Privacy Policy
12 December 2025
1. Data protection at a glance
General information on data collection on our website
The following information provides a simple overview of what happens to your personal data when you visit our website or purchase a ticket for the Handel Festival or events organised by the Handel House Foundation in our online shop. Personal data is any data that can be used to identify you personally. For detailed information on data protection, please refer to our privacy policy below.
Who is responsible for data collection on this website?
Data processing on this website is carried out by the website operator. Their contact details can be found in the legal notice on this website.
How do we collect your data?
Your data is collected when you provide it to us. This may be data that you enter in a contact form, for example.
Other data is collected automatically by our IT systems when you visit the website. This is mainly technical data (e.g. internet browser, operating system or time of page view). This data is collected automatically as soon as you enter our website.
What do we use your data for?
Some of the data is collected to ensure that the website functions correctly. Other data may be used to analyse your user behaviour.
If contracts can be concluded or initiated via the website, the transmitted data will also be processed for contract offers, orders or other order enquiries.
What rights do you have regarding your data?
You have the right to obtain information about the origin, recipient and purpose of your stored personal data free of charge at any time. You also have the right to request the restriction of the processing of your personal data under certain circumstances. You can contact us at any time at the address given in the imprint if you have any further questions on the subject of data protection. Furthermore, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the competent supervisory authority.
Ticket sales
We use the ‘Tixly’ ticket system provided by TIXLY GmbH, Nymphenburgerstraße 4, 80335 Munich, to sell tickets for the Handel Festival Halle and events organised by the Handel House Foundation.
To process your ticket purchase, we require your surname, first name, address (street, house number, postcode, town, country) and, if applicable, your telephone number. We require your email address so that we can confirm your order and communicate with you. The email address is also used for your identification (customer login). In addition to an order confirmation, you will also receive an invoice, confirmation of your credit card payment or your digital tickets via your email address.
The use of the Tixly system is based on a software licence agreement and on the legal basis for the fulfilment of a contract or in the course of pre-contractual measures when you purchase a ticket for the Handel Festival or events organised by the Handel House Foundation.
Event mailing
With our event mailings before and after the Handel Festival, we inform our ticket buyers about relevant topics via newsletters about the Handel Festival and concert series of the Handel House Foundation, as well as news from our museums, the Handel House and the Wilhelm Friedemann Bach House, as this is in the legitimate interest of the contracting parties involved according to the GDPR.
Order agreement
We have concluded a service contract via the order agreement (AVV) for the use of the above-mentioned service. This is a contract required by data protection law which ensures that the personal data on our website is only processed in accordance with our instructions and in compliance with the GDPR.
Analysis tools and third-party tools
When you visit our website, your surfing behaviour may be statistically evaluated. This is mainly done with cookies and so-called analysis programmes. The analysis of your surfing behaviour is usually anonymous; your surfing behaviour cannot be traced back to you. You can object to this analysis or prevent it by not using certain tools. Detailed information on this can be found in the following privacy policy.
You can object to this analysis. We will inform you about the options for objection in this privacy policy.
2. General information and mandatory information
Data protection
The operators of these pages take the protection of your personal data very seriously. We treat your personal data confidentially and in accordance with the statutory data protection regulations and this data protection declaration.
When you use this website, various personal data is collected. Personal data is data with which you can be personally identified. This privacy policy explains what data we collect and what we use it for. It also explains how and for what purpose this is done.
We would like to point out that data transmission over the Internet (e.g. when communicating by e-mail) can have security gaps. Complete protection of data against access by third parties is not possible.
Information about the responsible body
The responsible body for data processing on this website is:
Händel-Haus Halle Foundation
Große Nikolaistraße 5
06108 Halle (Saale)
Telephone +49(0) 345 500 900
Fax +49(0) 345 500 90 416
Email: stiftung@haendelhaus.de
The responsible body is the natural or legal person who, alone or jointly with others, decides on the purposes and means of processing personal data (e.g. names, email addresses, etc.).
Storage period
Unless a specific storage period is specified in this privacy policy, your personal data will remain with us until the purpose for data processing no longer applies. If you assert a legitimate request for deletion or revoke your consent to data processing, your data will be deleted unless we have other legally permissible reasons for storing your personal data (e.g. tax or commercial law retention periods); in the latter case, deletion will take place once these reasons no longer apply.
General information on the legal basis for data processing on this website
If you have consented to data processing, we process your personal data on the basis of Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR or Art. 9(2)(a) GDPR, provided that special categories of data are processed in accordance with Art. 9(1) GDPR. In the event of express consent to the transfer of personal data to third countries, data processing is also carried out on the basis of Art. 49(1)(a) GDPR. If you have consented to the storage of cookies or access to information on your end device (e.g. via device fingerprinting), data processing is also carried out on the basis of Section 25(1) TDDDG. Consent can be revoked at any time. If your data is necessary for the performance of a contract or for the implementation of pre-contractual measures, we process your data on the basis of Art. 6 (1) lit. B GDPR. Furthermore, we process your data if it is necessary to fulfil a legal obligation on the basis of Art. 6 (1) lit. C GDPR. Data processing may also be carried out on the basis of our legitimate interest pursuant to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. F GDPR. The relevant legal basis in each individual case is explained in the following paragraphs of this privacy policy.
External data protection officer:
GfI Gesellschaft für Informationssicherheit mbH
Universitätsring 14
06108 Halle (Saale)
Email: edsb@gfi-sicherheit.de
Recipients of personal data
We work with various external bodies in the course of our business activities. This sometimes requires the transfer of personal data to these external bodies. We only pass on personal data to external bodies if this is necessary for the fulfilment of a contract or if we are legally obliged to do so (e.g. disclosure of data to tax authorities or similar), if we have a legitimate interest in the disclosure in accordance with Art. 6 (1) lit. F GDPR, or if another legal basis permits the disclosure of data. When using processors, we only pass on our customers' personal data on the basis of a valid contract for data processing. In the case of joint processing, a contract for joint processing is concluded.
Revocation of your consent to data processing
Many data processing operations are only possible with your express consent. You can revoke your consent at any time. To do so, simply send us an informal email. The legality of the data processing carried out until the revocation remains unaffected by the revocation.
Right to lodge a complaint with the competent supervisory authority
In the event of violations of data protection law, the data subject has the right to lodge a complaint with the competent supervisory authority. The competent supervisory authority for data protection issues is the state data protection officer of the federal state in which our company is based. A list of data protection officers and their contact details can be found at the following link: https://www.bfdi.bund.de/DE/Infothek/Anschriften_Links/anschriften_links-node.html
Right to data portability
You have the right to have data that we process automatically on the basis of your consent or in fulfilment of a contract handed over to you or to a third party in a common, machine-readable format. If you request the direct transfer of the data to another controller, this will only be done to the extent that it is technically feasible.
SSL or TLS encryption
For security reasons and to protect the transmission of confidential content, such as orders or enquiries that you send to us as the site operator, this site uses SSL or TLS encryption. You can recognise an encrypted connection by the fact that the address line of the browser changes from ‘http://’ to ‘https://’ and by the lock symbol in your browser line.
If SSL or TLS encryption is activated, the data you transmit to us cannot be read by third parties.
Information, blocking, deletion
Within the framework of the applicable legal provisions, you have the right to obtain information free of charge at any time about your stored personal data, its origin and recipients, and the purpose of data processing, and, if applicable, a right to correct, block or delete this data. You can contact us at any time at the address given in the imprint if you have any further questions on the subject of personal data.
3. Data collection on our website
Cookies
Some of our web pages use cookies. Cookies do not harm your computer and do not contain viruses. Cookies serve to make our website more user-friendly, effective and secure. Cookies are small text files that are stored on your computer and saved by your browser.
Most of the cookies we use are so-called session cookies. They are automatically deleted at the end of your visit. Other cookies remain stored on your device until you delete them. These cookies enable us to recognise your browser the next time you visit.
You can set your browser so that you are informed about the setting of cookies and only allow cookies in individual cases, exclude the acceptance of cookies for certain cases or in general, and activate the automatic deletion of cookies when you close your browser. If you deactivate cookies, the functionality of this website may be restricted.
Cookies that are necessary for the electronic communication process or for the provision of certain functions requested by you (e.g. shopping basket function) are stored on the basis of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR. The website operator has a legitimate interest in storing cookies for the technically error-free and optimised provision of its services. If other cookies (e.g. cookies for analysing your surfing behaviour) are stored, these are treated separately in this privacy policy.
Server log files
The provider of the pages automatically collects and stores information in so-called server log files, which your browser automatically transmits to us. These are:
• Browser type and browser version
• Operating system used
• Referrer URL
• Host name of the accessing computer
• Time of the server request
• IP address
This data is not merged with other data sources.
The basis for data processing is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b GDPR, which permits the processing of data for the fulfilment of a contract or pre-contractual measures.
Contact form
If you send us enquiries via the contact form, your details from the enquiry form, including the contact details you provided there, will be stored by us for the purpose of processing the enquiry and in case of follow-up questions. We will not pass on this data without your consent.
The data entered in the contact form is therefore processed exclusively on the basis of your consent (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR). You can revoke this consent at any time. To do so, simply send us an informal email. The legality of the data processing operations carried out until revocation remains unaffected by the revocation.
The data you enter in the contact form will remain with us until you request us to delete it, revoke your consent to its storage, or the purpose for data storage no longer applies (e.g. after your enquiry has been processed). Mandatory legal provisions – in particular retention periods – remain unaffected.
4. Analysis tools and advertising
Matomo (formerly Piwik)
This website uses the open source web analysis service Matomo. Matomo uses so-called cookies. These are text files that are stored on your computer and enable an analysis of your use of the website. For this purpose, the information generated by the cookie about your use of this website is stored on our server. The IP address is anonymised before storage.
Matomo cookies remain on your device until you delete them.
Matomo cookies are stored on the basis of Art. 6 (1) lit. f GDPR. The website operator has a legitimate interest in the anonymous analysis of user behaviour in order to optimise both its website and its advertising.
The information generated by the cookie about your use of this website will not be disclosed to third parties. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser; however, please note that if you do this, you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website. If you do not agree to the storage and use of your data, you can deactivate the storage and use here. In this case, an opt-out cookie will be stored in your browser, which prevents Matomo from storing usage data. If you delete your cookies, this will also delete the Matomo opt-out cookie. The opt-out must be reactivated when you visit our site again.
Matomo settings
Matomo is set up on the server side to respect the browser's ‘Do Not Track’ settings. In addition, the last 2 bytes of the IP address are deleted.
Visitor logs are automatically deleted after 90 days, and archived reports are cleaned up and deleted after 6 months.
5. Plugins and tools
YouTube
Our website uses plugins from the Google-operated site YouTube. The operator of the site is YouTube, LLC, 901 Cherry Ave., San Bruno, CA 94066, USA.
When you visit one of our pages equipped with a YouTube plugin, a connection to the YouTube servers is established. This tells the YouTube server which of our pages you have visited.
If you are logged into your YouTube account, you enable YouTube to associate your browsing behaviour directly with your personal profile. You can prevent this by logging out of your YouTube account.
The use of YouTube is in the interest of an appealing presentation of our online offerings. This constitutes a legitimate interest within the meaning of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR.
Further information on the handling of user data can be found in YouTube's privacy policy at: https://www.google.de/intl/de/policies/privacy
Vimeo
Our website uses plugins from the video portal Vimeo. The provider is Vimeo Inc., 555 West 18th Street, New York, New York 10011, USA.
When you visit one of our pages equipped with a Vimeo plugin, a connection to the Vimeo servers is established. The Vimeo server is informed which of our pages you have visited. Vimeo also obtains your IP address. This also applies if you are not logged in to Vimeo or do not have a Vimeo account. The information collected by Vimeo is transmitted to the Vimeo server in the USA.
If you are logged into your Vimeo account, you enable Vimeo to assign your surfing behaviour directly to your personal profile. You can prevent this by logging out of your Vimeo account.
Further information on the handling of user data can be found in Vimeo's privacy policy at: https://vimeo.com/privacy