Dear Governing Mayor Wegner, 
Dear Senator Evers, Dear Senator Chialo,

at an information event on September 19, 2024, you explained to representatives of all cultural sectors the budget emergency of the State of Berlin and the necessary and drastic savings requirements in 2025 and 2026, including for the cultural budget. A savings volume of 110 to 150 million euros or more for 2025 and a similar sum again for 2026 are on the cards. 

Cuts of this magnitude would be tantamount to an eradication of culture in Berlin:

• The institutionally funded opera houses, concert halls and theatres would be forced to largely suspend productions and performances that have already been planned and contractually agreed. With high fixed costs for personnel and building maintenance, the only budgetary leeway is in the artistic program. The impact on the city's cultural programme would be drastic - the 29 member companies of the Theatre and Orchestra Organisation Berlin alone reach around 3 million visitors a year.
• Institutions organized as private corporations would be threatened with insolvency.
• Cuts in project-related funding would affect the most vulnerable areas of the independent scene and the performing arts, literature, the visual arts, dance and cultural education. 
• Important institutions in the independent scene, clubs, literature and the visual arts would be threatened with closure due to a lack of coproducing partners
• The “cultural workplace” would be directly and extensively threatened with redundancies and the end the careers of many artists and employees. After all, 8.2% of the workforce in Berlin alone work in the cultural sector. 
• The cultural offer would be a fraction of what it is now. As a result, spaces for social interactions and encounters, social dialogue, cultural and political education, places for leisure and cultural enjoyment would disappear. 
  The indirect profitability generated by the cultural sector would drop massively. Economic sectors such as hotels and restaurants, tourism, local transport, retail, etc. would suffer severe losses. 
• The considerable international presence of Berlin culture through touring and collaborations all over the world would be lost. The international cultural scene, which comes to Berlin through many festivals and collaborations, would stay away from the city.
• The diversity, excellence, strength and innovation of culture in Berlin would be weakened or disappear altogether. Berlin's international appeal, which attracts many people to our city and makes it such an attractive place to live, would fade. 

The cuts that are being discussed are not the way to set the course for the future of culture in terms of budgetary policy. With these plans, culture would be razed to the ground.  

As the association of opera houses, concert halls, orchestras, theatres, revues and cabarets in Berlin, we call on the Senate to focus on the social and economic importance of culture in their upcoming consultations on the consolidation of the state budget as a whole. The savings achieved in the city's smallest departmental budget are blatantly disproportionate to the immense damage that will be felt for decades to come. 

We appeal to you: don't cut off the air supply of Berlin's culture. Berlin thrives on culture. Culture forms society and creates quality of life. It is Berlin's decisive appeal. It shapes Berlin's image, especially in comparison with other German and international cities.  

The Theatre and Orchestra Organisation stands in solidarity with all areas of culture in Berlin. We will not be driven into a distribution war. Berlin needs the diversity of culture, Berlin benefits from the reciprocal impulses of the various cultural sectors. This is what makes the city rich and fit for the future. Every euro spent on culture is an investment that pays off many times over. Ideally, socially and economically. 

The petition may be signed at:

berliner-kultur-retten

Theatre and Orchestra Organisation Berlin
On behalf of the board: Thomas Fehrle, Christina Schulz, Karin Bares and Tobias Veit
September 24, 2024

The following supporters join the Theatre and Orchestra Organisation's open letter:
Daniel Barenboim – Karin Bares – Janina Benduski – BBK – Philip Bröking – Yvonne Büdenhölzer –  Frank Castorf – Annette Dasch – Justin Doyle – Lars Eidinger – Didier Eribon – Silvia Fehrmann –  Joachim Flicker – James Gaffigan – Antonia Gersch – Fritzi Haberlandt – Philipp Harpain – Jörg Hartmann – Evelyn Marie Henrion – Evelyn Herlitzius – Jens Hillje – Jacob Höhne – Nina Hoss –  Vladimir Jurowski – Ulrich Khuon – Burghardt Klaußner – Barrie Kosky – Kurt Krömer – Nina Kunzendorf – LAFT Berlin – Geoffroy de Lagasnerie – Ursina Lardi – lris Laufenberg – Gijs Leenaars –  Carolin und Frank Lüdecke – Joana Mallwitz – Ulrich Matthes – Joachim Meyerhoff – Susanne Moser –  Martin Muehle – Celina Nicolay – Andrea Niederbuchner – Sebastian Nordmann – Camilla Nylund –  Thomas Ostermeier – Matthias Pees – Caroline Peters – Kirill Petrenko – Anke Politz – Sir Simon Rattle – Milo Rau – Oliver Reese – Anselm Rose – Sir Donald Runnicles – Jochen Sandig – Peter Sauerbaum – Berndt Schmidt – Anna Schudt – Torben Schumacher – Katharina Schüttler – Dietmar Schwarz – Elisabeth Sobotka – Doris Soffel – Evangelia Sonntag – Christian Spuck – Michael Thalheimer – Christian Thielemann – Robin Ticciati – Annemie Vanackere – GdBA – Georg Vierthaler –  Rolando Villazón – Lars Vogel – Marius von Mayenburg – Sasha Waltz – Mark Waschke – Jossi Wieler – Angela Winkler – Martin Woelffer – Maja Zade – Andrea Zietzschmann