[2023] No DLC purchased but my game is telling me I require it to continue my save

Hello everyone, My friend and I have recently started to play Anno 1800 together but when we reach approximately late artisan stage are game is forcefully quit and we get sent back to the main menu.

We try and reopen the match we were playing and it says we are missing DLC content, specifically the botanica DLC, even though neither of us have purchased any DLC.

We play on PC and purchased the game through steam. We have verified our files and it did not help. We also deleted the most recent save file to see if maybe it was a corrupted file which does allow use to play on the same map but after 5-10 minutes the problem arises again and we are in the same predicament.

Any help would be much appreciated.