Dhe dark Audi with the conspicuous license plate – B-KM for “Federal Ministry of Culture” – and the driver is already waiting. Monika Grütters does not leave her apartment in Berlin-Wilmersdorf hastily before dawn, but rather relaxed. She only starts before nine if she is forced to by appointments, and that is not necessarily the rule in her office. She is a night owl who is known in the Bundestag for his perseverance, especially in the evenings. Often she walks the way to the Chancellery. “I can do the six kilometers in an hour,” she says.
But today the sneakers remain untouched. It’s icy, the first morning in Berlin November that scratches at zero. The politician wears a light blue coat, a discreetly striped scarf with a fine gold pattern – and a small golden Berlinale bear on a dark jacket. In this way she shows everyone immediately what she is unconditionally committed to, now that some members of the Bundestag are wearing German flags on their lapels: the defense of free culture as an irreplaceable form of exchange.
She loved the exchange with artists: Monika Grütters with Ulrich Matthes, actor and president of the German Film Academy
Source: dpa-infocom GmbH
Monika Grütters is single and makes no secret of the fact that her political commitment cannot cope with competition. She greets you for a fraction of a second from top to bottom. This Grütters look is barely noticeable, does not hurt, but confidently emphasizes the hierarchical differences. She has learned a lot in the eight years in office. Also that as a woman you have to draw very clear boundaries again.
The first people they look at this morning are Franziska Giffey, the designated mayor of Berlin, Michael Müller, the current mayor, Ramona Popp from the Greens, and Klaus Lederer from the Left Party. And not to forget Saskia Esken from the SPD. During the entire event, she will swipe around on her cell phone and send one message after the other. Because the SPD party leader is in the middle of the coalition negotiations. Grütters, on the other hand, seems liberated. As a blue dot, it scurries through the crowd of black-clad colleagues. Michael Müller rumbles at her: “But 2G cannot be compared to a lockdown.”
Grütters launched the German Bookstore Award during her tenure
Source: dpa-infocom GmbH
This idiosyncratic group of the future mighty, soon to be powerless and some powerless people met at the Bernauerstrasse memorial to celebrate the fall of the wall and to commemorate the pogrom night. “I’m going with the ladies,” says Grütters, joining Giffey and showing that she definitely wants to be part of the future. The designated ruler moves stiffly through the morning, only shows movements when an SPD colleague mockingly whispers something in her ear. But Grütters has nothing more to lose, you can tell. She had her dream job.
While Lederer reassures a colleague with the words “rather an end with horror than a horror without end”, Grütters talks for a long time with Ibrahimo Alberto, who came to the GDR as a contract worker and left it after a racist attack. He gives a little speech that is visibly difficult for him emotionally. Grütters will take care of it. At the end she gives him her card with the words: “If you ever need help.”
“It’s the first time I’ve been left without a Plan B,” she admits. She will be 60 in January. She always made sure not to make herself completely dependent on politics, but as Minister of State for Culture that could no longer be avoided. Now begin a process of letting go. Lately she took a day off during the week, it was wonderful, but she felt weird at noon. Slowly, however, the dreams that one suppressed as a full-time politician would also come back: “Experience Tuscany once in September.” In the past 20 years, she always had to travel during the summer break.
There has only been one moment in her entire tenure when she was really in need. At the very beginning, when the early draft of the Cultural Property Protection Act was punctured – and the attacks rocked, politicians from within their own ranks said they should stop. Merkel, however, asked her why she absolutely wanted the law. She told her that she had been ashamed of Germany for years, that we were the only ones without these regulations. And the Chancellor replied that you had to stand up for your convictions. Grütters never again doubted the controversial decision.
Arrived at the Chancellery. Barbara Wagner has been at reception here for 20 years and keeps track of everything. Her office manager Jesko von Samson, her head of office Günter Winands and ministerial director Maria Behring are already waiting in the splendid office of the Minister of State for Culture with a view over Berlin with Grütters’ “favorite date”, the “department head Jour fixe”. What would be a horror for others to sit around a table and go through the agenda, Grütters celebrates; she loves her directing role, the exchange. And she has understood how important these meetings are for politics to be made. All steps are decided here. Hardly any Minister of State for Culture has been saddle-tight on so many stages, has such a non-stop presence in the media, whether with prizes for bookstores or the appointment of Klaus Biesenbach as director of the Neue Nationalgalerie. She ruled powerfully down to the very bottom. She made enemies with it.
Minister of State Monika Grütters and author Swantje Karich at the photo shoot in the elevator of the Chancellery, whose light barrier is not working
Source: Marlene Gawrisch / WELT
Winands sent Grütters the confidential status of the Hamburger Bahnhof and the efforts of the federal government to buy back the building from real estate investor CA Immo. One of the explosive conflicts with which the authority has been fighting for a number of years – and which it will probably only have to resolve at short notice. Some construction sites remain. Despite all criticism, she is still convinced of the controversial new museum at the Kulturforum. “The excavators are working”, that is unstoppable anyway. She received more than 450 million euros from the budget, it is her project and she had to pocket a lot for it. In the future, their term of office will be measured by these decisions. How the verdict will turn out cannot be foreseen yet.
When we are alone again, she sadly shows a photo in which she can be seen with a cloth bat in one hand and a mask in the other. It is an invitation for confidants to say goodbye. Commitments are now sent to your simple Bundestag email. We step out onto the large terrace with a view of the main train station and the Bundestag – the sun goes down and bathes the city in a light pink. “I’m going to treat myself to something tonight,” she says suddenly. “I’m going to the Deutsche Oper – Rheingold by Richard Wagner”. It sounds like a great treasure that needs to be handled very carefully.
View from the terrace into the office with the empty shelves
Source: Marlene Gawrisch / WELT
The look into the office through the large panes shows the traces of the farewell. The shelf behind her desk is almost empty, sorted out cards are lying around everywhere. “Of course I also made mistakes,” she says, “I learned a lot from them.” She has undoubtedly shown courage, the courage to break open established structures – and in the process aroused some who had made themselves too comfortable.
Her successor is not yet known. One option is Carsten Brosda, but the Hamburg SPD cultural politician is completely unshod on the federal stage. When Christian Lindner gets the tax office from the FDP, the Greens have to step up, which is why Katrin Göring-Eckhardt is mentioned again and again, but she also demands a second area. “That would be fatal,” says Grütters sharply and yet with a distant tone. You can feel, unlike weeks ago, that she has accepted whatever may come. For the friends of the subsidized high culture, harder times will come now. Both the SPD and the Greens want to strengthen the country and rely on social places and participation.
One last step onto the terrace with a view of the Paul-Löbe-Haus, the new job for Monika Grütters
Source: Marlene Gawrisch / WELT
The Paul-Löbe-Haus is only 260 meters away, that spectacular building by Stefan Braunfels, in which hundreds of parliamentarians’ offices are formed around a deep concrete canyon. To reach it, we march across a windy open space. A young policewoman starts a conversation with Grütters – about the sparrows that are so trusting that they eat out of her hand. Grütters enjoys indulging in unimportant memories, tells of Erna, her “double-ringed” pigeon that landed on the BKM terrace for a long time.
Somewhere at the end of a bright corridor we find her office. In the narrow room you can already feel her handwriting, a model by Liam Gillick stands in the corner, a Beuys work hangs, it is signed. We crowd around their little round table. It’s pitch dark outside now, the last organizational stuff still has to be done. There are two secretaries in the anteroom who are responsible for several MPs. Grütters cell phone vibrates. A political colleague wants to play with her Doppelkopf after she was able to experience how much Monika Grütters loves to party and certifies that she is the most casual member of parliament.
Grütters will be one of 736 – and already stands out. Your district of Reinickendorf in the north of Berlin is at the same time a focal point and aspiring with the disused Tegel Airport. Grütters hardly knows Reinickendorf himself, but promises to take care of it. But now she has to go quickly – and she has already disappeared into a new life with more freedom. For them it begins with “Rheingold” by Richard Wagner.
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