Article 32 (1) of the Basic Law states: “The maintenance of relations with foreign states is a federal responsibility”. According to this article, the federal authorities and parliament are responsible for foreign cultural policy.
Nevertheless, the structures of the Federal Foreign Cultural and Educational Policy (AKBP) reflect the social diversity and independence of the actors: the Federal Government creates the framework conditions for cultural and educational work abroad through strategic guidelines, and the implementation is then carried out by partner or intermediary organisations. The most important partners include the Goethe Institute, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (ifa), the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (AvH), the German UNESCO Commission (DUK), the Central Agency for Schools Abroad, the Pedagogical Exchange Service, the German Archaeological Institute, the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training and the House of World Cultures. The cultural mediators and partner organisations design their programmes and projects largely on their own responsibility and thus enjoy a greater degree of independence and freedom than in state-organised models. On the ground, the German missions abroad provide coordinating support and thus strengthen the coherence of the various partners.
The following actors operate within the Federal Government: the Federal Foreign Office formulates and coordinates the political guidelines for setting priorities for foreign cultural policy. The Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media is responsible for a number of important areas, such as for example, foreign broadcasting or the restitution of works of art (“looted art”). The Federal Ministry of Education and Research also operates in the AKBP. Other federal ministries, such as the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, as well as the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, and the Federal Ministry of the Interior, for Construction and Home Affairs, are also active in foreign cultural policy, albeit to a much lesser extent than the Federal Foreign Office and the Commissioner for Culture and the Media.
Since 1969, there has been an intermittent committee or subcommittee on foreign cultural policy in the German Bundestag (Bundestag), currently (also in the current 20th legislative term) as a subcommittee of the “Foreign Affairs” committee. In the first half of the 1970s, there was also an Enquete Commission on Foreign Cultural Policy.
The Federal Foreign Office publishes an annual report on foreign cultural and educational policy. In the current, 24th Report of the Federal Government on AKBP, the following priorities were listed for 2020: Promoting Europe as a cultural project, intensifying communication work at home and abroad, especially in cooperation with Deutsche Welle, expanding the network of intermediary and partner organisations, and strengthening cultural cooperation with Africa. In 2020, the AKBP’s expenditure amounted to 2.2 billion euros. 59.2 per cent of this was allocated to the Federal Foreign Office (For comparison, 2018: AKBP expenditure: 1.877 billion, of which 56.6 per cent AAhttps://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/blob/2232858/8976f6ea5c1c60e8ef6fcea19e0060a1/akbp-bericht2018-data.pdf).
In its Coalition Agreement 2021, the Federal Government strengthened the importance and tasks of the ACP: “International cultural policy is the third pillar of our foreign policy, it connects societies, cultures and people, and is our offer for a community of values and responsibility in Europe and worldwide. We will further strengthen it, make it more flexible, coordinate it across departmental boundaries and coordinate it closely at the European level. We will adopt comprehensive sustainability, climate, diversity and digital strategies”. (Coalition Agreement, p. 128) Other agreements for cultural relations and education policy set out in the Coalition Agreement include:
- Support for threatened scientists and artists and the establishment of a programme for journalists and defenders of freedom of expression.
- the strengthening of intermediary organisations
- enabling the establishment of joint cultural institutions between European partners in third countries
- supporting the development of a digital European cultural platform
- supporting the city of Chemnitz in its preparations for the Capital of Culture 2025
- Strengthening relations between the cities
- Support for cooperation between museums within the framework of the Museum Agency
- Reconciliation agreement with Namibia as a prelude to a joint process of coming to terms with the past
- Strengthening multilateral forums such as UNESCO, G7 and G20 + Expanding own measures such as KulturGutRetter against the backdrop of the climate crisis
- Further development of the network of schools abroad and the PASCH network
- Modernisation of strategic communication within the European network and in cooperation with Deutsche Welle Orientation towards new target groups and setting new regional priorities. (See ibid., p. 128f.)
The corresponding agencies of the Länder cooperate closely with the Federal Government in the field of foreign cultural policy. Municipalities and civil society groups are also actively involved in the field of cultural work abroad.
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