Funding Crisis for The Arts in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany

For the musician, the actor and the singer, Germany was once the Promised
Land. A symphony orchestra and theatre in every town, and state funding that
put to shame almost every other country in the world. But sadly the fruitful years
are over, orchestras are disappearing or merging and theatres are closing, or
offer productions only from visiting companies.
Saxony-Anhalt in the former East Germany is no exception. In Halle the two
orchestras are now one. Orchestras in Bernberg, Wittenburg and other smaller
towns no longer exist, and others have seen strenuous job cuts.
The Anhaltische Theatre in Dessau is one of the largest in the region. The
theatre offers a spectacularly wide-ranging programme including musical
productions (recently “Les Miserables” and “The King and I”), operetta, opera
including a vast production in 2007 of Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde”, a production
which was later recorded for DVD production and this year a new production of
“Parsifal”. Dessau is well known for it’s productions of Wagner operas and still
has a link with Beyreuth. Apart from opera, the orchestra also perform regular
symphony concerts, chamber music, and a regular cycle of plays is also in the
theatre programme. There is also a close working link with the puppet theatre in
Dessau, and the theatre is also the home of the world-renowned Gregor Siefert
Dance Company, who’s productions of “Sleeping Beauty”, “Tango Palast” and
“Marquis de Sade” have received international acclaim.
Dessau was the birth place of Kurt Weill and hosts each year the Kurt Weill
Festival, of which the Anhaltisches Theatre plays an important part. Dessau is
also the home of the Baushaus. Kandinsky, amongst others taught there, and the
graduate course in design attracts students from all over the world.
But the theatre is in crisis. Planned budget cuts in 2009 will reduce funding of
theatres and orchestras in Saxony Anhalt by approximately €3 million.
Discussions are underway in the Anhaltische Theatre which could mean up to 70
jobs being lost in the theatre, up to 17 of those in the orchestra alone. Many of
the musicians in the orchestra have devoted years of loyal service to the
orchestra. They have raised families in Dessau, and in the present climate in
Germany, few will be able to find jobs elsewhere. And what of the cultural life in
Dessau? The theatre attracts public from not just Dessau and the surrounding
area, but from as far a field as Hamburg. The theatre’s educational outreach
programme ensures that many schools in Dessau receive visits from chamber
groups or the entire orchestra. Children work closely with the orchestra in cross-
arts projects such as this year’s successful “Music and astrology” project, which
involved all the high schools in Dessau. School children in Dessau can come
every month to hear the orchestra play for just €1 each, and their entire families
can join them! Many productions call for child-roles, and recent productions
including “Les Miserables”, “Hansel and Gretel”, “The Magic Flute” and “Boris
Gudonov” have given a valuable experience to local children of playing an active
part in the life of the theatre.
The theatre in Dessau is not just a dominating building in the central of the town,
but also a vital central part of the life of the town, and of Saxony-Anhalt as a
whole. The expected job cuts will mean that the theatre no longer has the
resources to put on large productions of important operas such as “Parsifal”, or
major ballets such as “Sleeping beauty”. Important new plays will no longer be
staged. The effect on the cultural wealth of Dessau and surrounding area will be
enormous. Why should it be that only people in Berlin can see a major symphony
performed, or a new play staged? Why should the children in Dessau lose out on
their cultural education? Surely in a relatively rural area of Germany, with an
orchestral history going back over 200 years, the vital work of the theatre should
be supported, not cut back. The cuts seem at least short-sighted and at worst
disastrous.