Erfurt (dpa/th) - Thuringia's Minister of Culture Benjamin-Immanuel Hoff (left) wants to continue the current contracts for financing the theaters in the Free State up to and including 2032. The Thuringian Ministry of Finance is also ready to do so, Hoff told the "Thuringian General" (Thursday). The current contracts, which stipulate fixed state subsidies for the theaters, run until the end of 2025. In Thuringia there are theaters in Weimar, Erfurt, Meiningen, Eisenach, Rudolstadt, Gera, Altenburg, Nordhausen and Jena. They partially cooperate with each other.
Financing negotiations between the state and the municipalities are currently underway. The aim is to deal with the contracts in the state parliament in the first half of 2023, said Hoff. There are discussions, among other things, about a possible reconstruction of the acting department at the Theater Erfurt. The Erfurt City Council has commissioned Mayor Andreas Bausewein (SPD) to include the topic in the ongoing negotiations with the state for theater financing - with the aim of re-establishing the division in Erfurt by the 2027/28 season at the latest. The acting division was closed with the opening of the new theater in Erfurt in 2003, the stage is primarily focused on music theater.
Hoff said at the end of August that he could basically imagine the reactivation of the acting division, but saw the city as responsible. "But I won't be able to finance it," Hoff told the newspaper. "If the city wants that, it has to create the framework conditions."
According to media reports, the city of Gera had recently called for greater state participation in the Gera-Altenburg theater.
