The city of Munich will spend 279 million euros on culture next year. Is that much? Or little? Measured against the total budget of 9.5 billion euros, that is three percent. However, compared to the cultural budget for 2023, that is six million euros more, which is at least a sign of appreciation. Because the city treasurer has urged all departments to save money again for 2024 in order to be able to present a budget that can be approved despite the economic consequences of the war in Ukraine and the increase in costs for personnel, energy and more.
To this end, the cultural department is to reduce the list of requirements it registered in the summer by 11.2 million euros. Cultural officer Biebl and his staff have now solved the tricky task, and the culture committee approved its plan for 2024 on Thursday. For Biebl, it was less the sum that mattered, but rather the purpose for which it was spent: “I am committed to ensuring that we continue to keep open cultural spaces that serve the debate and culture of debate. And at the same time, we formulate red lines, take a stance and defend ourselves against it Hate speech, lies and violence,” he said: “Please read the cultural budget as an ’empowerment budget’ that we, that society, urgently needs.”
The city library gets the most money (48 million), the Kammerspiele gets 39.5 million, the Philharmonic 30 million, the adult education center 23 million. The museums cost a total of 38.9 million euros (Stadtmuseum 19, Lenbachhaus 16), while the NS Documentary Center received 5.6 million. The largest institutions also have to save the most: the holding companies (such as the Volkstheater) together 2.8 million euros, the city library, the Philharmonic Orchestra and the Lenbachhaus 400,000 euros each, the city museum 300,000, the NS Documentary Center 200,000. The city saves the most by renewing its 5.4 million euro grant to the state theaters (Gärtnerplatz, Opera) halved.
The independent scene is spared from the cuts – apart from the fact that the planned big move from switching from project to basic funding for smaller theaters has to be postponed. Anyone who is in existential need will be helped – the treasurer’s office has released an additional 665,000 euros for 20 cases. To compensate for the increases in wages and costs, the Deutsches Theater will also receive 256,000 euros more, the Pasinger Fabrik 45,000 and the VHS 2.1 million.
An application from the Greens and the Left for 50,000 euros in pop music funding, a worker to process it, and the rescue of the “Listen To Munich” conference (30,000 euros) can also be financed. As well as the expansion of five city library branches into “open libraries”.
The parties’ cultural politicians are satisfied with the austerity budget, simply because, as Julia Schönfeld-Knor, SPD, says, culture is “a voluntary urban service” but it “holds the soul and society together.” Florian Roth, Green, is happy that in this further round of consolidation they were able to “add something” to the cultural budget and that future projects such as the city museum or the jutier and barrel hall are still planned. Beatrix Burkhardt, CSU, considers the cultural budget to be a “good rescue offer”; There is only one point that still worries her: the treasurer has not yet approved the €662,000 increase in monitoring costs at the museums. “It cannot be the case that the exhibition program has to be scaled down because of this.”