Alternative for Germany, known as AfD, has intensified its political activities against public cultural institutions, mainly the city theatres. In many city parliaments the AFD has used the instrument of Parliamentary Inquiries, to question the work of the theatres and the public funding . AFD fuels also prejudices and moods against migrants. The New York Times (July 19th) has a report.

Albanian authorities decided to demolish the National Theatre, one of the most prominent cultural centres in Tirana and an important social and public space in the city. Artists and citizens from the Alliance for the National Theatre have been protesting against its demolition for over a year and have created a human barricade in and around the building. As part of a police raid today, for the first time ,violence against the protesters was used. Read and share their manifesto and sign the petition at change.org.

Already in June 2018, the cultural heritage network Europa Nostra expressed its sincere concerns regarding the decision to demolish with the National Theatre a heritage site of great cultural and architectural importance in Europe.

See also the report from December 2018 about the the Alliance for the National Theatre in Tirana at nachtkritik (German)

On 19 May 2019, artists*, members of the cultural landscape and cultural institutions called for the demo “UNITE & SHINE” in Berlin and several other cities in Germany. More than 5.000 people marched for artistic freedom, an open and democratic society, solidarity, diversity and tolerance. The artists demo, organized by the network DIE VIELEN (The Many) joined with the European wide march ONE EUROPE FOR ALL.
“Nous ne sommes pas doupes!” – in France, 1.400 artists and creative workers signed a solidarity address to the Yellow Vests movement: “What they ask for, they ask for it for all. Yellow vests are us.”

Sources: Unite and Shine, Nous ne sommes pas doupes!

Since the end of November 2017, a preliminary investigation has been under way against the German performance group “Center for Political Beauty” (ZPS) according to §129 StGB at the request of the public prosecutor’s office in Gera (Thuringia) with serious suspicion of “forming a criminal organization”. The investigation was initiated one week after the start of the ZPS action “Deine Stele” (Your Stela), the construction of a copy of the Berlin Holocaust memorial opposite the house of right wing MP Björn Höcke (AFD).

Investigations according to §129 has never been used against artists before. They allow comprehensive surveillance and applied to particularly serious crimes such as terrorism and gang crime and which are punishable by terms of imprisonment of two to five years. The proceedings were also not discontinued after the Cologne Regional Court, in its decision of February 2018, clearly and unambiguously regarded the action of the ZPS as a “work of art” and assessed it to be fully covered by the fundamental rights of artistic freedom and freedom of expression.

The case became public by a parliamentary interpellation from the Left party, followed by  investigative reports from the media. After 16 months, the case was dropped yesterday.

The Gorki Theater, Berlin which presented several ZPS projects , wrote an open letter of protest, signed by a large number of people and cultural institutions, including ITI, which protests against the criminalization of critical art: “We formally oppose and defend ourselves against a tendency towards the political-ideological criminalisation of art, which endangers the community and the free democratic basic order, and against the the instrumentalisation of criminal law on the basis of convictions.”

Sources: Gorki Theater, Center for Political Beauty