At the “We are the Stuttgart Sign!” rally on June 6, 2026, on Stuttgart’s market square, organized by the Stuttgart Alliance for Culture, Education, and Social Affairs, a large number of people showed that culture, education, and social affairs are not a dispensable luxury, but the foundation of a vibrant urban society.

Extensive cuts in the areas of culture, education, and social affairs have been decided in the 26/27 biennial budget of the state capital Stuttgart, which will have far-reaching consequences. An end to the austerity measures does not seem to be in sight.

During the rally, Jule Lotte Bröcker, freelance puppeteer and physical comedian, spoke for Stuttgart’s culture together with her colleague Martin Mutschler, artistic director of JOIN Staatsoper Stuttgart.

We would like to share her speech with you here:

Speech by the Stuttgart Independent Dance and Theater Scene as part of the rally – “We are the Stuttgart Sign!”

by Jule Lotte Bröcker
Editing: Paula Scheschonka

Hello everyone! (…)
Speaking of everyone:
Democracy – everyone must be able to participate.
That is what we work for: education, social affairs, culture.
We are the working groups of democracy.

I do theater; theater is live and allows a community of
strangers to briefly try out a new perspective.
I think that’s great.
That is exactly what the independent scene does as well; it fills the entire city with culture.
Independent scene means deciding freely.
Independent scene often means: working hard, without a rehearsal space, with little money,
so, at some point, somewhere, and somehow
conjuring up relevant, interesting, inclusive, and heaven knows what else – projects out of thin air. 
Here in Stuttgart, the independent scene this year meant:
no festival,
still no venue,
another €316,000 less for events, and so on and so forth

There are also other types of culture
(about 200 or 2 million, but I don’t have much time)

CULTURE IS
A community picnic at Max-Eyth-See.
Translating big questions into sound
Inviting the grandpa from next door to the theater
Telling stories
Making strangers on the subway laugh.

Diverse culture must be allowed to be visible
through offerings for the entire democratic urban society.

Especially those who are not, or not yet, allowed to vote,
need community above all for the ­future.
And a real one, that stands in front of and beside me,
and, above all, is diverse.

And now I’m getting angry:
We, Madam Regional President Bay, are not so-called “voluntary services” that you can “rigorously cut”!
What you must do, is engage with the children and young people, the 15% of the city who will still be living here later!
You say that saving money is “intergenerational justice.”
What is the point of having money if there is no community that can use it to create a city worth living in?
Because democracy, because education, social affairs, and culture were denied to them?

Democratic politics has a democratic mandate:
To support all of us in working together to make this city a good city for everyone. With social affairs, education, and culture!
Thank you.­