Germany has a large and diverse theatre landscape – in all three sectors. It includes state and municipal theatres, commercially run musical and entertainment theatres as well as a high density of independent theatres, dance companies and performance groups. There are also historical reasons for the high density of theatre in Germany: before the founding of the nation state in 1871, there existed a multitude of city states, small states and principalities whose residential towns each maintained their own court and state theatres. In the 19th century, theatre also became the central form of self-expression for the emancipating middle classes, and numerous municipal theatres were established as a result. As early as the 1920s, new, open forms of theatre emerged (certainly in a departure from bourgeois theatre aesthetics), and in the 1960s, these developments were taken up in the western federal states and numerous independent theatres were established.
Central actors at the association level are the German Stage Association (Deutscher Bühnenverein), the Federal Association of the Performing Arts (Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste) and the Federation of German Amateur Theatres. The German Stage Association pursues the goal of “maintaining, promoting and cultivating the diversity of the theatre and orchestra landscape and its cultural offerings”. It is an association of interests and employers of (publicly funded) theatres and orchestras. The Federal Association of the Performing Arts is the umbrella organisation of the 16 state associations and three associated associations and represents the interests of its more than 2 300 members at the federal level. Whether theatre and dance houses, collectives or individual actors: In total, the BFDK represents around 25 000 theatre and dance professionals in Germany. Founded in 1892, the Bund Deutscher Amateurtheater represents German amateur theatre. It is an umbrella organisation with 18 member associations and around 2 500 affiliated theatres.
The German Stage Association regularly publishes theatre statistics and work statistics. The theatre statistics provide an overview of the most important data of the publicly funded and private theatres, orchestras and festival companies in Germany. Each individual company is presented with information on events and visitors, staff, income and expenditure as well as prices. The work statistics contain information on the plays of a season, including the number of performances, the frequency of productions and the number of visitors.
The most recent theatre statistics of the German Stage Association published in 2022 contain the data for the 2019/2020 season, taking into account that the theatres and orchestras were massively affected by the COVID 19 pandemic in this season: by the closure of theatres in the 1st lockdown from March. “The publication of the 2019/2020 theatre statistics is done in the knowledge that the figures are first and foremost a contemporary historical document, but they are not comparable with past or future seasons. They have no significance as far as the development of the theatres and orchestras is concerned,” says the Executive Director of the German Stage Association Claudia Schmitz. A total of 141 state theatres, municipal theatres and state theatres as well as 121 orchestras (including theatre orchestras), 195 private theatres and 73 festivals shared their income and expenditure, staff details, attendance figures and events in 2019/2020. There were a total of 46 629 performances. Including the publicly funded theatres, the festivals, the listed private theatres, the independent symphony orchestras and the radio orchestras, around 13.8 million visitors were recorded in 2019/2020.
Due to the special Corona situation, the figures from the previous statistics are also still shown here, which depict the 2018/2019 season and which are also shown in the current statistics: A total of 142 state theatres, municipal theatres and state theatres as well as 128 orchestras (including theatre orchestras), 199 private theatres and 84 festivals shared their income and expenditure, staff details, attendance figures and events in 2018/2019. In total, there were 65,995 performances. Including the publicly funded theatres, the festivals, the listed private theatres, the independent symphony orchestras and the radio orchestras, around 20.3 million 20.3 million attendances were recorded in 2018/2019.
The Bundesverband Freier Darstellender Künste (Federal Association of the Liberal Performing Arts) also regularly publishes the results of its member survey or “Statistical Status Determination of the Liberal Performing Arts“. The most recent statistical assessment was published in February 2022. It presents the data from the 2019/2020 survey, this includes data from 14 of the 16 state associations. It also includes a comparison of the situation of the liberal performing arts before the COVID-19 pandemic began and the situation since. The predominant forms of work are groups (43%) and individuals (41%), the predominant legal form is (solo) self-employed (45%). If the actors of the independent performing arts had employees, 59 per cent were employed on a fee basis in 2020, 11 per cent had a fixed-term permanent position and 19 per cent had a permanent position. 37 per cent of the actors had their own rehearsal rooms. In terms of genres, drama dominates with 31 per cent of productions, followed by puppet, figure and project theatre with 16 per cent and children’s and youth theatre with 13 per cent. 63 per cent of the productions are new productions.
While the current statistics focused on percentages, the publication of the last member survey, which was published in 2016, offers a lot more information: According to this, the independent performing arts create an average of 3.7 new productions per year and perform them a total of 54.7 times over the course of time. The independent scene is strongly oriented towards networking; cooperations, guest performances and co-productions are among its typical forms of work. With 15 200 events for children and young people, 52% of the theatre on offer for this target group is provided by the independent performing arts (for comparison: 13 760 by the public theatres.
The funding structures and also the employment structures for the theatres differ very clearly in relation to the sectors: While the publicly funded state and municipal theatres generally receive institutional funding from the respective states or municipalities, the funding of the independent performing arts is predominantly project funding ‘(for more see: https://darstellende- kuenste.de/images/downloads/bfdk/freieDK_dokumente_NR1-foerderstruktur_201610.pdf).
In 2020, 30 200 people were insured in the performing arts sector of the Künstlersozialkasse.
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