Berlin theater meeting – hangover atmosphere before the party?

Nora Hertlein-Hull, who has been in a good mood, has appeared at the press conference in the Haus der Berliner Festival since the last festival edition of the theater meeting. The theater meeting is an annual event that is not stingy with superlatives. In addition to guest performances by the ten staging, which are rejoiced as the “most remarkable” from the German -speaking countries, a large accompanying program is waited. Performances, installations and as always big – not to say: oversized – discussion panels are part of the game plan.

The focus is on an anniversary: ​​60 years of international forum. The scholarship program has been available for almost as long as the theater meeting itself. This year alumni should publicly indulge in memories or present current work. This approach is not unappealing, but also a little self -centered.

Political decision -makers are hardly interested in artistic quality, claim and international reputation.

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Another topic arises! What about the cultural -political discourse these days? What accent shifts through the cultural struggle of right may already be felt? What prevents the desk perpetrator from saving? And where can you find ways out of the dilemma? A single panel is dedicated to the conditions of artistic work. Under the title »And now? Strategies and alliances against the great cultural depression «should be discussed during the festival. And immediately you can feel the problem: the topic will inevitably blow up a single event. You want too much and too little at the same time.

One day before the press conference, a cross-institutional meeting took place in the Berlin Volksbühne with a subsequent rally on the Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. The reason for this unusual gathering was known to change the Senate plans to change the legal form of state -owned stages and thus privatize them. In addition to the Volksbühne, the respective theaters include the German Theater, the Maxim Gorki Theater and the Theater an der Parkaue.

But for what purpose should the houses mentioned be spun off – without being searched for the dialogue with those who would be directly affected? Nobody can and wants to say that there is complete clarity. This step would undeniably open up the possibility of merging from the public service of the public service of the federal states and the normal contract stage to house collective agreements, which would possibly mean a significant poor position of the employees. Apart from that, behind this behavior of the politically responsible, such as Berlin’s former cultural senator Klaus Lederer (formerly: Die Linke, today: non -party) on the rally, is only “hectic activity”.

Both the Maxim Gorki Theater and the Volksbühne, among other things, are also represented at the theater meeting. The former with the production “Our Germany fairy tale” by director Hakan Savaş Mican, the second with the work “Yes nothing is ok” by the recently deceased René Pollesch and – as a co -producer – with “Sancta” by the theater maker Florentina Holzinger. Political decision -makers are hardly interested in artistic quality, for claims and for international reputation. As always, it rules the money, in this case that that is no longer ready to spend.

These opaque plans from the capital naturally have their history: the Berlin savings regime hit the cultural area excessively hard last year. The cultural senator Joe Chialo has only insufficiently searched for dialogue with the city’s cultural institutions and, it has hardly any resistance to the savings issues passed above. Some facilities would have been almost forced into the incapacity to act. Berlin is obvious culturally.

But not only Berlin was and is affected by this savings craze, Munich also lets culture bleed. So it is difficult to defend yourself with the impression that cultural savings are not political errors, but describe a general trend.

Ebenener Joe Chialo, who played such an inglorious role in the negotiations about the Berlin cultural budget, was considered a hot candidate for the post of the Minister of Culture. What a fatal sign would that have been!

Now it has turned out differently. The non -party media entrepreneur Wolfram Weimer is supposed to do the job. Foreseeable reactions in the press, which scandalized the enthronement of an arch conservative as Minister of State, were quickly in the world. But the problem seems to be different: it is not whether a Minister of Culture Richard Wagner or anarchic performance art personally prefers the crucial question, but whether it can be expected from him that he is politically for the culture that he creates freedom in the long run and that he competes with the status quo.

Cultural policy, if it is not causing negative headlines in the Sparwahn, is all too often mere symbolic policy. No art festival without politicians. How subordinate the area of ​​cultural policy in the overall field of political operation is already clear from the fact that the individual political parties can hardly be connected to a cultural -political agenda. If the Christian Democrats appoint a Minister of Culture, it remains unclear whether we have to expect a conservative keeper of the bourgeois heritage or with a neoliberal lover of the black zero. Experience, not only of the past few months, teaches us more likely to go out from the worse.

If the curtain rises at the theater meeting, you will be able to identify one or the other politician again in the parquet. With the sparkling wine after the guest appearance, it finally chats well. The audience, which is able to raise a little more passion for stage art, should not make any illusions: the cultural ballast has long been tried to get rid of it.

The 62nd theater meeting takes place from May 2 to 18. The ten “most remarkable” productions from the German -speaking area are shown that has selected an independent critic jury. There is also an extensive accompanying program.
www.berlinerfestspiele.de