Senate austerity plans for culture: Berlin destroys sensitive infrastructure

Poor but sexy. That was once the cool mantra of the former mayor Klaus Wowereit. At some point you couldn’t hear it anymore because it was worn out. But how urgently this city needs such a message now!

Instead, savings are being made across the board, especially in infrastructure. Governing Mayor Kai Wegner wanted to get Berlin running again. What he meant is now clear: you walk. In a theater that isn’t playing. Into a concert hall that remains silent. To a museum that had to cancel a planned exhibition. Poor, but whatever. That seems to be the new motto.

Kai Wegner is silent

In the area of ​​traffic management alone, 700 million euros are to be cut. The madness continues in culture, where, as we hear from Senate circles, there are 100 million euros in flat-rate reduced spending. This has never happened before. It should be decided at the beginning of the week.

Culture is part of the sensitive infrastructure in Berlin. The democratic parties seemed to have agreed on this in the three and a half decades since the fall of the Wall. It’s worth investing in culture. It may not be the city’s heavy industry, as is sometimes said in the scene, but it is also a significant economic factor. Like the universities. It’s their turn too. Berlin is saving for its future in a way that takes your breath away.

We haven’t heard a word from Kai Wegner about the cultural situation in the past few months. Unusually for a CDU politician, he is giving up a traditionally bourgeois field without a fight. He obviously doesn’t care. And in his party colleague Joe Chialo he has a senator for culture and social cohesion who puts up with everything.

Just a poster, a deceptive package: How is culture supposed to create coherence and promote democratic education if it is curtailed? More and more social tasks are being assigned to the cultural sector, including at the federal level. At the same time, there are severe, unprecedented cuts. That doesn’t add up.

Who will think Berlin is sexy anymore?

At the cultural scene’s demonstration last week at the Brandenburg Gate, Chialo was booed. He came as a surprise guest. What did he want there? Once again he just tried to appease, as he had been doing for weeks and months. Did he fight for his budget in the Senate? Does he know parliamentary business? Nobody believes in it. Ten percent budget cut: This only works across the board, it affects everyone. And this should continue in the coming years. And what does the Berlin SPD actually say about all this?

There is no question that Chialo took office at a difficult time, with little political experience. If the announced cuts remain, he could be the cultural senator of bankruptcies and breakdowns – what is the Volksbühne actually doing? – go down in the history of the capital. But it’s also quite possible that his adaptability – we’re all in the same boat, it won’t be that bad, etc. – makes him suitable for higher tasks.

Cultural policy is also going through a problematic phase in the federal government with the Green State Minister Claudia Roth. There too, the decisive demeanor and the overview of the rich cultural landscape are missing. The federal and state governments of Berlin present an equally gray picture when it comes to culture.

There is no doubt that savings need to be made. But this requires a strategy, an understanding, a perspective for the next few years. After the BER debacle, Berlin is providing a new example of incompetence and stubbornness.

The impending harsh blow to culture in the capital will attract national and international attention, as will the cooling of club culture. Because many people somehow still think this city is sexy. You will be surprised.