The results of the elections in Saxony and Brandenburg will determine the cultural climate in both countries. First reactions from artists, Museum and theater people see opportunities for a positive politicization.
The state elections in the two Eastern German States of Saxony and Brandenburg were in the world followed with great attention. Alone in the Saxon Parliament in Dresden, more than 1,100 journalists from Asia and the United States were for Sunday (1.9.2019), for the election reporting to be accredited.
The provisional official election results for Brandenburg and Saxony are now available. The two major parties, the SPD and the CDU were able to argue accordingly in their respective provinces their Position as the strongest political party. The SPD is reached in Brandenburg, 26.2 per cent, the CDU in Saxony 32.1 percent. In Saxony, the AfD received votes, 27.5 percent of the voters, in Brandenburg, 23.5 per cent. Thus, the party doubled its result compared to the last provincial elections.
Our DW-reporters, Meike Krüger and Andrea Kasiske, were on election night in Potsdam (Brandenburg) and in Dresden (Saxony) and have collected the first reactions to the election result of cultural managers, theatre professionals and artists. In the case of Bettina Jahnke, the artistic Director of the Hans-Otto-theater in Potsdam, was the relief at least that the country Brandenburg “got away with a blue eye”, as she said in the ARD Talk to the state election.
Relies on dialogue with the audience: The artistic Director of the Hans-Otto-theater, Bettina Jahnke
Great opportunities for cohesion of the society
Already in the run-up to the election, some of the culture had shocked managers of museums, theatres and art institutions in Saxony and Brandenburg, but still follow fighters the possible choice of the AfD expressed. The right-wing party had tried several times in the past, politically, against unwelcome theatres and cultural institutions act, whose socio-critical orientation was a thorn in their side. The DW has repeatedly reported about it.
Martina king, the artistic Director of the theatre ship in Potsdam, therefore, a cultural and political threat, the outgoing of the AfD. “To start with, so that subsidies are no longer allowed, that this small Theater could no longer act at all, because the funding would no longer be financed,” she said in a current Interview with Meike Krüger, immediately after the election.
“The danger is even more then that, there is, again, censorship. Censorship in the Interpretation of pieces of the content. So that the freedom of the art, the culture would absolutely be in danger. And the opportunity to be a mirror of society. And this danger, I think, significant.”
Refers To Position Of: Museum Director Marion Ackermann (State Art Collection Dresden)
The General Director of the State art collections in Dresden, Marion Ackermann, has warned in the run-up to the elections in an Interview with the German press Agency (dpa) in front of a cultural-political limitation on the part of the AfD: “We must work to ensure that the freedom of the art device in danger. If you are surrounded with Forbidden, as ‘it may only have to deal with Saxons, with the help of their own German culture or just a certain family image match’, then there is no good art anymore.”
“We will all be political”
Despite the significant electoral success of the extreme right-wing party theatre Mrs Martina king sees the politicization of the positions of the AfD, something Positive: “Especially in the private sector has never been talking so much about policy, as in the last time. And so much after the positions have been searched. And if now perhaps so,” she adds, “if the individual citizen to take his opportunities seriously in the political process to intervene and for a more just society, and to compete, then we have a very, very great opportunity.”
For Bettina Jahnke was alone, the idea that a right-wing populist party could get more than 20 percent of the votes in a Federal state in Germany, shocking. “I come from the East and have spent almost half of my life in the GDR. And me, personally, shocked that you have to deal 30 years after the reunification, again with questions after the dictatorship, freedom of expression and fear of open borders,” she said in a DW Interview. “So that these issues interactive objects again, and political weight have, shocked me. It is not a few, but there are many who want to suddenly turn the clock back are, Yes.”
“The Many”: Bettina Jahnke with the President of the film University Potsdam-Babelsberg
Nevertheless, she sees in this political development in East Germany, a positive pulse: “I have the feeling – and this is so – that we are all political. This is in the circle of friends, so, in the cultural institutions and also in Public. And I think that’s a very good Signal.”
She sits as a Director of your theatre in Potsdam heavily on dialogue – especially with the AfD-voters: “the fact That we are forced to be at the theatre again, more concrete, more direct and much more explicit on the issues of this time and to look at both sides, is good. I feel responsible to tell as a theatre woman, the stories of these Suspended, Excluded – and to develop understanding for you.”
Political pulse by the Initiative of “The Many”
The theatre intendant Jahnke has gives the political mobilization of the cultural scene in Brandenburg. She has a leading role of the Brandenburg Initiative “The Many” on the way, which occurs openly and loudly against the shift to the right in Eastern Germany. “‘The Many’ had now organized in Dresden for a Demonstration, since the 40,000 were on the road,” she says in a DW Interview.
“It was exhilarating, because I feel that many people have the democracy and our country and our way of life taken for granted, get involved. Suddenly one is forced to put personally back a character and to participate, go to demonstrations, calls to write, to be at rallies to organize events. And there’s a lot happening scary.”
Her colleague from the theatre ship in Potsdam, Martina king, sees as a Form of solidarity with great Potential. “So ‘The Many’ I found a great Initiative. Any Form of reasonable solidarity, I personally find great. And that the theatre of the state of Brandenburg together have closed, to say: ‘We support’, which I thought was really great.”
Clear edge against any kind of influence
The artistic Director of the Dresden Staatsschauspiel, Joachim Klement, announces for the future, a clear edge in the face of any Form of political influence on the culture: “We make in the context of the freedom of art, what we think is right and necessary. And we allow ourselves to be the any party to require,” he said before the election compared to dpa.
Any Form of influence: artistic Director Joachim Klement (Staatsschauspiel Dresden)refuses to tolerate
“Our mission is for us to develop artistically free,” he said on election night in the current DW-Interview with Andrea Kasiske. “Therefore, we are not funded publicly, therefore we are dependent, and the artistic spaces that are available to us, take advantage of it.”
Jörg Bochow, head dramaturg at the Staatsschauspiel in Dresden, closes Klement in relation to the time after the election. “We know how strong the arguments are, how polarizing this is in Saxony. This is going to continue. But we have to face. This is also seen as a task for all, to create culture: How can we put ourselves in a city such as Dresden, and in the entire state of Saxony, this political confrontation, and what responses can we give as a culture?”