Europa (styled as EUROPA) is a German

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

, originally owned by Miller International Records Company (Germany). It has since belonged to the

MCA Inc. MCA Inc. (originally an initialism for Music Corporation of America) was an American media conglomerate founded in 1924. Originally a talent agency with artists in the music business as clients, the company became a major force in the film ind ...

and Bertelsmann Music Group, and is now owned by

Sony Corporation of America Sony Corporation of America (SONAM, also known as SCA), is the American arm of the Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation SONAM, headquartered in New York City, manages the company's US-based businesses. Sony's principal U.S. business ...

. It was once well known for its very successful

radio play Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine t ...

s for children and young people. The founder of Europa, American ex-pat David L. Miller, is best known outside of Germany for creating

101 Strings 101 Strings Orchestra was a brand for a highly successful easy listening symphonic music organization, with a discography exceeding 150 albums and a creative lifetime of around 30 years beginning in 1957. 101 Strings had a trademark sound, focusin ...

History of the Europa label

* 1956: The Miller International Record Company is formed by David L. Miller, Wilhelm Wille and Andreas Erich Beurmann in

Quickborn Quickborn is a rich town in the district of Pinneberg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It belongs to Metropolregion Hamburg and is located on the north part of Hamburg on Autobahn A7. Geography Quickborn is located about 18 km north from ...

near

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. They will create the label ''Europa''. Their aim is to produce low-cost language courses, classical music and

Background music Background music (British English: piped music) is a mode of musical performance in which the music is not intended to be a primary focus of potential listeners, but its content, character, and volume level are deliberately chosen to affect behav ...

. They also produce an LP of fairy tales of the

Brothers Grimm The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were a brother duo of German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers, and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among the ...

, narrated by

Hans Paetsch Hans Paetsch (7 December 1909 – 3 February 2002) was a German actor. He appeared in 52 films between 1939 and 2002. He is most notable for his voice acting, especially as a narrator of fairy tales and audio dramas. Selected filmography * ...

. This would become the foundation-stone of Europa's success as a record label. * 1958: Miller International inaugurates a stereo label, called Stereo-Fidelity. * 1966: ''Europa-Kinderserie'' is born and the first radio plays are produced, featuring fairy tales and adventure stories. Such radio plays are rare at the time, and the label only has moderate success. * 1980s: Europa produce H. G. Francis's films.

Douglas Welbat Douglas may refer to: People * Douglas (given name) * Douglas (surname) Animals *Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking * Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civil ...

is responsible for the film scripts of the series '' Macabros'' and '' Larry Brent''.

Directors

There have been four

directors Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

of the label: # 1966-1968 - the era of Sieglinde Dziallas. Dziallas, was the friend of Berumann, the joint founder. He used the alias ''Claudius Brac'' during the first years. During Dziallas' tenure, Beurmann attracted many more Hamburg stage actors to record the radio plays, including Hans Paetsch, Benno Gellenbeck, Peter Folken, Horst Fleck and Marga Massberg. # 1968-1972 - the era of Konrad Halver. In 1968, Dziallas suddenly died, and Beurmann withdrew from active production of the radio plays. Halver wrote and

directed Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

films and produced radio plays of

Karl May Karl Friedrich May ( , ; 25 February 1842 – 30 March 1912) was a German author. He is best known for his 19th century novels of fictitious travels and adventures, set in the American Old West with Winnetou and Old Shatterhand as main pro ...

Winnetou Winnetou is a fictional Native American hero of several novels written in German by Karl May (1842–1912), one of the best-selling German writers of all time with about 200 million copies worldwide, including the ''Winnetou'' trilogy. The ch ...

novels. Altogether Halver produced about 75 radio plays. # 1972-1973 - the era of Dagmar von Kurmin. In 1972, Halver left ''Europa'', and for a short time von Kurmin oversaw the production of some 15 radio plays, including some by Karl May and ''

Moby-Dick ''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale'' is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is the sailor Ishmael's narrative of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship ''Pequod'', for revenge against Moby Dick, the giant whi ...

'' by

Herman Melville Herman Melville ( born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are ''Moby-Dick'' (1851); ''Typee'' (1846), a rom ...

. # 1973–present - the era of Heikedine Körting. Under Körting's direction many series have been produced, including ''

Edgar Wallace Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace (1 April 1875 – 10 February 1932) was a British writer. Born into poverty as an illegitimate London child, Wallace left school at the age of 12. He joined the army at age 21 and was a war correspondent during th ...

'', '' The three investigators'', ''

TKKG The Junior detective series TKKG is a German series of audio dramas and novels created by "Stefan Wolf", a pseudonym used by Rolf Kalmuczak. The characters and their creator In all German-speaking countries they are the most commercially succe ...

'', '' Sherlock Holmes'', '' Commander Perkins'', ''

Perry Rhodan ''Perry Rhodan'' is a West German/ German space opera franchise, named after its hero. It commenced in 1961 and has been ongoing for decades, written by an ever-changing team of authors. Having sold approximately two billion copies (in novel ...

'', '' Die Funk-Füchse'' and '' Die Gruselserie''. Since end of the 1990s, André Minninger has also produced the radio plays. Minninger is also the author of some of the German ''

Three investigators The Three Investigators is an American juvenile detective book series first published as "''Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators''". It was created by Robert Arthur Jr., who believed involving a famous person such as movie director Alfr ...

'' Novels. Some of the radio plays produced during Körting's tenure have received gold and platinum discs.

Carsten Bohn controversy

A further success guarantor was the music of

Carsten Bohn Carsten Bohn (born 18 August 1948) is a German drummer and composer. He was the drummer for the German progressive rock band Frumpy from 1969 to 1972 and had a long career in the German music scene. He has recorded with Peter Baumann (ex-Tang ...

. Bohn felt that he was not sufficiently paid for his compositions and a legal dispute ensued. As a consequence, the Europa label has been unable to use his compositions since the mid-1980s.

Decline and renaissance

At the end of the 1980s, bad sales figures caused radio play production to slow down. The main reason cited for the declining sales was that children and young people were no longer interested in radio plays, preferring instead to play computer games. At the beginning of the 1990s, the two series '' The three investigators'' and ''TKKG'' were essentially all that Europa produced. However, from end of the 1990s, radio plays have experienced a renaissance. With the rise of the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

, there has been new interest in the old radio plays, and demand for new productions has also risen strongly. Increased sales of

tapes Tape or Tapes may refer to: Material A long, narrow, thin strip of material (see also Ribbon (disambiguation): Adhesive tapes * Adhesive tape, any of many varieties of backing materials coated with an adhesive * Athletic tape, pressure-sensiti ...

and LPs provided a revenue stream which made a renewed radio play boom possible. Beginning in 2000, ''Europa'' presented the old radio plays under the slogan "Rückkehr der Klassiker" ("Return of the classics"). In addition there was a renewed interest in ''The three investigators'', considered the label's flagship product. New series were produced, aimed at young listeners. In 2006, the series ''Teufelskicker'' was produced: an official licensed product of the

Football World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament has ...

References

External links