As of: 07/29/2022 4:33 p.m
The German-speaking theaters have suffered extremely from the restrictions in the Corona pandemic. New figures show how serious the lockdowns were for the cultural industry.
During the corona pandemic, the number of performances and visitors to the German-speaking stages fell drastically. This is shown by new work statistics from the German Theater Association for the 2020/21 season. Compared to the last Corona-free season 2018/19, the number of spectators has fallen by 86 percent and the number of performances by 70 percent, the stage club said.
“The present work statistics show once again the dramatic effects of the pandemic-related lockdowns,” said the managing director of the stage association, Claudia Schmitz. The culture industry had suffered from the pandemic in a particular way: for a long time no performances were allowed to take place, then only with a maximum capacity of 50 percent.
“The Magic Flute” was the most popular musical theatre
In total, only around 2.54 million theater visits were reported for around 22,700 performances in the past season. For these numbers, the German Theater Association evaluated the data from 427 theaters in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. All in all, the German Theater Association brings together 517 theatres, symphony orchestras and state theaters under its roof.
Nevertheless, Schmitz believes that the industry can recover: “Now it is the task of the stages to recapture their place in society and to give the artistic impetus that is so urgently needed for our lives.”
The most popular music theater work of the past season was the Mozart opera “The Magic Flute” with 111 performances, followed by “The Barber of Seville” by Gioachino Rossini. In spoken theater, the comedy “Extrawurst” by Dietmar Jacobs and Moritz Netenjakob, about integration and structural racism, was ahead with 224 performances. In second place was “Gott” by Ferdinand von Schirach.