Spoiled for arts choices

Berlin has city councillors for all the usual things: transport, environment, rubbish.

- CATHRIN SCHAER

But what even a lot of locals don’t know is that, since 1991, the German capital has also employed a city “commissioner” whose sole responsibility is artists’ studios.

Martin Schwegmann, the current “Atelierbeauftragter”, regularly appears on telly to discuss how creatives are being squeezed out of the city because of rising rents. Berlin is having an “atelier emergency”, he recently argued.

Critics have complained his job is only symbolic, a way of appeasing anyone moaning about how fast Berlin is changing. But coming from New Zealand, it seems fairly radical that a city council would pay somebody to do this for a living.

In fact, Schwegmann’s job is just a tiny aspect of the way Germany treats art and culture.