The end of the play “Birds” after allegations of anti-Semitism hit Munich’s cultural landscape hard. The city is doing a lot to fix the damage to the ground, but the issue remains a sensitive one.
There is no lack of good will this evening. As soon as she was greeted, Mayor of Culture Katrin Habenschaden (The Greens) confessed: “I hope to learn. Because I too might do a few things differently in the future in a comparable case such as dealing with the controversy surrounding the play ‘Birds’.” In response to the first question put to him on the podium, cultural advisor Anton Biebl says: “I describe myself as a seeker in these circumstances.” And Dominik Krause, the leader of the Greens parliamentary group, admits on the same occasion that “perhaps it should have been emphasized more clearly” that the cancellation of municipal funding for the Metropoltheater – amounting to around 400,000 euros per year, which is vital for survival – never came to fruition debate.