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 prod ...

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

Bertelsmann Music Group Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) was a division of a German media company Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Sony Corporation of America on 1 October 2008. Although it was established in 1987, the music co ...

, 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. busines ...

. It was once well known for its very successful radio plays for children and young people. The founder of Europa, American ex-pat

David L. Miller David Leonard Miller (July 4, 1925May 24, 1985) was an American record producer and the founder of many budget album record companies. Miller is more familiar to some record buyers and collectors as the notorious Leo Muller who produced many Ex ...

, is best known outside of Germany for creating 101 Strings.

History of the Europa label

* 1956: The Miller International Record Company is formed by

Wilhelm Wille Wilhelm may refer to: People and fictional characters * William Charles John Pitcher, costume designer known professionally as "Wilhelm" * Wilhelm (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname Other uses * Mou ...

and

Andreas Erich Beurmann Andreas ( el, Ἀνδρέας) is a name usually given to males in Austria, Greece, Cyprus, Denmark, Armenia, Estonia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Finland, Flanders, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Romania, the Netherlands, and Indonesia. The name ...

in Quickborn near

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

. 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 A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful beings. In most cult ...

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 th ...

, 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 Hans Gerhard Franciskowsky (14 January 1936 – 3 November 2011) was a German author of popular fiction, notably science fiction, and radio dramas. He wrote pseudonymously, most often as H. G. Francis, or as Hans G. Francis, H. G. Francisco, Gunthe ...

's films. Douglas Welbat is responsible for the film scripts of the series '' Macabros'' and ''

Larry Brent Larry is a masculine given name in English, derived from Lawrence or Laurence. It can be a shortened form of those names. Larry may refer to the following: People Arts and entertainment *Larry D. Alexander, American artist/writer *Larry Boone, ...

''.

Directors

There have been four directors 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 A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmospher ...

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 ...

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 white ...

'' 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 r ...

. # 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 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 Alfre ...

'', '' TKKG'', '' Sherlock Holmes'', ''

Commander Perkins ''Commander Perkins'' is a German science fiction series by H. G. Francis, published partly as audio plays and partly as a series of novels. Background The series is set approximately 50 to 100 years in the future. Mankind has settled the Moon, w ...

'', '' Perry Rhodan'', ''

Die Funk-Füchse Die, as a verb, refers to death, the cessation of life. Die may also refer to: Games * Die, singular of dice, small throwable objects used for producing random numbers Manufacturing * Die (integrated circuit), a rectangular piece of a semicond ...

'' and '' Die Gruselserie''. Since end of the 1990s,

André Minninger André — sometimes transliterated as Andre — is the French and Portuguese form of the name Andrew, and is now also used in the English-speaking world. It used in France, Quebec, Canada and other French-speaking countries. It is a variation o ...

has also produced the radio plays. Minninger is also the author of some of the German '' Three investigators'' 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. 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 A personal computer game, also known as a PC game or computer game, is a type of video game played on a personal computer (PC) rather than a video game console or arcade machine. Its defining characteristics include: more diverse and user-d ...

. At the beginning of the 1990s, the two series ''

'' 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 ''internetworking, network of networks'' that consists ...

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

References

External links