An initiative that attracted more than 20,000 visitors to 67 museums

Berlin: Museums are free to visit on Sundays to recover from the pandemic

Free entry is a “great incentive” to participate in public life after the closure restrictions are eased.

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Museum Island in Berlin is home to the most famous museums in the German capital, and it is usually crowded with visitors, but it has become frighteningly empty during the period of the “Corona” pandemic.

And now, thanks to the launch of a new initiative to provide free admission to the city’s museums on Sundays, at the beginning of each month, the crowds of visitors have returned, with a commitment to wearing masks and social distancing, and in conjunction with the vaccination campaign.

According to Bloomberg News Agency, the initiative began on Sunday, early July, and attracted more than 20,000 visitors to 67 museums in Berlin.

The number of visitors increased on the first Sunday in August, as museums participating in the initiative received up to 10 times the number on a normal Sunday during the pandemic, according to Malte Bündgen, of the cultural consultancy office “Peru In”, an advisor to the initiative supported by the Museums Association. Berlin, the city and the federal government, as part of attempts to revive tourism.

"If it wasn't for the Sunday Museums initiative, I wouldn't be here today," said Marcus Charlich, 40, a Berlin resident who visited a museum with his partner.

Charlech sees free entry as a "great incentive" to participate in public life, after the closure restrictions were eased.

Museums participating in the initiative must implement hygiene and social distancing rules.

Berlin's local Minister for Cultural and European Affairs, Klaus Lederer, says that free admission to museums alone will not bring crowds back to the city center, explaining that people need to feel safe to visit museums and public places again, and Lederer added: "This event should help visitors In overcoming the fears they still have, and convincing them that our facilities are safe from (Corona).”

More than half of Germany's population had been fully vaccinated by the second Sunday of the initiative, according to data from the German Ministry of Health.

Across Germany incentives are being offered to increase the number of people receiving the vaccination, from offering free sausages to hiring DJs at the vaccination sites.

The initiative is also one of several cultural events in Berlin that have found a way to attract visitors amid a sustained global health crisis.

These events include "Berlin Art Week", the open-air event "Drausenstadt" and "Relaunching Club Culture", a pilot project being conducted in Berlin this summer, to see how to organize concerts during the pandemic.

“We assume that the pandemic, with all its challenges and problems, will be with us for a while, it will certainly be interesting to note how much the pandemic and the closure of cultural events have prompted the creation of new formats and digital developments,” said Katharina Muller of Kultur Bruete Berlin, a Berlin-owned cultural enterprise. What other new forms of exchange and cooperation have emerged from it, and how sustainable are these developments?

The plan for the free “Sunday Museums” initiative was underway long before the outbreak of the pandemic, with the aim of attracting visitors who are usually unable to afford entry fees, according to the local minister, Lederer, who also indicated that reducing these financial obstacles has become more important, after the pandemic led to exacerbate inequality in the cultural sphere.

"Not everyone has been affected by the pandemic to the same extent," Lederer said, and the local minister and his "Left" party, which participates in the governing coalition in the state of Berlin, with the "Greens and Socialists", seek to make the "Sunday Museums" initiative a permanent event.

Lederer stated that funding for the initiative is available over the next two years, but the results of the state's local elections, which will be held in conjunction with the general elections on September 26, will affect the final decision on the continuation of this initiative.

Berliners now enjoy the city's huge collection of art and antiques.

"We were very excited to finally visit a museum, after such a long time and without fears," said Bosra Dikbas, 30, who lives in Berlin and who visited a museum as part of the initiative with her family.

• The museums participating in the initiative received 10 times the number of any "normal Sunday".

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