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Finance Minister Scholz and Minister of State for Culture Grütters (2019): Want to help the industry get back on its feet
Photo: M. Popow / imago images / Metodi Popow
The risks involved in planning cultural events in the corona pandemic should be financially secured. The federal government wants to set up a fund of 2.5 billion euros for this purpose. "We want to spread courage in culture," said Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) on Wednesday. The security should help to "literally bring the diverse cultural landscape back to life" in Germany. The aim of the fund is to provide financial support, for example, when events are canceled or postponed.
Scholz described the special fund for cultural events as "the largest cultural funding program since the founding of the Federal Republic".
Minister of State for Culture Monika Grütters (CDU) spoke of a very necessary signal of confidence: "This is really a gift to culture in all of Germany." Part of the economic risk.
Ticket subsidy for the little ones, cancellation insurance for large events
The planned special fund has two pillars: On the one hand, the payments are to go to organizers, who are only allowed to allow a reduced number of viewers due to the corona requirements.
Because of this restriction, many cultural events would actually be uneconomical - such as concerts, theater performances and cinema screenings.
The federal government therefore subsidizes the tickets sold by up to 100 percent in addition to the sales revenue - with a maximum funding amount of 100,000 euros per event.
The aid is to be paid out from July 1st for events with up to 500 participants and from August 1st for events with a maximum of 2000 participants.
A total of 1.9 billion euros is available for this by the end of the year.
The second pillar of the special fund consists of a failure protection for large events with more than 2000 visitors.
This is intended to reduce the financial risk of a pandemic-related cancellation of events that have already been planned for the organizers.
This is about large cultural festivals and concert tours, each of which is preceded by a long planning phase.
feb / dpa / AFP / Reuters