The cultural and creative industries are with 11 sub-sectors and over 1.8 million employees one of the largest and most diverse economies Germany has. No other economy has such a pronounced magnet function on other industries.
In 2020,the different branches of the industrie, like music, events and movies experienced a rapid downhill slide. For eight months now, the life entertainment industry has been at a standstill: much less or no income at all. Those who could hardly live on their income even before the Covid 19 pandemic have now lost that income as well. In addition, state aid is usually targeted at the larger entrepreneurs and a large proportion of the self-employed and freelancers slip through the criteria grid of the aid programs. To secure their existence, creative ideas are more than ever in demand. Inspiring here are the stories of HUTHevents and Benno Lehmann.
Catastrophe Ahead
Source: Monitoringbericht 2020- BMWi
We are heading for a serious catastrophe that could have an impact on our entire society. The coming months will be characterized by unpredictability and uncertainty. Many people will have to fight for their existence and try to secure their income. The creators, whose order situation is heading towards 0, will leave their industry. But we are not only talking about the 1,235,767 million core workers who fear for their jobs. In the industry 599,51k marginally employed people work, like mini self-employed. These people have been particularly hard hit by the ongoing pandemic. The second lockdown began on 02/11/20 and the politicians did not manage to find a partially functional solution for the precarious situation of the cultural and creative workers from April to October. They are watching as livelihoods are lost and the nuclear power plant is literally driven against the wall. There are already initial forecasts of what the future could look like if no action is taken now.
In October 2020, the Federal Competence Center for Cultural and Creative Industries published a monitoring report, which includes a scenario analysis. This states that in the middle scenario the turnover of the nuclear power plants could decrease by around 23 billion euros (-13 percent). In the severe scenario, there is even a threat of sales losses of over 42 billion euros (-24 percent). Although politicians are aware of these figures, they do not recognize the gravity of the situation.
The Show must go on
Our society does not realise in what catastrophic situation the cultural and creative workers have been in for months. Every day, television, radio, streaming services and more are still used and taken for granted. And we are the people who keep it all going. We are the ones who keep it going despite everything. Since March there have been no major changes in the programs. In addition, the government is publishing aid programs that help companies and employees. But solo self-employed persons and freelancers already fail to meet the admission criteria and cannot even apply for the existential aid programs.
Talk is silver, Silence is GoldEN
The existential fears of the industries are not perceived. Neither by society nor by politics. Therefore we are going into a culture lockdown on 21.11.2020. We want to show how important and valuable the work is. No radio show, no TV program, no streaming. Politics should realize how the future will look like without the cultural and creative workers. That is why the campaign #Kulturstirbt (the culture is dying) call on all of us from the cultural and creative industries: Show that they are not a matter of course! Show that they are the third largest economy in Germany. They want to send a statement to the politicians and get them to enter into a dialogue.
Because there will be far-reaching consequences for the entire economy, our culture and also our society in the coming years.
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