6 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Tuesday 27 August 2019

ARTS

In 2015, the Staatsoper Stuttgart met an AfD march with a pride flag emblazoned with the word ‘Diversity’— Martin Sigmund

party, the AfD lurched to the far right

after Angela Merkel opened the borders

to 1.5m refugees in 2015. Two years

later, it entered the Bundestag for the

first time with 92 MPs, becoming the

largest opposition force. In regional

elections that will be held in the eastern

states of Brandenburg, Saxony and

Thuringia in September and October,

the AfD could come first or second in

allthree.

Apart from its radical stances on

immigrationandIslam,theAfDalsohas

strong views on the arts. Marc Jongen,

the self-styledparteiphilosoph, has said

he is determined to “de-grime the [left-

dominated] cultural scene”. Hans-

Thomas Tillschneider, another senior

member, wants theatres to return to

classical German repertoire. “The AfD

must not only control cultural minis-

tries, it must form whole governments,”

Tillschneider tells me in written com-

ments.“Wemustprotectourfreedomof

art from totalitarian neo-leftist tyrants

whodominatetheculturalscene.”

Some fear Germany could follow a

similar path to other countries in

Europe. Poland’s far-right government

is believed partly responsible for clamp-

downs on provocative theatre and art.

Hungary’s Viktor Orban has tightened

his grip on the Hungarian State Opera.

Last summer a run of Elton John’sBilly

Elliotmusical was cancelled following a

homophobiccampaign.

Now German theatres are rallying

together to co-ordinate the counter-

offensive. In February, the Verein für

Demokratische Kultur in Berlin pub-

lished tips for arts organisations on

managing confrontations with national-

ists. The Deutscher Bühnenverein, the

O

n an August afternoon,

Stuttgart’s annual Som-

merfestisinfullswing.The

biggest crowds gather in

front of the opera house, to

hear an American pop band blasting out

1990shits.StaatsoperStuttgartthinksof

itself as a symbol of civic tolerance and

inclusivity, yet barely a month earlier it

was drawn into a divisive war. When

membersofthefar-rightAlternativefür

Deutschland party (AfD) requested to

know the nationalities of opera and bal-

let employees in the area, many saw

chillingparallelswithNazism.

“Nobodypreparedmeforthis.Inever

thought this could be a German prob-

lem,” Petra Olschowski, Baden-

Württemberg’s deputy arts minister,

tells me in her office. “In the context of

Germany’s past, the idea of a list of

names and nationalities was really

quiteshocking.”

According to Marc-Oliver Hendriks,

managing director of the Staats-theater

Stuttgart, the multi-branch organisa-

tion that includes the Staats-oper: “We

havedancersfromAsia,singersfromUS

and people of colour. Some of our

employeeswereveryscared.”

But arts organisations hit back with

action and satire. The Theater Ulm cir-

culated its own mock parliamentary

request online (“How many AfD mem-

bers in the state of Baden-Württemberg

have criminal records?” it asked), and

the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe

tooktothestreets.

Back in 2015, the Staatsoper greeted a

5,000-strong AfD demonstration by

hanging a huge pride flag emblazoned

with the word “Diversity” from its bal-

cony. This time round, employees par-

ticipated in a rally-cum-carnival in

which speakers celebrated the freedom

oftheartsandslammednationalism.

The ministry, legally obliged to

reply to the parliamentary request,

provided general figures rather than

a specific breakdown of nationalities.

Rainer Balzer, the AfD politician

who made the inquiry, told me he

rated this response “poor to adequate”.

It is the latest stage in the culture wars

that are raging throughout Germany.

Nationalists want to remove what they

see as a leftwing bias in the arts; state-

funded arts organisations are horrified

that history may be repeating itself.

They have engaged in fierce battles. In

January,Das Blaue Wunder, a new play at

theStaatsschauspielDresden,satiriseda

dystopian future under the AfD. Days

earlier, the Cinexx cinema in Hachen-

burg offered party members free tickets

to a screening ofSchindler’s List. The

AfD’s standard responses to such provo-

cation have been to obstruct perform-

ances, issue death threats and call for

cuts.

Now, as the party gains momentum

ahead of critical regional elections, a

moreelusivebattleforheartsandminds

is taking form. Parliamentary requests

on questions of ethnicity are a favourite

tool of the AfD, but this, the ministry

believes, is the first time arts organisa-

tionshavebeenaddressed.

The strategy is to mount pressure on

theatres while instrumentalising them

as a symbol of a broken, multicultural

Germany. Balzer says he wanted to

reveal that “the proportion of qualified

local artists has become small”. Ols-

chowski believes that opera and ballet,

which is more international than spo-

kentheatre,weresimplyeasytargets.

Founded in 2013 as a Eurosceptic

Culture wars raging through the arts in Germany

national association of theatres,

recently held its first workshop on the

topic.“Whenthereisamediashitstorm,

do not enter it,” says managing director

Marc Grandmontagne. “This is war of

words and of language. We have to be

moreintelligentthantheopposition.”

Catharina Vögele, a researcher at the

University of Hohenheim, tells me AfD

politicians use heckling to fuel polarisa-

tion. Weary of reinforcing similar pat-

terns, Thomas Koch, Oper Stuttgart’s

communication director, has created a

blacklistoftermstoavoid.

Keeping dark pasts alive is equally

important.In1930,aNaziofficialissued

a parliamentary request lambasting the

theatre’s run ofSchatten über Harlemby

Jewish playwright Ossip Dymow as a

“Negerstück” (a negro work), demand-

ing that it be discontinued. Koch has

repeatedlydrawnparallelsbetweenthis

andthemostrecentrequests.

“We can’t do the Harry Potter thing of

not mentioning the name ‘Voldemort’

[the AfD]. We need to show people

The far-right AfD party is putting pressure on theatres and

opera houses to conform to its agenda. James Imam reports

Open-ended

story: ‘The

Elder Scrolls’

Gamersrecounttheirvirtualexploitsin

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PunishmentIdidn’ttellmyfriendsthat

I’dconfessedtomurderandbeensentto

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Storytellingingameshascomealong

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Doom,said:“Storyinagameislikea

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WhereIsoughtinnovation,Ifound

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Therearetwocommonwaysfora

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Evenwhenthesestoriesarewelltold,

Iwonder:howaretheyexploitingthe

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Somegamesboaststoriesshapedby

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Thesecondwaytotellastoryisinan

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Scrolls.Hereyoumakeyourownstory:I

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neverforgetthemomentIrode

Shadowmere,myjet-blacksteedand

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thenfoundShadowmerelyingdeadin

theroad,oneofmyownarrowspiercing

hisneck.Forcedtogoonthroughthe

blizzardonfoot,Iwasstrickenbyaguilt

andgriefthatthegame’sblandwriting

wouldnevermatch.

Butthoughopen-worldgamesoffer

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compromisedbyalinearmainstory

thatsitsawkwardlyalongsidesuch

liberty,breakingthesenseof

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WhenIdespairedatstorytellingin

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innovationatthefringesthatkeptme

playing.Intheingeniouspostmodern

cocktailofThe Stanley Parable,youplay

anofficeworkeratwarwithapassive-

aggressiveomniscientnarrator.This

year’sHeaven’s VaultandOuter Wilds

bothmakestronguseofenvironmental

storytelling,wheretheplayerlearns

aboutthegame-worldbythedetails

aroundthem.Awholeactionlessgenre

ofgames,dismissivelybranded

“walkingsimulators”,involveslooking

aroundandpiecingtogetherscrapsof

storylikeaplotdetective.

Thereisalsoexperimentationona

granderscale.FrenchstudioQuantic

Dreamhascorneredthemarketin

ponderousinteractivegamessuchas

lastyear’sambitiousbutflawedandroid-

huntingDetroit: Become Human.More

successfulisSamBarlow’sHer Story,

whichasksplayerstorearrangevideo

clipsfromapoliceinterviewtosolvea

missingpersoncase.Barlow’snext

offering,Telling Lies,cameoutlastweek

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astolenNSAhard-drive.

Thesearestilloutliers.Thislevelof

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myquestion:whatstorycangamestell

thatnoothermediumcan?

Can game narratives reach the next level?

GAMING

Tom

Faber

what’s behind the mask,” he says.

Baden-Württemberg, which is run by

the Green party, is unlikely to elect the

AfD in the near future. But, with mem-

bers now sitting on the boards of arts

institutions, the party is making

inroads. Now the state culture ministry,

which made €500,000 available for cul-

tural education in 2017, is bolstering its

presence in the rural heartland. It sup-

portstheBAALnovo,abilingualtheatre

situatedneartheFrenchborder,andthe

award-winning Theater Lindenhof — a

playhouse in a village of 1,000 that

performs in the Swabian dialect and

specialises in post-migrant theatre.

“We cannot be arrogant,” says Grand-

montagne. “We need to show people

why we matter; why theatres can be

forumstodiscuss[people’s]problems.”

Performance itself remain theatre’s

best weapon. Is opera becoming more

political in Stuttgart? “There is only one

answer to that question, and it is yes,”

says Viktor Schoner, artistic director of

the Staatsoper. A run of Stephan Kim-

mig’s production ofDer Prinz von Hom-

burg, Hans Werner Henze’s 1958 opera

that turned Kleist’s nationalistic play on

its head, recommences in September:

contemporary extrapolations, Schoner

says,willbekeenlyevident.

In April, further works on the pro-

gramme, including John Adams’sNixon

in Chinaand Brecht and Weill’s sung bal-

letDie Sieben Todsünden, were discussed

in a “Wirklichkeitskongress” (“reality

conference”).Thatconferenceprovided

pertinent lessons on themes including

fakenews.

AsOperStuttgartwounddownforthe

summer, Hendriks was cautiously opti-

mistic. “We are living a sunshine eco-

nomic situation in Germany. But we

need to be ready for when the sunshine

mightnotbethere,”hesaid.

For Olschowski, the threat is less the

AfD as that of failing to reach out to the

most marginalised in society. “In the

end it is not a question of what we are

fighting against,” she concluded. “It is

whatwearefightingfor.”

‘Das Blaue

Wunder’, a

play at the

Staatsschauspiel

Dresden,

satirised a

dystopian future

under the AfD

Sebastian Hoppe

The AfD’s Hans-Thomas Tillschneider

‘We must protect our

freedom of art from

totalitarian neo-leftist

tyrants who dominate

the cultural scene’

AUGUST 27 2019 Section:Features Time: 26/8/2019 - 15: 42 User: neil.way Page Name: ARTS LON, Part,Page,Edition: EUR, 6, 1

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