Culture alarm in Berlin: Senate loosens massive savings plans for 2024!

Culture alarm in Berlin: Senate loosens massive savings plans for 2024!

Frankfurt (Oder), Deutschland - The Berlin Senate has revised its controversial savings plans for 2025 after massive protests and loosened the planned savings in the cultural sector. Instead of the originally planned 130 million euros, the black and red coalition now wants to bring about savings in various areas that are less drastically. The suspicion of arbitrariness in the cuts and the public pressure led the savings to be withdrawn for several important theater and cultural institutions. The German Theater is no longer burdened with three million euros, but can now only save 1.588 million euros. The Berlin Ensemble and the Schaubühne are also affected by lower cuts, while large cuts in the area of ​​the children's and youth theater were relaxed. The Grips Theater and the Theater an der Parkaue are completely spared from savings, as [Tagesschau] reported.

cuts and their effects

The revised savings list available to the RBB shows that some cultural institutions overall get better out of the matter. The grant for the Philharmonic is not reduced, which was originally planned. In return, however, some other expenses, such as those for the expansion of work rooms for artists, have to be cut massively - from 21.35 million euros to only 3.225 million euros. However, the overall scope of the cultural -specific reductions remains unchanged, and these savings must be counter -financed internally, which strongly endangers the creation of new work rooms for artists, reports [RBB24]

Only recently had an open letter of over 50 Berlin publishers to the Governing Mayor Kai Wegner and the Senate pointed out the importance of culture and warned of the long -term consequences of a culturally impoverished Berlin. The protests testify to a broad dismay and a strong support from civil society, which breaks clear voices against the abstract numbers.