Wedl-Wilson criticizes Chialo: “Different understanding of what cooperation means”

The new Senator for Culture, Sarah Wedl-Wilson, gave her first interview to Der Spiegel, in which she also addressed the mistakes of her predecessor, Joe Chialo . Wedl-Wilson has been in office for about a week. Previously, she served as State Secretary under Chialo, who had long been considered a candidate for the position of Minister of State for Culture under Chancellor Friedrich Merz. However, things turned out differently.

Chialo caused some controversy and confusion during his term in office and has since resigned. Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) appointed the independent Wedl-Wilson. Now, in an interview about the Chialo case, she says: "We had very different ideas about what cooperation means, both in terms of the work here in the Senate Administration and the work with the cultural scene."

Wedl-Wilson, 55, emphasizes that she herself comes from the arts and culture scene. Chialo was a music manager before entering politics, but: "I know how the industry works, what it means to be a freelance artist, what it means to live close to the precariat, and what it means to be on stage. I come from a family of musicians, I understand the emotionality in the room and where it comes from. That's something that can often be a bit frightening if you're not well connected in the cultural scene. You have to embrace that emotionality and take it seriously."

This can certainly be seen as a dig at Chialo, who, to put it mildly, never warmed to the cultural scene with which he had to organize the massive austerity measures . The blatant savings of more than 130 million euros approved for 2025 are not only to be continued in the coming years, but will be further increased: an additional 30 million euros must be cut from the cultural budget in 2026 and an additional 34 million euros in 2027.

Wedl-Wilson says of the further measures: "As the cultural administration, we immediately said: We can't do this. We can't possibly sustain this volume in the cultural sector for another year, let alone two." Because: "The independent scene is just skin and bones," says Wedl-Wilson, who was Rector of the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin from 2019 to 2023 before working as State Secretary in the Senate Department for Culture.

Wedl-Wilson: “Under no circumstances should there be any closures.”

She dispels concerns about a creeping privatization of theaters and opera houses, calling this "fake news." She promises: "Under no circumstances should there be closures; that is not the goal of the cultural dialogue."

According to Wedl-Wilson, Berlin spends more than 900 million euros on culture. But culture is also "systemically relevant." She explains it this way: "A favorite topic of cultural managers like me is the value chain: Every euro invested in culture is returned at least fivefold. This means that we, as a cultural landscape in Berlin, also bear economic responsibility. (...) Last year, there were 30 million overnight stays in Berlin, and studies show that around 60 percent of these are tourists who come here for the cultural offerings. So we're also pumping a lot of money into the city."

Wedl-Wilson also says she has a "very, very clear stance on artistic freedom: It is paramount. For me, art should and can push the boundaries." In her opinion, the highly controversial anti-Semitism clause introduced by Chialo or an anti-BDS resolution in the Bundestag are unnecessary.

A lot is going on at the top of Berlin's cultural politics and also nationwide: two weeks ago, Wolfram Weimer, the equally non-partisan but very conservative Minister of State for Culture and Media, took office, and on June 1st, Marion Ackermann will follow as the first woman to head the most powerful German art institution: the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation .