A common misconception among many citizens is that Europeans are more ardent patrons of cultural institutions than are Americans. To explore this hypothesis, I collected data to compare the cultural audiences of Baltimore, an American city, and Hamburg, a German city, two metropolitan areas roughly equivalent in size and industry base. I analyzed the data to examine how the different sociodemographic characteristics of the populations, differing cultural opportunities, and differing government policies for the arts are reflected in the sizes and structures of the arts audience.