No more culture lockdown! Munich directors demand: "Let's finally open!"

For months, no more performances have been allowed to take place in theaters, operas and concert halls in Bavaria.

It's enough for the bosses of the houses.

They demand: let's open up at last!

• The theaters, operas and concert halls are not allowed to open until March 31, 2021.

  At least.

• The directors of the houses demand a planning perspective

• Until they are allowed to reopen, they want to continue showing programs online

You did everything.

Have guaranteed minimum distances, have ensured that the halls are properly ventilated, have allowed smaller audiences in their houses.

Out of a sense of responsibility for a society that is struggling with a pandemic.

But at some point it's over.

Why, the directors Nikolaus Bachler (Bavarian State Opera), Andreas Beck (Residenztheater) and Josef E. Köpplinger (Gärtnerplatztheater) ask at a spontaneously called press conference, why in the world are they not allowed to open?

“We spent the past year really tackling the problem - and working very well on solutions.

But ultimately hardly anyone in politics was interested in that;

you walked around the art and theater landscape with the lawnmower and closed, ”says Nikolaus Bachler.

It is high time to restore a sense of proportion and no longer just act completely haphazardly from moment to moment.

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Gärtnerplatztheater director Josef E. Köpplinger

© Sigi Jantz

What the three of them radiate is not anger.

It is a deep disappointment.

After all, what is the opening ban but a sign that politics does not ascribe any significant importance to art and culture for the preservation of society?

Bachler puts it in a nutshell: “If we're honest, it's like this: You don't close the supermarkets, not the private sector, you close what you think you can close.

We are the last in line - and it cannot stay that way. "

"There won't be an X day on which the virus is gone!"

And now?

Complaints against one's own employer, that would be bad.

So what?

Zetermordio?

"I do not agree with this.

Those who are the loudest get what?

That's the wrong way.

We have to rely on reason, ”says Köpplinger.

In spite of all the childishness that cultural workers have retained, one cannot deny them reason.

"We are sensible, we want that to be understood." Andreas Beck agrees that it is unreasonable to think that there will be a day X at some point when the virus will disappear.

“We have to find ways together how we can experience art with the virus.

And we have it. ”Beck refers to the studies that show that museums, theaters and concert halls are not sources of infection.

“We are not gamblers who ignore dangers.

We supported all measures out of solidarity.

But what is happening now is a symbolic politics to which we fall victim. "

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State Opera Director Nikolaus Bachler

© dpa

Josef E. Köpplinger reminds of the people who are hit the most by the culture lockdown.

“The dancers, singers, musicians all want to perform again.

They feel safe.

We have gained enough experience and seen that theater operations are possible despite the pandemic. ”Together they refer to European countries in which the arts and culture businesses have reopened, but which have not caused the contagion rates to skyrocket.

And then, of all things, is the cultural state of Germany lagging behind?

“We need decisive politicians.

The things that work should be made possible.

Everything else is no longer proportionate, ”emphasizes Köpplinger.

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Resident Theater Director Andreas Beck

© Hunziker

The worst effects of the permanent closings are not the financial ones.

“It's the psychological one,” warns Bachler.

Money is being used to try to counteract this, but everything cannot be solved with money.

“We cut the artist's thread of life.

Especially the young ones - and thus their future.

They don't want to become recipients of benefits, but rather shape their lives with their jobs. ”The State Opera director accuses politics of weaning the audience more and more from art and culture.

In order to counteract this, they depend very much on what is offered on the Internet.

Because there is no doubt that the audience is hungry for the program.

"For all performances that we were allowed to give in 2020, the tickets were sold out within an hour and a half," says Köpplinger;

the other two report constant inquiries in the ticket offices about when to order again.

Well when.

That remains the big question.

Just a few minutes before the press conference, the bosses of the three houses received the message from the Bavarian Ministry of Art that operations had to be stopped until March 31st.

At least.

Köpplinger demands that this be the last deadline.

“How about that: This year we're not kidding on April 1st, but that's when we open.

Because it works. "