Sven Väth, one of Germany's most successful techno DJs, receives the BAMBI 2024 in the category "Culture".
From an early age, Reinhold Messner has been at home in the mountains, scaling their peaks and becoming a global legend on Mount Everest. His outstanding commitment to the protection of nature and the preservation of human habitats in the mountains is just as admirable. The BAMBI 2024 in the “Our Earth” category will be awarded tonight to one of the most successful extreme mountaineers of our time: Reinhold Messner. The award will be presented to him by Helga Henge.
Reinhold Messner is an adventurer and border crosser and no less passionate an admonisher and protector. No mountain was too high for him, no challenge too great: with this life motto, he inspires people and wins them over to a cause that is particularly close to his heart: the protection of nature. He urgently appeals to us that we must all play an active part, that we must not continue to live beyond our means and that each of us must use energy responsibly.
BAMBI jury
Reinhold Messner was born in 1944 in Villnöß in South Tyrol (Italy), near Brixen, the second oldest of nine siblings. At the age of five, his father took him to his first three-thousand-meter peak, the Saß Rigas in the Dolomites. He climbed the Matterhorn as an underage truant. When, at the age of 21, he was the first to climb the direct north face of the Ortler in South Tyrol, he already had completed 500 mountain tours in the Dolomites. He studied structural and civil engineering at the University of Padua and worked as a math teacher for a year.
Between 1970 and 1986, he climbed the 14 highest mountains on earth in Asia, becoming the first person to conquer all eight-thousanders. The death of his older brother Günther on a joint expedition in 1970 marked a turning point in his attitude towards mountaineering and life. In 1978, he was the first person to conquer Nanga Parbat (Pakistan/Kashmir) on his own. In the same year, he and Peter Habeler were the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest (China/Nepal) without artificial oxygen.
In films and around 50 books, Messner talks about his expeditions and sheds light on the importance of extreme mountaineering for himself, for sport, and for the mountains. His focus increasingly shifted to protecting the environment. For five years, he was a member of the European Parliament for the Italian Green Party and campaigned for a constructive environmental policy, sustainability and climate protection. After retiring from extreme mountaineering, Messner sought new challenges, including crossing the Antarctic on skis and the Gobi Desert on foot.
In 1992, Messner and Herbert Henzler, then German head of the management consultancy McKinsey, founded the association “Die Similauner”, named after the mountain of the same name in South Tyrol, where top managers meet for mountain tours and to reflect on borderline experiences. In 2006, he opened the Messner Mountain Museum, which extends over seven buildings in South Tyrol and is dedicated to the history of the mountain worlds of South Tyrol and the Himalayas. Messner pays particular attention to the effects of alpinism on nature.
Since 1948, BAMBI has honoured individuals who have made a significant impact in Germany, achieved outstanding accomplishments, and serve as role models for the German public. This year, the award will be presented in up to twelve categories. BAMBI’s media partner is Prime Video, and the event will be streamed live at prime time from Bavaria Film Studios on November 7, 2024.
For the second consecutive year, BAMBI will be held in Munich, sponsored by the Bavarian State Chancellery. The event is supported by numerous partners, including major companies and brands. Streaming service Prime Video will broadcast the award ceremony live as a new media partner. Other official BAMBI partners this year are Aigner, Chauffeur Service Blacklane, Chopard, Elasten Trinkkollagen, HolidayCheck, IhreApotheken.de, Marc Cain, Real Techniques, Schwarzkopf, Dr. Barbara Sturm and Yacht-Magazin. Additional partners include Augustiner, Canonita, Champagne Laurent-Perrier, Degussa, Depot, Edeka, Masi, mey and Staatl. Fachingen.
