2024-10-24 14:07:00
Berlin’s senator for culture Joe Chialo was very proud that his budget surpassed the billion euro mark. It happened about a year ago. Now he has to save a lot. And there is strong protest at all levels. Even classical music stars take to the barricades.
And it all starts again in the Berlin cultural scene: the great gnashing of teeth, the fear of the savings queue that brings cuts and perhaps even death. So far everything was fine: inflation has been galloping for a long time, the consequences of Corona are still lingering financially and the world is lurching from one crisis to another.
But the union with the name Ver.di, a music lover, once again firmly demands salary increases. And in December 2023 the new position is announced nice figure Senator for culture Joe Chialo (CDU), who succeeded but not immediately, said that he had passed the billion euro threshold for Berlin’s cultural budget – and that for the next two years.
The cultural scene, constantly active in activism, but not necessarily endowed with outstanding achievements and early fortunes in some sectors at the moment, has sat back and calmed down. Then, of course, things suddenly happened very quickly. It is necessary to save.
Dilapidated theater buildings
In the summer, when everyone is already on holiday, the CDU led by Mayor Kai Wegner questions the Komische Oper. Its brilliant director and director Barrie Kosky has left and is currently under renovation. This has been going on for 30 years, like many post-war German theater buildings in recent years.
A fire is lit and a dangerous experimental balloon is released. And right now we are talking about the house, which has been housed in the permanent alternative location of the Schiller Theater, and its renovation. Only on a trial basis, of course. Outrage spreads, it’s all in good fun, the experiment is over.
And nowhere else is there a cultural expert as sober and calculating as the tireless fighter Alice Ströwer of the Greens. After all, the current government – neither the CDU nor the SPD really have culture enthusiasts in their ranks – has now understood that a minor renovation of the opera house would only cost more if the construction phase was prolonged.
But three weeks ago the culture leaders were informed by their senator that as part of the general budget cuts at least 110 million euros would have to be cut from the current budget. This would be the end for many small actors; the large ones would be reduced to mere existence, without any new, further results. Because as everyone always calculates: around 80% of the budget is made up of fixed personnel costs, 5% of energy and maintenance. 10 to 15% of the free funds remain allocated to actual art.
But they only pay for ongoing shows. If there are fewer, there will also be less revenue and, due to the indirect profitability of around eight euros for every euro of tax spent, there will also be less revenue in the state coffers. Quick cuts according to the lawnmower principle are not possible, however; contracts are stipulated at least three years in advance. Saving on culture isn’t even possible and in any case it doesn’t help much. But the withered institutions are irrevocably dead.
So large protests begin again in Berlin before concrete measures are announced. While the seemingly absurd questioning of the necessary renovation of the Komische Oper including the return to Unter den Linden, which seems absurd given the constant increase in costs, seems to be off the political table (even if the specter of a “streamlining” hovers). , the theater association and (unfortunately only a few) Berlin’s best conductors have now reportedly had their say in open letters.
One billion euros is certainly a huge figure. But Berlin’s cultural budget currently represents 2.1% of the country’s total budget: “a small investment that generates the greatest image gain for the city of Berlin. “Cuts to culture – the city’s main strength – will drastically reduce Berlin’s charisma,” said leaders of Berlin’s classical music scene.
“Preserving Berlin’s cultural diversity”
Joana Mallwitz, the still new director of the Konzerthausorchester, calls for “our cultural identity” and the low-threshold access that must continue to exist if it is not to exclusively serve the pleasures of higher income earners. Philharmonic maestro Kirill Petrenko wants to “preserve Berlin’s important cultural diversity”, while Christian Thielemann, newly installed as general music director of the State Opera, is enthusiastic about Berlin as a “synonym of cultural excellence” that must remain.
And of course well-known, but nevertheless correct arguments are raised: “In Berlin, culture is an important economic factor – as an employer in the creative industry and tourism. It is proven that more than half of Berlin’s guests come to the city for the attractive artistic and cultural offer. Cuts to culture would severely reduce this offering and would therefore lead to a massive loss of income for the entire city of Berlin.”
The theater association, supported by cultural celebrities from Daniel Barenboim to Angela Winkler, is on the same page and sees “the cultural workplace directly and on a large scale threatened by layoffs and the professional demise of many people through drastic financial cuts. After all, only 8.2% of those employed in Berlin work in the cultural sector.”
And they continue in a matter-of-fact tone: “Institutionally supported opera, concert and theater halls would be forced by cuts of this magnitude to largely reduce production and performance operations already planned and contractually agreed upon. Given the high fixed costs for staff and building maintenance, the only budgetary margin is in the artistic program.
The impact on the city’s cultural offering would be drastic: the 29 companies associated with the theater association alone reach around three million visitors every year. Houses organized under private law risked insolvency and cuts to project funding would have hit the most vulnerable sectors of the independent scene and the performing arts, literature, fine arts, dance and cultural education”.
But nowhere is salvation in sight. And whether Joe Chialo, who at the time evidently tried to position himself as a suitable federal cultural representative for CDU shadow chancellor Friedrich Merz, will be able to rise up as a messiah for culture?
In any case, he came to the State Opera only after the concert break, and then went on stage to congratulate Christian Thielemann on his inaugural concert after his “masterful Schöneberg” and to pay the very fragile Daniel Barenboim the honors that he had they had already been assigned. announced in the spring as an honorary member of the State Opera and honorary principal conductor, as well as a certificate at the Staatskapelle, which he conducted for 30 years. The ex-fighter, now just a shadow of his former self, then whispered in a barely audible voice that “at least he would sleep well tonight.”
Barenboim deservedly no longer has to worry about anything, he has done his duty. The State Opera, which is relatively well positioned financially, tries, in its experience, to ostentatiously close ranks with those in power. But how will the weak links in the cultural chain fare?
#Capital #finance #cultural #workplace #danger