The Berlin theater Volksbuehne, which set up an open-air pool, on August 14 canceled plans to reserve it for one afternoon session for Black children and youth. The reason was a wave of criticism and safety concerns caused by ‘racist agitation’.
The Volksbuehne theater and the anti-racist organization Each One Teach One (EOTO) had planned this event for Black ‘children, youth, and their relatives’ as a ‘positive initiative to support structurally vulnerable groups’.
However, according to them, the event sparked a heated reaction in the media, as well as racist emails and threats of violence, which increased safety concerns.
Political reaction and accusations of discrimination
The far-right party ‘Alternative for Germany’ (AfD) strongly opposed the special program in the ‘Volksbad’ pool, created by the state theater.
Party co-leader Alice Weidel wrote in a post on X: ‘Apartheid as a model for Germany? In the art project ‘Volksbad’, funded by taxes, white people are temporarily denied access. What does this mean? Funding for such events with tax money should be stopped immediately!’
Local conservative politician Eileen Weibel on Instagram called the situation ‘truly strange and discriminatory’. She added: ‘Berlin is a livable, diverse, colorful, and free city, so why do we need safe spaces?.. To be honest, I don’t quite understand this’.
Decision to cancel and further plans
The theater and EOTO stated that they canceled the event due to safety concerns after it ‘became the target of right-wing and racist agitation’.
The new artistic director of the theater, Matthias Lilienthal, recently launched an eight-week pool project this summer, within which people can book free time slots online, and some days are reserved for partner organizations. EOTO is one of these partner organizations, receives state funding, and conducts programs for people of African descent and representatives of the Black diaspora.
Lilienthal noted that, despite the cancellation, ‘we will, of course, continue to offer positive initiatives for structurally vulnerable people’. He added: ‘We stand in solidarity — today and every day — with all those who are subjected to racism and right-wing hostility’.
Berlin’s Commissioner for Anti-Discrimination, Janseel Kiziltepe, condemned the ‘heated campaign of hostility and threats’ caused by the one-time project and emphasized that ‘racism and exclusion are part of the everyday reality for Black people’.
Source: The Straits Times
