Dear Giessen Allies: Dear former students, dear current students, dear former professors and teachers, dear current professors and teachers, dear Mitarbeiter*innen, dear Everyone!


This is a call for solidarity to the allies and friends of the Institute of Applied Theatre Studies in Giessen. We ask for your financial support to assist students of the ATW who are affected financially by the corona crisis and who cannot find relief in the existing support structures or elsewhere, and therefore face serious financial distress.

Just as it has all over the world, the Corona virus outbreak has hit also some of Giessen’s students hard. Many of us are not only studying here, but at the same time already work as theatre and dance practitioners or have other jobs on the side that are now cancelled. For students relying on this work, it is difficult to pay the bills. We are also an international institute with many different students from many different countries and with many different backgrounds, and this can pose particular challenges. Some students are stuck in their home countries but still have to pay rent and health insurance in Germany that they cannot access.


Any imaginary “we” that Giessen can claim is a “we” that consists of a plurality of backgrounds, subjective experience, and intersectional structures including race, class and gender; it is this plurality that has generated a discourse and culture of theatre that speaks for and to many voices.  A part of that discourse, in our eyes, is also a specific way of caring for each other. Taking care of this “we” in this very moment means taking care of those amongst us who fall out of the major structures of financial support that were generated in response to the Corona crisis. As is often observed, the normative restrictions imposed by official structures of aid tend to deny access to those already excluded from the system. 


While for some students there is the possibility to rely on family, a financially stable background or on official structures of support (for example from the state or Bundesland), for others these solutions are not possible and with this crowdfunding) we are trying to find ways to care for them as well.


For several years already, the institute has had a self-organized solidarity fund called ‘Notgroschen’ that students can anonymously turn to in order to get help with small financial troubles. The Notgroschen works on the basis of trust and self-perception of need, and the money that is received can but doesn’t have to be paid back. Until now, we have been able to take care of each other through Notgroschen, but since the corona outbreak, there is simply not enough money anymore and that is why we are turning to you in order to ask for your support to stock up Notgroschen’s funds. We have tried to assess the financial need at the Institute and have the goal of raising these 13.600 Euros to be able to support our friends and colleagues.


We are turning especially to all of those who have a connection to the Institute, who have maybe studied here themselves, who have worked here as teachers, who know us and also treasure the special community that comes to life here, but of course also everyone else who wants to help out. If you have the means to support students from the ATW, that’d be simply great! 


Donation receipt

gofundme itself as a platform is not able to give out donation receipts. But if you would like to have one, we are very happy to receive an email (with name, address, amount and date of the donation) from you at notgroschen.atw.cup@gmail.com and we will grant you an official donation receipt that you can also use for your tax declaration. 


Please note that we will only be able to give a receipt for the amount of money that we receive from gofundme. This will be a little bit less (they charge 2,9% + 0,25 Euro transaction fee) than what you donated. We hope you can understand that gofundme is still a useful platform for us since donations can be made quickly and through a shareable link. Of course, you can alternatively transfer the donation directly to: kunstrasen giessen e.V. IBAN: DE23 5135 0025 0205 0634 38 and we will give you a receipt for the full amount. If you do so, please send us an email with your address and the date of the donation.

The picture is from Zuzana Žabková.


Thank you for your support!


ATW Notgroschen Team - extended version