, Dr. Katharina Henkel followed as director. Her program spans a temporal and cross-genre arc from around 1900 to the present in thematic and monographic exhibitions.

A diverse supporting program and the firm integration into the network of a regional culture continue to guarantee the broad public response of the established International Days in the entire Rhine-Main region.