Effects of the budget cuts decided on 19 December 2024
©Sebastian Bolesch

Effects of the budget cuts decided on 19 December 2024

The historically unprecedented cuts in the cultural sector decided by the Berlin Senate in the plenary session of the House of Representatives on 19 December 2024 will have far-reaching and drastic consequences for Sasha Waltz & Guests and for the breadth of Berlin's entire cultural landscape. They will permanently damage the Capital of Culture Berlin and its international appeal.


With a self-funding share of almost 40%, we have been demonstrating for decades that we work and act economically and responsibly, as demanded by the Governing Mayor in his government declaration on 19 December 2024 for the future of the cultural sector. The cut of €200,000 in our annual funding hits the company with the full force of short-termism and extreme hardship. As a result, neither a planned new production nor a major revival can be realised in 2025. For over 30 years now, choreographer Sasha Waltz has regularly created new works that are not only shown very successfully in Berlin, but also toured all over the world. The financial resources of Sasha Waltz & Guests allow for one new production a year, which will have to be cancelled in 2025 due to the cutbacks.


In addition, project funding is currently being phased out or cancelled altogether, such as the approximately €100,000 for the »Move your Kiez - Spandau« project as part of the youth culture initiative supported by Berlin Mondiale, which will increase the amount to be cut for 2025 accordingly. As a publicly funded cultural institution, Sasha Waltz & Guests assumes responsibility for its social environment and has been committed for many years in the area of education & community to the broad promotion of young artists, working with the Berlin dance scene and a cosmopolitan, diverse and cross-generational community. The extremely short-term loss of these additional funds will jeopardise the work in this area and specifically a project that has just got off to a very successful start. The victims are the young people who have accepted the programme with great commitment and enthusiasm.


For a genre such as dance, which does not have its own theatre in Berlin and is not institutionally anchored, the budget cuts are particularly fatal. The working conditions for independent dancers and artists from other disciplines in Berlin will be further exacerbated and more creative spaces will be lost. If the cultural infrastructure continues to erode beyond 2025, this will also become a social problem in the long term.


Programmes that promote diversity, participation and inclusion as well as educational initiatives that are discrimination-critical, cultural projects in public spaces and international exchange programmes will be hit particularly hard. These abrupt cuts not only jeopardise the existence of the affected projects and their teams, but also the access of hundreds of children, young people and adults to cultural and educational opportunities and places of intercultural dialogue.


The ability of Sasha Waltz & Guests and all Berlin arts and cultural institutions to fulfil their educational mission and meet their obligations in the areas of diversity, decentralised cultural work, cultural education and participation will be considerably weakened and made more difficult by the cuts. They are therefore also an attack on social cohesion. Particularly in a time of populism, when right-wing forces are gaining strength and democracy is coming under increasing pressure, the foundations for education and participation should be strengthened.


It is now essential that politicians and cultural professionals return to constructive talks in order to avoid a repeat of the current situation for 2026 and to develop sensible solutions for the 2026/27 double budget now. We need a joint concept and a future perspective for Sasha Walz & Guests, for dance and a long-term strategy for culture in Berlin. Otherwise, we will lose central cultural hubs that are not only important for the

artists, but for society as a whole.


The long-term effects of such restrictive cuts to cultural budgets and funding systems could be seen in New York at the end of the 1980s and in Amsterdam and the whole of the Netherlands in the 1990s. Vibrant cultural scenes, which set international impulses and standards and contributed significantly to the attractiveness of these cities, slowly died out after devastating cuts until almost nothing was left of them. Over the past decades, Berlin has developed a great cultural landscape, including a flourishing independent scene and an attractive club culture, for which the whole world comes here. This must not be jeopardised with short-sightedness.