The Berliner Bühnenverein, an association of opera and concert houses, spoken theater, revue and cabaret in Berlin, organized a mass demonstration on Nov.13 against the Berlin government budget-cutting plans now debated in the state parliament. The Berlin state government has ordered 10% cuts in all department budgets, the cultural one being the smallest. The cuts would amount to €110 to 150 million or more for 2025 and a similar amount for 2026.
Under the slogan “Berlin Is Culture” more than 1,500 people gathered during the deliberations of the state parliament at the Platz des 18 März in front of the Brandenburg Gate. Speakers at the three-hour rally called the cultural sector Berlin’s “heavy industry” due to its importance in many respects for the city as a whole (8.2% of the working population in Berlin work in the cultural sector). Culture was also called a true “heat pump”—not the one from the green energy law—but as being essential for the social life in Berlin, with its too often “very cold” features towards the population. Apart from other offerings, three Berlin choruses sang “Va, pensiero” from Verdi’s Nabucco very beautifully—a good metaphor for the much-needed change in Germany!
A petition launched by the organization on Sept. 24 now has more than 96,000 signers, including many world-renowned artists such as Daniel Barenboim and many more. Addressed to the ruling CDU Mayor of Berlin and the Cultural Senator, it demands “that the social and economic significance of culture be given special consideration in the upcoming discussions on the consolidation of the overall state budget. The savings achieved in the city’s smallest budget are in blatant disproportion to the immense damage for which a high price will still be paid for decades to come…. We appeal to you: Don’t cut off Berlin’s cultural lifeline. Berlin thrives on culture. Culture shapes society and creates quality of life.”
Bürgerrechts Bewegung Solidarität (BüSo) organizers Jonathan Thron and Stephan Ossenkopp, both candidates for the upcoming Federal elections, intervened at the rally with the leaflet: “Defend Culture—And the Dialogue of Cultures”
The BüSo produced a short video about the event, in which the two candidates declare full solidarity with the demands of the artists, and point out that we need another level to solve problems: not budget cuts, but rather cuts to the military expenditures and a restart of the productive economy. Ossenkopp emphasized that the world admires Germany for Beethoven, Schiller and Lessing, and not for its tanks. Germany needs to become rather “fit for culture” than “fit for war,” he said. The BüSo is the only party that has in its program both “peace through development” and “a cultural renaissance.”
