At the "Red Alert" rally in Berlin, Herbert Grönemeyer made a fiery appeal to politicians.
The "Red Alert" alliance has been demonstrating since 12:05 pm on Wednesday (September 9th) in Berlin. The large demo is intended to draw attention to the economic hardships into which the event industry was plunged by the corona pandemic. With the rally, the approximately 6500 cultural workers also want to underline their demands on politics.
At the closing rally in front of the Brandenburg Gate, singer Herbert Grönemeyer (64, "Mensch"), among others, took the floor and turned to politics in a fiery appeal. A recording of the speech was published on the official Instagram account of "Red Alert".
Around one million people are employed in the industry nationwide and an annual turnover of 130 billion euros is achieved. This makes the event industry the sixth largest industry in Germany, according to Grönemeyer. The rock'n'roll area alone has an economic power like the car manufacturer Porsche. The company value is greater than that of all German federal leagues combined.
Without crews, artists are "helpless and lackluster"
However, this branch of the economy is facing the end, since no major events have been able to take place since the beginning of the Corona crisis. But the audience is "the adrenaline of the artists". And above all the many people behind the scenes are in dire straits: from truckers to roadies to security staff. Without them, "artists are helpless and lackluster," says Grönemeyer. For the most part, they are all working on their own as small businesses and usually have no "double bottom".
Therefore Grönemeyer urged politicians to find the promised direct and unbureaucratic "approach to basic security". In addition, the singer demanded a monthly bridging allowance or short-time work allowance for solo self-employed. As well as subsidies for pop culture, which are similar to those that would, for example, go to high culture.
Entire industry is on the brink of collapse
If this does not "happen quickly", there is a high risk that the entire industry would collapse soon. "A country without live culture is like a brain without spiritual nourishment, without euphoria, departure, lust, discourse, laughter and dance. It withers, gives space for stupidity, for crude and brutal theories, hardens and falls apart soulless", so the 64-year-old.
Every "single hand" in the event industry has the same right to basic security as the employees of other companies who would have received help quickly and easily. They are "the rushing soul and the public heartbeat of this nation". Germany is putting its "magic on the line and its magicians at risk".