Uncontrolled outbursts of anger actually do not correspond to the nature of Volker Böhm. The Oberhachingen cultural office manager is a friendly person who always speaks with a gentle timbre. When Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) announced the new, tightened corona rules last Friday, his reaction was quite impulsive: “I would have liked to bite the edge of the desk,” he says. Not only that the specifications – 2G plus and a maximum visitor load of 25 percent – would massively affect the event area, it also had to be Wednesday, November 24th, on which the new rules should come into force.
The appearance of the cabaret artist Philipp Weber in the Oberhachinger Bürgersaal, which was planned for that day, fell victim to the pandemic again. More than 150 people had already ordered tickets in advance. And with 25 percent utilization there would only have been space for almost 90. “Should we have decided by lot who we would let in?” Asks Böhm. “Or just put off those who booked later?” No of course not. The organizational lead-up was also too short to split the event into two performances at short notice. The new date is now July 13th.
Like many of his colleagues in the district – heads of cultural office, theater bosses, cinema operators – Böhm feels quite left alone by politics, the guidelines are seen as unhelpful. “A lot is being pushed off on us,” says Böhm. Whether the concert evening by Bernd Lhotzky – the jazz pianist who grew up in Oberhaching traditionally gives his popular birthday concert on December 11th – can be realized? Maybe if he played twice in the evening. But in general it is difficult to plan, also for the coming months, the rules and the situation can change again at any time. “It’s maddening,” says Böhm.
Uncertain prospects make planning almost impossible
The uncertain perspective, the political tendency to pass decisions on to the organizers and not make a clear statement, also annoys Garching’s cultural advisor Thomas Gotterbarm. “It’s a kind of lockdown. And I find it embarrassing that you do it this way just to be able to say: there is no lockdown.” Larger, well-selling events such as the musical “Anatevka” (December 5th) and probably also the cabaret evening with Martin Frank (December 15th) will be canceled and postponed. Gotterbarm expects the situation to worsen anyway and soon no more cultural events can take place, and the planning for the coming months also suffered due to the lack of perspective. “It’s difficult for us, but it’s even more bitter for artists and cultural workers.”
Garching’s cultural advisor Thomas Gotterbarm will soon not be opening the door to the community center for visitors too often.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
In the Wolf-Ferrari-Haus in Ottobrunn the tendency is that all events of the coming weeks will be canceled or postponed. The musical “Tarzan” on December 7th is definitely canceled and other events such as the piano festival in the series “Ottobrunner Concerts” (December 17th and 18th) or the sold out cabaret performance by Max Uthoff on December 21st are in principle no longer imaginable. The head of the Wolf-Ferrari house, Horst Frank, thinks the specifications are sometimes “poorly thought out”. He considers the combination of mask requirement in place, 25 percent occupancy and test requirement for vaccinated people unreasonable for the majority of visitors. Indeed, it seems clear that enjoying culture is suboptimal under such conditions. In addition to the reluctance to be tested as a vaccinated person, the fear of being infected has now increased again for some.
Ursula Maier-Eichhorn, head of the cultural office in Unterhachingen, had to cancel the performance of the so-called Germanical “Götterschweiß und Heldenblut” this Friday. “We often have the problem that a lot more tickets are sold than we viewers are allowed to allow,” says Maier-Eichhorn. She and her team have given up the spontaneous attempt to organize the well-selling cabaret evening on December 4th with Sissi Perlinger with a reduced number of visitors, and it will also be postponed again to the coming autumn. The Saturday appearance by cabaret comedian Christoph Brüske, on the other hand, takes place. “The healing powers of cabaret are needed more than ever,” says Marion Brück from the Unterhachingen culture team. Funny isn’t all over yet.
Rasmus Kleine, director of the Kallmann Museum in Ismaning, is lucky, so to speak, that the current exhibition “Delimitation – of Public and Private Spheres” expires this week and will then have a two-week break in renovation. The opening of the new exhibition with works by the current Kallmann Prize winner Chris Bierl is planned for December 10th. Of course, there is also the question of how the situation will develop by then, in circles with an incidence of more than 1000 there is a complete lockdown. “It’s incredibly tedious,” says Kleine. On December 3rd, the museum is organizing a jazz concert in the Seidl-Mühle cultural center as part of its concert series – but who knows whether that will still be taking place?
“The ball is in the wrong playing field,” says the Haar-based theater director
Matthias Riedel-Rüppel, head of the small theater in Haar, has probably been the record organizer in the Munich district so far during the entire pandemic – not least thanks to an ambitious live stream offer during the second lockdown. So now he would again have the opportunity to offer performances in various formats and is toying with the idea of realizing hybrid performances – partly with a presence audience, partly with live streaming. In general, the director is dissatisfied with politics and annoyed that no clear statement was made. “The ball is in the wrong field. We don’t know how people will accept our offer under these non-attractive conditions. It’s a de facto culture lockdown.” Some events in Haar have already been canceled, but Michael Fitz’s performance on Friday will take place and on Saturday at least the young visitors can look forward to grooves and moves by “Schlawindl”, the Christmas program (Christmas Move) will now be shown twice at short notice, so that as many small (and large) cardholders as possible can enter, starting at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. “We wanted to avoid that the children, who had to suffer so much in this pandemic anyway, are particularly affected,” says theater director Riedel-Rüppel.