It could have been different. The cultural and creative sector in transformation from the perspective of arts professionals in the Sorbian ethnic minority

ABSTRACT

The political system change in Germany in 1989/90 also led to fundamental changes in the cultural and creative sector. As a result of the shift from a planned to a free market economy, the number of freelance cultural workers increased significantly. This article discusses how the transformation of the cultural and creative sector affected the ethnic minority of the Sorbs in Germany. The particular challenge here is how the actors balance their everyday life and participation in cultural practices on the one hand, and a commodification of what is considered cultural heritage on the other. Using the example of the freelance Sorbian composer Juro Mětšk (*1954 † 2022), the project explores the questions of what effects the all-encompassing social changes had on the activities and products of cultural workers, when and why they decided to work freelance and to what extent being Sorbian became a determinant for their work. In addition to Juro Mětšk’s written testimonies, this paper is also based on the analysis of a detailed interview on this topic conducted by the author in 2021.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural and creative sector
• Sorbs
• ethnic minority
• Juro Mětšk
• serious music
• multiple transformations

Disclosure statement

There is no potential conflict of interest.

Notes

1. Mětšk (2022).

2. Sorbian idiom. Translated from Sorbian: May the Sorbian earth be light to you. All translations from Sorbian into English in this article are by the author. This applies especially to the excerpts from the conversation with Juro Mětšk.

3. In the field research, which was restricted by the COVID-19 pandemic, additional interviews were conducted with younger artists who only entered professional life after 1989/90. In this way, it became possible to contextualize the 18 interviews in the CCS among the Sorbs as a whole.

4. Traditionally – and also in Germany – the term cultural and creative industries has been widely used since the 1980s. In order not to overemphasize the strong focus on the economic aspect in favour of the handling of so-called cultural heritage as well as the actual artistic work, this article uses the more neutral term of the CCS with its various sectors, which comes from the Anglo-American and is more far-reaching and well-established at the European level (cf. Wiesand 2006; European Union 2022).

5. No comparable report is available for the state of Brandenburg.

6. The ongoing pandemic has exacerbated this situation, which is why this topic was an important part of the interviews/eyewitness conversations. The music industry lost 44% of its turnover in 2020 and 2021. It would be worth investigating whether the COVID-19 pandemic heralds a new transformation of the cultural landscape for arts professionals (Kompetenzzentrum 2022).

7. Cf. the contribution in this volume by Fabian Jacobs and Ines Keller.

8. Cf. also the Introduction to this volume on the general understanding of “transformation”.

9. In this article, the Sorbian spelling has been chosen for names and places. When first mentioned, the German equivalent is in brackets. In quotations, the original spelling is retained without translation.

10. Part-time and semi-professional artists are important as a comparison to full-time freelance arts professionals because they also bring works and products to the markets. On the one hand, they can become competitors for the full-time professionals, on the other hand, they not infrequently switch between full- and part-time professions (Fohrbeck and Wiesand 1975, 317–343).

11. About 60,000 people profess to be Sorbian, of whom about 25,000–30,000 speak one of the two Sorbian languages (Pohončowa and Wölkowa 2014).

12. After the Second World War, he was, among other things, director of the Sorbian Secondary School in Budyšin, employee at the Institute for Sorbian Folk Research in Budyšin (founded in 1952), and since 1959 director of the Sorbian Cultural Archive located there. As such, he published and translated and was strongly involved in the cultural-political life of the Sorbian minority.

13. Contra-actions for oboe, English horn, trombone, percussion, piano (also accordion), viola, violoncello and double bass.

14. Cf. also Pernack and Zawadzki (2018), 11:38–12:28.

15. The title of the highest Sorbian award is inspired by the Catholic priest and Sorbian poet Jakub Bart-Ćišinski (Ger. Jacob Barth, *1856 †1909).

16. The Foundation was established as a joint instrument by the federal government and the two states of Saxony and Brandenburg for the preservation and development, promotion and dissemination of Sorbian language and culture. As such, it receives funding from the federal and state governments, which forms the financial basis of the Sorbian institutional landscape.

17. Cf. the entry “Juro Mětšk” on Wikipedia: https://hsb.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juro_M%C4%9Bt%C5%A1k (24/08/2022).

18. In this paper, “cultural heritage” is understood exclusively as knowledge that is lived and managed by persons and institutions and is recognized as such through public discourse. The definition and discussion of the term used in academia and cultural policy practice are irrelevant in this context and are therefore omitted here. On the question of dealing with cultural heritage among the Sorbs, cf. (2021), Jacobsowa and Kellerowa (2021), (2022a) and Hagemann et al. (2021).

19. On Ulrike Mětškowa’s relationship with Pernack and Zawadzki (2018).

20. The close network and thus the potential clients on the Sorbian side included, for example, the Deutsch-Sorbisches Volkstheater (founded in 1963), the Staatliches Ensemble für sorbische Volkskultur, the Haus für sorbische Volkskunst, the Domowina-Verlag (founded in 1958) and the Institut für sorbische Volksforschung.

21. For the history of the working group, see Protokoll (1973) and Jacobs (2020).

22. Compare the application of the concept to institutional change in Sorbian folk art with the contribution by Keller and Jacobs in this volume and Jacobs, and Keller (2021).

Additional information

Funding

This publication was created in the framework of the research project “Multiple Transformations. Social Experiences and Cultural Change in East Germany and East Central Europe before and after 1989” (2020-2022), supported by the Saxon State Ministry for Higher Education, Research, Culture and Tourism (SMWK). The endeavour was financed through tax resources in accordance with the budget adopted by the parliament of Saxony.

Notes on contributors

Theresa Jacobs

Theresa Jacobs studied musicology, communication and media studies as well as German studies in Leipzig (Germany), Krakow (Poland) and Bratislava (Slovakia). Her research focuses on music and dance studies as well as comparative minority studies. In 2012, she completed her doctorate on folk dance practices among the Sorbs. Since 2015 she has been a research associate at the Serbski institut | Sorbian Institute in Bautzen and since 2021 she is deputy head of the department of cultural studies. She is currently working on the transformation of the Sorbian cultural and creative sector after 1989/90. As a freelancer, she manages projects and productions in the fields of contemporary dance and performance as well as cultural education.