Germany likes to promote itself as a cultural nation. But this image is at odds with Berlin's plans to cut arts funding by 12 percent.
The cuts would affect both world-renowned institutions and independent organizations in the fields of theatre, orchestras, cinema, ballet and literature.
The German Culture Council, the umbrella organization for art associations, has declared that "the golden age for culture is over".
It is a similar situation across the country, where municipalities and federal states are increasingly facing financial difficulties. The federal government, an important source of funding, is also being reined in. After the collapse of the Government of the coalition of Social Democrats, Greens and Free Democrats, the Government has no budget for 2025. These are uncertain times for art. So what can arts managers expect?
Until recently, things looked good for arts funding in Germany.
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According to the Cultural Finances Report of the Federal Statistics Office for 2022, public spending has only gone in one direction in recent years: increasing. From 9.3 billion euros in 2010 to 14.5 billion euros in 2020, an increase of 55.1 percent. It will be interesting to see the new figures, which will be published in December.
"Berlin is poor, but sexy", the slogan of the wild era by former mayor Klaus Wowereit today sounds like a mockery to the ears of many art professionals. Berlin's Senate, led by the Christian Democrats, is cutting its budget by 3 billion euros, with arts spending alone falling by 130 million euros.
The cultural scene is reacting with horror. Artists and organizations have stepped up, and cultural workers recently staged a large demonstration at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate.
The cuts are affecting cultural sectors and institutions differently.
Berlin's Schaubühne theater, which faces €1.8 million in cuts with no pay rise compensation, fears it will go bankrupt before 2025 as a limited liability company.
The "Berliner" ensemble, which faces a cut of 1.75 million euros, will have to cancel productions. The Volksbühne, which could lose 2 million euros, fears for its ability to perform; as well as the "Grips" youth theater, which is expected to have its budget cut by up to 300 euros. The children's and youth theater faces a loss of 800 thousand euros and the "Deutsches Theater" is expected to have a cut of 3 million euros.
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Also on the cut list are "Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt", with 1.8 million euros; "Friedrichstadt-Palast", facing a drop of 1.6 million euros; Berlin cinemas, with an estimated decrease of 3.5 million euros; the capital's literary houses, 450 thousand euros, and many other institutions. The Senate is also stopping the ongoing renovation of the "Komische Oper" (10 million euros).
Will this cause Berlin to lose its attractive international identity? Will the city become once divided, then reunited, as one theater director publicly asked.
Due to the economic and financial situation and the decline in funding for the arts, Dorothea Gregor, cultural expert at the "Liz Mohn" Foundation, said that German theaters and cultural institutions are facing "a major structural change".
Gregor said many theaters "take too much for granted that the money will continue to flow as before" and added that artistic directors need to understand how they can run their theaters more efficiently while still delivering quality high. She said entrepreneurial thinking was required, including when it comes to finding new financing options.
Lutz Hillmann is director of the "Deutsch-Sorbisches Volksteater" in Bautzen, Saxony and state chairman of the German Stage Society. He has watched with some helplessness in the debate about cuts in Berlin.
The eastern state of Saxony also faces a critical budget situation, with serious consequences for the cultural landscape of museums, theaters and orchestras. Hillmann has said that theaters in Zwickau, Freiberg, Annaberg-Buchholz, Görlitz-Zittau and even Chemnitz - which will be the European capital of culture in 2025 - fear for their existence.
"What is the value of art and culture?" asked Hillmann. "If politicians decide that the arts are not that important in the context of all the federal, state, city and municipal duties, then that will have an effect."
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Theaters and orchestras, for example, have long ceased to fulfill only traditional functions such as performances in a permanent place, he pointed out. "We are places for social meetings, we work with children and young people, we go out into the public arena, we network."
Hillmann emphasized that cultural offerings are particularly important in rural areas. "If we don't take this into account", he warned, "we will have even more disastrous election results, because people will become increasingly dissatisfied"./DW
