Poor is not sexy

Press Release

GDBA calls for urgent revision of the budget plans
by the Berlin Senate Administration

Hamburg, 27.09.2024. The budget plans of the Berlin Senate Administration, which have become public, must be urgently corrected. These currently envisage cutting Berlin's cultural budget by 10% in the coming year. These planned cuts threaten a clear-cutting that could massively damage Berlin as a cultural location. 

Artists are often precariously employed. They have insecure employment contracts and usually a low income. In recent years, small steps have been taken to improve the working conditions of artists by raising the minimum wage in theaters and implementing the first binding fee floors for the independent performing arts. Politicians are now also responsible for ensuring that these improvements can continue to be implemented.

After the Federal Commissioner for Media and Culture first caused an outcry with her plans to cut spending on federal cultural funds by 50%, the Berlin Senate Administration is now following suit with similarly disastrous ideas.

In view of the general cost increases, it is already barely possible to maintain the status quo with the same budget. If public funds and budgets are now also reduced so drastically due to the tight budget situation, the consequences will be enormous: there is a threat of job cuts in public theaters and the cultural offering cannot be maintained in its current diversity. 

Artistic employees at the theaters are directly affected by these cuts, as their contracts still do not offer much security. However, the livelihoods of many freelance artists are also threatened: the less that can be produced, the fewer artists receive commissions and the smaller the budget, the lower the fees.  

The plans of the Berlin Senate Administration are in no way sustainable: the culture department is the smallest in Berlin, accounting for just 2.5% of the state budget. Savings in this area will not be able to save the capital's budget. The damage caused by these savings, on the other hand, is gigantic and out of all proportion. 

There is even the threat of a boomerang effect. Money is saved in the short term, but then a lot of revenue is lost as a result. Every euro invested in culture returns to the state coffers several times over via the so-called indirect profitability.

In addition to these economic factors, culture also has a social significance that should not be underestimated. A city's theaters and cultural offerings are an active part of political debate and public life and must not be jeopardized by short-sighted cost-cutting measures.  

"Culture is the heart of Berlin, and the cuts would slow down the heartbeat to a health-threatening degree in these bleak times. The cuts will also have a direct impact on the income situation of cultural workers who are already on low incomes. That's poor, not sexy." Says Lisa Jopt, Executive President of the GDBA. 

We call on the Governing Mayor Kai Wegner and Senators Stefan Evers and Joe Chialo to revise the plans for the coming years and to achieve the necessary budget consolidation without this impending cutback in the cultural sector.