Theater director doubles down after canceled race segregation event, targets AfD and Springer press
Berlin's Volksbühne theatre director plans to turn the publicly funded institution into an anti-AfD platform after controversy over a cancelled racially segregated swimming event.
Matthias Lilienthal declared his intentions in an interview with German weekly Der Freitag, according to Junge Freiheit. The theatre director stated that the Volksbühne maintains a clear anti-AfD position and intends to demonstrate it publicly through programming choices.
Lilienthal expressed what he described as great astonishment that the Alternative for Germany party has become a strong political force in the capital according to opinion polls. He defended the cancelled blacks-only swimming afternoon as a social action, and praised the theatre’s response to the cancellation with a profane banner as excellent.
In a remarkable twist, the theatre director accused the Christian Democratic Union of violating anti-discrimination law by criticizing the segregated event. He claimed that when parts of the CDU said such an event should not take place, they broke the law.
Speaking to trade publication Die deutsche Bühne, Lilienthal elaborated on his political vision for the institution. He outlined plans to assemble an international lineup of artists including Marlene Monteiro Freitas, Toshiki Okada, Wallace Ferreira and Davi Pontes as resistance against the AfD and what he termed the Springer press.
The director also launched into criticism of Berlin’s infrastructure, complaining about lengthy waits for public transport and eight-hour delays in hospital emergency rooms. He characterized the city as poorly managed with deteriorated infrastructure, suggesting the swimming pool controversy had generated important discussion about what infrastructure matters.
The financial dimension of the controversy is significant. The Volksbühne receives more than 25 million euros this year alone from the budget of the heavily indebted capital city. Media reports indicate that approximately 300,000 euros were spent on the swimming pool installation itself.
The original swimming event had planned to exclude white visitors during designated hours, sparking widespread criticism before its cancellation. The theatre’s response with a vulgar banner directed at critics intensified the backlash against the institution’s use of public funds for explicitly political activism.
With information from Junge Freiheit
