Don't isolate yourselves

If the independent performing arts were a patient in a cardiology clinic, then looking back over the past five years, they would be diagnosed with episodic cardiac arrhythmia. Do we still remember the near flatlining at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic? Back then, we felt sidelined by the much-evoked “system,” no matter how much we emphasized our own indispensability. And so, eventually and with noticeable defiance, we started to ask what exactly constituted this system and whether we really wanted to continue contributing to its preservation. These kinds of fundamental considerations quickly gave way to more conciliatory application texts when the NEUSTART program began to shower the independent scene with a comparatively large amount of money, and for a while many people – though obviously not everyone – were actually doing quite well. Recently, a sort of pandemic melancholy seems to have developed now that the heartbeat of the scene has become flatter again in the face of austerity debates and cuts. From being happily rescued to potentially being shifted onto the financial policymakers’ list of cuts? That demands a lot of nerve even from the most resilient of artists. Does being independent now mean being dispensable once again?

The wrong tactic

To prevent this from happening, the scene would be well advised not to allow itself to be further divided at this historically vulnerable point, when artistic survival is at stake against the backdrop of massive financial constraints. Many funding rounds will now and in the future produce results with even greater injustices. Decisions will become even more questionable and arbitrary, and some will seem hardly justifiable. It's only too understandable to be disappointed, sad and even angry about all this. However, pointing fingers at others and wondering whether they deserve what you didn’t get only plays into the hands of those who, on their journey to the right, would prefer to see the inconvenient independent arts thrown overboard anyway. Isolation is certainly the wrong tactic at the wrong time.

In the midst of great helplessness

But has the uncomfortable and innovative really been as prevalent in recent years as is so often claimed? Has the independent scene been the main driving force in the theater in recent times? If we’re honest, how many independent productions have really been widely discussed and had an impact beyond the walls of Kampnagel, HAU, FFT or Mousonturm over the past five years? Four? Five? And is Florentina Holzinger generously included in that count, or not? The scene in Germany seems to be gripped by a noticeable artistic helplessness that is also affecting the most established and reliable groups and artists. Many performances these days tend to explore the private sphere, the phenomena of everyday life, or seek a niche within a niche.

And can you blame them? The independent performing arts don’t exist in isolation from a weary society in which multiple crises and our daily dread tend to make us focus more on home, hearth and heat pumps. The neo-bourgeois return to the stability of one's own small sphere of influence has in some respects also reached independent theater makers. It cannot be denied that there’s often still value in examining aspects of one's own biography, family history, illness or relationships. However, this value is often limited to the mere learning effect and the acknowledgment of the realities of other lives. The frequently expressed and entirely correct demand that marginalized voices should be heard in the independent performing arts often manifests itself in the form of educational theater caught up in its own message.
This is also understandable in times of the social regression toward supposed “snowflake issues” such as gender equality, queer and trans rights, racism, ableism and other experiences of discrimination. Of course, people want to do something here, to form a counterpoint, to raise awareness, to educate. However, whether this is done with an open hand or a pointed finger can have a decisive impact on its effect. Above all, the aesthetic task for the future must be to find a way out of the defensive. At the moment, defensive strategies and the preservation of vested interests dominate. The focus is on the survival of one's own way of life and art form and the institutions in which they can be realized. Retreating into intimate spaces with familiar accomplices and friendly audiences may be comforting temporarily – at the same time, it can have the unintended consequence of becoming invisible. And as we all know, we quickly forget those we no longer see.

New alliances, new audiences

So how do we get back to being on the offensive? Perhaps the independent scene should seize on some rather surprising findings from recent sociological research. Namely, that society in Germany is not as polarized as we’re so often led to believe by certain so-called “trigger point” debates (the title of a book by Linus Westheuer, Steffen Mau and Thomas Lux). In mainstream society, there continues to be a surprisingly broad consensus on the crucial issues that affect our coexistence – even on climate change, which is considered marginal by both the theater and politics. This de-ideologized mainstream of society, heterogeneous in its many views but trained in the tolerance of ambiguity, can thus still be reached by the content and aesthetics of independent theater.

Yes, there is indeed a “normal audience” for whom the unpopular label “normal” cannot automatically be equated with voters of the far-right AfD. Alliances can be formed here, provided that one is truly willing to relinquish some sovereignty and see one's counterpart as more than just a research subject. Some actors from the independent scene and municipal theaters have led the way in recent years – whether in the allotment gardens of Jena, the boxing clubs of Augsburg, the political circles of Brandenburg, the gyms of Luckenwalde, or in the many projects in rural areas, where independent theater, with its decentralization and mobility, can be a decisive counterpart for local people and their issues. Participatory theater can, at the same time, mean so much more than just getting the audience to stand up once during the performance and sing a song later on.

The courage to be self-contradictory

Nevertheless, this remains a fine line. Theater can’t compensate for political failures, and a 60-minute dance performance can’t solve any problems, even if many funding applications suggest this in their desperation. Theater is art, and art doesn't have to do anything – certainly not serve as a substitute for some of the ties that bind society. Here, one would like to see more self-confidence, aesthetic ambition and the courage to think big. Sure, that’s a lot to ask in times when funding bodies find it difficult to make emphatic commitments to art with a capital A. And when, especially in the independent performing arts, exuberant aesthetics are quickly suspected of being unsustainable waste – and thus condemned as potentially self-contradictory. Unfortunately, you can't do everything right. Unfortunately, you can't always be right either. If perhaps fewer productions currently looked as if they had tried to anyway, if there were instead a little more vulnerability and, yes, productive self-contradiction, then much would be gained.

The freedom of independence

Unfortunately, this kind of self-confidence doesn’t generate itself. The independent performing arts live in a state of permanent precarity, which is being drastically exacerbated by the current austerity debates. Those who have to work amidst this uncertainty become more cautious. What's more, chronic underfunding takes away the freedom of being independent. When funding applications read like a curious jumble of buzzwords and awareness markers in their struggle for attention, the art itself ends up looking the same. Here, too, juries must take it upon themselves to vote more often for the experiment, even if it’s still a bit rough around the edges – when it reads as extraordinary. However, this requires the political will to safeguard the freedom of the independent sector. In the long run, without such a will, it won’t be possible to maintain this infrastructure of the independent performing arts, which is as outstanding worldwide in its breadth and quality as the German municipal theater landscape.

And that brings us right back to where we started: Don't isolate yourselves now. Break out of your bubble. Because a theater that has the support of the people, of the many, has always been difficult to get rid of without a great deal of noise. Don't rely on those who are already there. Seek new alliances, intensify existing ones. Identify issues that don't just concern you. But do it for yourselves all the same. See how things are going elsewhere, outside Germany – after all, hardly any other scene is as well-connected internationally as the independent performing arts. Don't assume that things will somehow continue as they are. Don't believe that “audience development” and “communications” are only the concern of musical promotors or opera houses. Organize yourselves in associations. Get on the politicians’ nerves. Get on the editors’ nerves. Make yourselves understood. Rejoice in each other's successes and show solidarity. You are an incredible number of smart and talented people. Trust in your resilience. This isn’t the first crisis you’ve had to overcome. It won’t be the last.

The liberal arts have a close connection to their audience, providing aesthetic inspiration and broadening minds: but is this influence far-reaching enough? This is the starting point for the “BUNDESTREFFEN25 der Freien Darstellenden Künste” (Federal Meeting of the Liberal Performing Arts), initiated by the Fonds and taking place on September 25 and 26, 2025, at HAU Hebbel am Ufer. In the run-up to the two-day summit, we asked cultural journalists for their assessment of this question: freely, subjectively, and unfiltered. Janis El-Bira will moderate the panel discussion “Politics or Art: A Show Without Impact?” between political scientist Julia Reuschenbach and performance artist Cesy Leonard at BUNDESTREFFEN25.