Economic and social situation of artists' in Germany

By: Gabriele Gerecke, Radio Lotte Weimar

The new rulings for social security, commonly known as 'hartz IV' have been in force since the beginnning of the year. The first thing that springs to mind are the many workers who, 15 years after the collapse of the East German industry, haven't been able to start again. But a large number of artists are also jobless, and, different from the so-called 'normal' work relationship consisting of employer and employee, artists were often self-employed or in short-term contracts. So this is an unusual situation.

This special topic is something which Ursula Sowa has looked into. In the following interview Mrs. Sowa tells about the 'economic and social situation of artists' in Germany.

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