Coronavirus: Germany's music, arts scene desperate
Ian P. Johnson
April 19, 2020
Mounting calls for rapid, unbureaucratic federal funding for self-employed musicians and artists have been backed by top music stars. Anne-Sophie Mutter and Christian Thielemann say colleagues are "neck-deep."
Image: Unitel
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In an open letter on Sunday, international music stars said it was "unimaginable" that quick German state aid had been offered to businesses such as Adidas and dentists while self-employed, trained musicians and artists faced a drastic drop in income over the next eight to 12 months.
Some colleagues were "neck-deep in water," reported the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, citing violinists Anne-Sophie Mutter and Lisa Batiashvili, opera singers Matthias Goerne and Rene Pápe and conductors Christian Thielemann and Thomas Hengelbrock.
Also a signatory was copyright and culture sector lawyer Miriam Kellerhals, on behalf of further [unnamed] artists in "many cultural sectors," the paper reported.
Their letter demands that, at the very least, state-subsidized institutions such as theaters, opera houses and concert halls should provide freelance artists with the income they would have otherwise received for events canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
'Heartbroken' by pandemic
Monika Grütters, Germany's federal minister for culture and media, told the periodical Politik & Kultur in early April that she was "heartbroken" to see Germany's "great cultural landscape" forced to a standstill by the pandemic.
Grütters promised her staff was seeking "good solutions" among an array of rescue schemes but adapted to fit the needs of freelance cultural and creative professionals.
"I have intensively sensitized key federal ministers, especially the economy, finance and labor ministers, to the situation in cultural and media sectors and pleaded vehemently for proper consideration of artists' interests," Grütters said, adding that this had flowed into "direct immediate help for solo self-employed."
Federal measures 'hardly' applicable
But on April 7, the Alliance of Freelance Arts, representing 18 branches, replied that freelance and solo artists and their small business teams had "hardly any" access to such federal measures.
"This is due on the one hand to the lack of federal guidelines on the recognition of work-related living expenses as business or employment expenditures and on the other hand to the fact that the [16 German] states tend to interpret administrative leeway to the disadvantage of freelance artists," said the alliance.
The association comprises dancers, visual artists, actors, circus and puppet theater performers, sound technicians, jazz, orchestral and chamber musicians and radio dramatists.
'Quick, without bureaucracy'
Already, the German Music Council (Deutscher Musikrat/DMR) had demanded a monthly basic income grant of €1,000 ($1,088) for "all freelance creative professionals" over the next six months.
"It is crucial that help now be provided quickly and without bureaucracy," said the DMR, citing a survey it ran in March as Germany's pandemic shutdown took effect showing that 98% of previously scheduled music activity had been canceled.
Germany's arts and entertainment sector includes 171,000 self-employed professionals, according to recent data from statistics bureau Destatis.
Aside from indoor and outdoor performances, many musicians also teach freelance at Germany's 930 communal music schools, which normally cater to 1.4 million pupils. During the lockdown, some are trying online tuition.
Martin Krüger, the president of the nationwide VdM music schools federation, stressed than even before the pandemic freelance music teachers were providing "a large part of the instrumental and vocal lessons in our country."
"In most cases, they are not or only rudimentarily secured socially and, with their gross annual income, often find themselves in an employment situation that can already be described as precarious," he said.
Deserted island or phone booth: Films with a claustrophobic bent
After weeks of the coronavirus shutdown, many are wondering: What happens when people are confined to a defined, perhaps very small, space? Movie fans have the answer. Here's a selection by DW's film buff, Jochen Kürten.
Image: UNIVERSAL
Alfred Hitchcock: "Rear Window" (1954)
Jeff (James Stewart), a photographer, broke his leg and is confined to a wheelchair, so he can't leave his apartment. His girlfriend Lisa (Grace Kelly) is the only person who visits him. So what to do but look out the window? Hitchcock's classic "Rear Window" is probably the most famous film that keeps its protagonists within their own four walls - but is still full of suspense.
Image: picture-alliance/United Archives/IFTN
Luis Bunuel: "The Exterminating Angel" (1962)
The movie made by the Spanish-born filmmaker Luis Bunuel in Mexico in the early '60s is mysterious. "The Exterminating Angel" shows people at a dinner party who can't leave the premises of the mansion. The reason is unclear. That's what's so perfidious about this Bunuel classic: He challenges the viewers - a philosophical masterpiece.
Image: picture-alliance/United Archives/IFTN
Roman Polanski: "Repulsion" (1965)
Roman Polanski is another world-famous director who radically reduced the settings for his protagonists. Three years after Bunuel's "Exterminating Angel," "Repulsion" hit the movie theaters. It's a frightening study of a young woman (Catherine Deneuve) who cannot leave her apartment. To a degree, Polanski also leaves the audience in the dark as to why.
Image: imago/United Archives
Sydney Lumet: "12 Angry Men" (1957)
Director Sidney Lumet, on the other hand, presented a compact courtroom drama in his first feature film: A young Puerto Rican is accused of murder; a jury deliberates his fate. The twelve jurors retire to a room they are not allowed to leave. Lumet turns the situation into a minor masterpiece that effectively moves the protagonists closer together.
Image: picture-alliance/United Archives
Tevfik Baser : "40 square meters of Germany" (1985)
This lesser-known film also takes place in a very confined space. The brilliantly successful debut by the Turkish-born German director Tevfik Baser is about a Turkish emigre and his wife in their apartment in Hamburg that becomes a kind of prison for them. The topic has lost none of its relevance.
Image: picture-alliance/United Archives
Duncan Jones: "Moon" (2009)
In science fiction movies, people often experience claustrophobia, seclusion and isolation far away from home. One of the most effective is "Moon," the debut movie by David Bowie's son Duncan Jones. The story is about a technician who has spent three years all alone in a moon station. It's an incredibly haunting film about spatial confinement.
Image: Koch Media
Wolfgang Fischer: "Styx" (2018)
Life at sea can be just as lonely as in outer space. Vastness can be confining too. The Atlantic Ocean becomes hell in "Styx," which shows Rike (Susanne Wolff) alone on a failed holiday cruise. Her world has shrunk to a few square meters of boat - frightening.
Image: trigon-film.org
Robert Zemickis: "Cast Away" (2000)
The ocean is omnipresent in this Hollywood movie as well. A castaway on a deserted island, the protagonist is cut off from the world for years. Films of people stranded on islands, often with Daniel Defoe's 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe in mind, show humans thrown back on their own devices. The film starring Tom Hanks was a box office hit.
Image: Imago/Prod.DB
Joel Schumacher: "Phone Booth" (2002)
Director Joel Schumacher drastically reduced the space his protagonist inhabits to the dimensions of a telephone booth. The plot of the thriller focuses on its main character (Collin Farell), who, threatened by a killer, practically never leaves the booth throughout the film. Clever entertainment, almost a cinematic experiment.
Image: picture-alliance/United Archives
Chris Columbus: "Home Alone" (1990)
Finally, this confinement classic. "Home Alone" was a worldwide success in 1990: a family goes on vacation and forgets eight-year-old Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) at home. Kevin rediscovers his home as a place where you can do as you please. But then disaster strikes — in the shape of two burglars. The comedy is great fun.
Image: picture-alliance/United Archives
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Public expenditure put at €10.4 billion
Last year, Destatis estimated that annual public expenditure on culture — largely a responsibility of Germany's 16 states — amounted to €10.4 billion.
Of this, 35% was spent on theater and music, followed by 18% on museums and public galleries and 14% on public libraries. Almost half came from local councils.
