CDU Mayor Kai Wegner on Thursday adopted a three billion euro savings plan including historic cuts in the budgets of cultural institutions.
The mayor of Berlin adopted on Thursday a budgetary savings plan of three billion euros for next year, especially in culture, despite the anger of renowned institutions like the Philharmonie and the Schaubühne theater. « This is about the future of Berlin because we are going through difficult economic and financial times in Berlin, in Germany and around the world », defended Kai Wegner, the conservative mayor of the German capital since April 2023.
At the same time, nearly 2,000 people, according to the police, demonstrated against these savings, which will also affect universities and sciences. Protesters held signs with slogans such as « democracy needs science » or « studying in Berlin is no longer going to be sexy at all ». Attacking environmentalists, members of the previous majority, Kai Wegner said: « We need reason, pragmatism rather than ideology, green dreams. And this is precisely why we need a change of mentality in many areas, including culture ».
Cultural institutions said « dismayed » after the adoption of budgetary savings. « Berlin lives thanks to its culture. Today’s budget cuts threaten jobs, cultural diversity and the very essence of this city », say in a joint press release the leaders of prestigious stages, such as Thomas Ostermeier, of the Schaubühne theater, and Andrea Zietzschmann, of the Philharmonie.
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The mayor of Berlin, in coalition with the Social Democrats, claimed that the capital had a « budget record » of 40 billion euros and that the savings were partly due to excessive spending by the previous left-wing government. For weeks, the Berlin art scene has been mobilizing against these restrictions. The town hall had revised its copy somewhat by reducing in particular the cuts for the Schaubühne – which had said it was threatened with bankruptcy -, the Deutsches Theater and the Berliner Ensemble, a theater founded by Bertold Brecht.
In an interview Thursday with the weekly The time, the German State Secretary for Culture, the ecologist Claudia Roth, denounced « the brutality » of municipal cultural policy. Cut in two for almost thirty years by a wall, the city of Berlin is particularly rich in operas (three) and theaters (around ten are renowned). But, after reunification, this particularly dense scene became more difficult to finance.
