Precarious teaching positions for composers in Bavaria
The DKV's Fachgruppe E-Musik (FEM) and the Bavarian branch of the Deutscher Komponistenverband (DKV) are showing solidarity with the striking lecturers at the Bavarian state music academies.
Without the many lecturers at the state music academies in Munich, Nuremberg and Würzburg, it would not be possible to maintain their rich educational program, writes the DKV. The lecturers are a cornerstone of academic music education in Bavaria. Like their full-time colleagues, they often do the same work. However, they are only paid a fraction of what permanent staff receive.
Like this, the lecturers give individual lessons, seminars and lectures in almost all departments and subjects. Many composers also teach music theory, aural training and composition in particular. Some of them have been doing this for decades and, according to DKV, they still have to worry every semester about the extension of their teaching contract and, unlike their permanent colleagues, have to take out their own health insurance and provide for their own meagre pension, without continued payment of fees in the event of illness.
The lecturers have therefore gone on strike for two weeks. Among other things, they are demanding appropriate remuneration, a "dignified retirement pension", a sufficient number of hours per week to earn a living so that they do not fall into financial hardship, the right to participate in university committees and continued payment of fees in the event of illness.
