On the Value of Art During the Economic Crisis
“Students discuss at the Robert Bosch House” with Professor Klaus Zehelein
Picture Gallery
Fotos: Susanne Kern
Klaus Zehelein, President of the Bavarian Theater Academy , described today’s generation as having a “high level of alertness and sensibility”
Klaus Zehelein with moderator Günter Gerstberger, head of the foundation's department "Education and Society"
The young audience warmed right up, and began to throw question after question and comment after comment at the theater professor
Klaus Zehelein during the discussion
The diuscussion took place in the fireplace hall at the Robert Bosch House, Stuttgart
According to Zehelein, the first budget cuts are made in areas where financing is considered an optional expense - such as arts and culture.
“We can’t start making cuts in something that has been the elusive center of humanity for 35,000 years.”
Klaus Zehelein, Ingrid Hamm, Executive Director of the Robert Bosch Stiftung, and Günter Gerstberger
Stuttgart - One of the students asked Professor Klaus Zehelein whether he had a concrete idea of how to make it out of the financial market crisis. The President of the Bavarian Theater Academy was able to answer a number of questions asked at the event “Students discuss at the Robert Bosch House,” but a way out of the economic crisis? Zehelein told the students gathered in the fireplace hall at the Robert Bosch House in Stuttgart that he only knows which way not to go. Earlier on, the former director of the Stuttgart Opera House had already explained to students from select high schools in Stuttgart what he believes the value of art is in times of economic crisis.
The elusive center of humanity for 35,000 years
A difficult task - and the professor provided his young audience with many vivid examples to demonstrate this difficulty. Back in the late summer of 2008, for instance, things other than the extent of the profound crisis that capitalism was currently experiencing became clear. Researchers from Tübingen found a 35,000-year-old, almost completely restorable flute made of bone in the Swabian Alps. It is said to have helped our ancestors improve their social cohesion and create new forms of communication. Zehelein is convinced: “We can’t start making cuts in something that has been the elusive center of humanity for 35,000 years.”
But according to Zehelein, the first budget cuts are made in areas where financing isn’t mandated by law and is considered an optional expense instead - such as arts and culture. And in the face of the inconceivably colossal amount of debt, totaling 800 billion euros, the potential for savings is increasingly small. On the other hand, politicians must reckon with significantly increased expenditures in the near future, since: “Those who try to save by cutting educational, cultural, and art programs will end up having to come up with much more money in the very foreseeable future to pay for more surveillance, incarcerations, and social security payments.”
“A high level of alertness and sensibility”
The students listened to Zehelein’s appeal for art and culture for a solid hour. After initially being somewhat hesitant, the young audience warmed right up, and began to throw question after question and comment after comment at the theater professor, which brought him to describe today’s generation as having a “high level of alertness and sensibility.” One student wanted to know why, if arts and culture are so important for society, his class didn’t have art as a subject; the school’s sole art teacher had been sick for months and there wasn’t any substitute teacher available, he said. Klaus Zehelein’s spontaneous answer: “A load of nonsense.” Government departments usually claim that there simply isn’t enough money available. He, too, must continuously fight against similar problems in his profession. But when he sees all the things that money is spent on, he is puzzled, to say the least.
“Maybe art that has to rely on subsidies is bad art - art that an audience doesn’t want to see,” a voice called out from the audience. Before Klaus Zehelein could answer, another student replied: “But the point is that art has always relied on subsidies. An artist needs freedom. Whoever it was who spent their time carving that flute out of bone didn’t go out hunting. The others had to bring him back some of the mammoth’s rump. But in return, he played them something that evening around the fire.” And the theater professor had nothing to add to that.
(Michael Herm, August 2010)
The elusive center of humanity for 35,000 years
A difficult task - and the professor provided his young audience with many vivid examples to demonstrate this difficulty. Back in the late summer of 2008, for instance, things other than the extent of the profound crisis that capitalism was currently experiencing became clear. Researchers from Tübingen found a 35,000-year-old, almost completely restorable flute made of bone in the Swabian Alps. It is said to have helped our ancestors improve their social cohesion and create new forms of communication. Zehelein is convinced: “We can’t start making cuts in something that has been the elusive center of humanity for 35,000 years.”
But according to Zehelein, the first budget cuts are made in areas where financing isn’t mandated by law and is considered an optional expense instead - such as arts and culture. And in the face of the inconceivably colossal amount of debt, totaling 800 billion euros, the potential for savings is increasingly small. On the other hand, politicians must reckon with significantly increased expenditures in the near future, since: “Those who try to save by cutting educational, cultural, and art programs will end up having to come up with much more money in the very foreseeable future to pay for more surveillance, incarcerations, and social security payments.”
“A high level of alertness and sensibility”
The students listened to Zehelein’s appeal for art and culture for a solid hour. After initially being somewhat hesitant, the young audience warmed right up, and began to throw question after question and comment after comment at the theater professor, which brought him to describe today’s generation as having a “high level of alertness and sensibility.” One student wanted to know why, if arts and culture are so important for society, his class didn’t have art as a subject; the school’s sole art teacher had been sick for months and there wasn’t any substitute teacher available, he said. Klaus Zehelein’s spontaneous answer: “A load of nonsense.” Government departments usually claim that there simply isn’t enough money available. He, too, must continuously fight against similar problems in his profession. But when he sees all the things that money is spent on, he is puzzled, to say the least.
“Maybe art that has to rely on subsidies is bad art - art that an audience doesn’t want to see,” a voice called out from the audience. Before Klaus Zehelein could answer, another student replied: “But the point is that art has always relied on subsidies. An artist needs freedom. Whoever it was who spent their time carving that flute out of bone didn’t go out hunting. The others had to bring him back some of the mammoth’s rump. But in return, he played them something that evening around the fire.” And the theater professor had nothing to add to that.
(Michael Herm, August 2010)