Germany 2.1

After the Bundestag elections in autumn 2021, the new coalition agreement concluded between the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Bündnis90 / Die Grünen and the Free Democratic Party of Germany under the title “Mehr Fortschritt wagen. Alliance for Freedom, Justice and Sustainability”, the following priotiries for cultural policy were agreed upon:

“We want to make culture possible with everyone by ensuring its diversity and freedom, regardless of form of organisation or expression, from classical music to comics, from Low German to record shops. We are convinced that cultural and artistic impulses can promote the awakening of our society, they inspire and create spaces for public debate”. (Koalitionsvertrag, S.121, https://www.bundesregierung.de/resource/blob/974430/1990812/04221173eef9a6720059cc353d759a2b/ 2021-12-10-koav2021-data.pdf?download=1)

Anchoring culture as a state objective in the Basic Law
Advocacy for accessibility, diversity, gender equality and sustainability
Social situation of artists: Closing the GenderPayGap, equal + diverse juries + improving the social situation of freelance artists
Promotion of culture: continuation of NEUSTART KULTUR funding, expansion of the Federal Cultural Foundation and the Federal Cultural Fund as drivers of innovation, strengthening of the structures of the independent scene
Establishment of a “Green Culture” focal point for ecological transformation
Creation of a competence centre for digital culture
Establishment of a “Plenum for Culture” to improve cooperation between local authorities and with producers, associations and civil society.
Development of strategies for rural areas
Reaffirmation of the federal government’s cultural commitment to the capital city
De-bureaucratisation of the law on subsidies
Strengthening cultural venues: libraries as third places, clubs and live music venues, galleries
Evaluation of the Cultural Property Protection Act
Strengthening the cultural industries: Establishing a contact person for cultural and creative industries at the federal government, strengthening the games location, examining the promotion of independent publishers, reorganising the federal government’s film promotion.
Commitment to a fair balance of interests in copyright
Cultural heritage: safeguarding and making accessible the architectural cultural heritage, further development of the special programme for the protection of historical monuments, continuation of the reform process of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, further development of the Humboldt Forum.
Media: debate on the value of free media for democracy, optimising coherence between European, federal and state law, combating hate speech and disinformation, expanding Deutsche Welle
Culture of remembrance: protection of memorials and adequate funding of memorial work, promotion of research in memorials, advancement of history mediators of and in the immigration society, special responsibility towards our European neighbours.
Nazi looted art: further repatriation of cultural objects seized as a result of Nazi persecution
Strengthening the history of democracy in Germany, in particular promoting the sites of the Peaceful Revolution
Colonial heritage: advancing the reappraisal of German colonial history, restitution of colonialy burdened collection items in dialogue with the societies of origin, development of a concept for a place of learning and remembrance of colonialism. (See ibid., pp. 121-126).

One of the priorities for 2020 and 2021 was the creation of measures to support the cultural sector in the COVID-19 crisis.

In the past 20 years, discussions and actions (on the part of public and private actors) have focused on the following key issues (in chronological order):

Support for cultural institutions in the capital Berlin:

In 2001, the federal government and Berlin concluded a Capital City Culture Agreement, which takes into account the increased commitment of the federal government to culture in Berlin. Among other things, the agreement stipulated that Berlin institutions would be taken over by the federal government and that an annual contribution to the Capital of Culture Fund would be made, which currently stands at 15 million euros.

UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity

Germany ratified this UNESCO Convention on 12 March 2007. As early as 2004, the German Unesco Commission, in cooperation with civil society, had founded the Federal Coalition for Cultural Diversity, which accompanies the work on the Convention. In 2009, the German UNESCO Commission published the White Paper “Shaping Cultural Diversity”, which contains recommendations for action from civil society and for the implementation of the Convention in and by Germany. In the meantime, Germany has submitted 3 state reports on implementation, the most recent in February 2021 for the reporting period 2016 to 2019. (https://www.unesco.de/sites/default/files/2021- 03/3.%20StateReport%20%2820%29%20DEU.pdf.)

Enquiry Commission on Culture:

The final report of the Enquete Commission of the German Bundestag, published in 2007, which contained over 400 recommendations for the improvement and further development of cultural policy on more than 500 pages, is still considered a reference framework today. (https://dip21.bundestag.de/dip21/btd/16/070/1607000.pdf)

Shaping the cultural infrastructure

In March 2012, four renowned authors from cultural administration and cultural management – ArminKlein, Pius Knüsel, Stephan Opitz and Dieter Haselbach – published a book entitled “Kulturinfarkt. Too much of everything and the same everywhere”. In it, they plead for a radical restructuring of cultural policy and propose halving the existing cultural infrastructure in order to redistribute the funds that become available. This publication has attracted a great deal of public attention, triggered many – often very emotional – debates and initiated numerous events and further publications.

Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)

After the establishment of a free trade agreement (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership TTIP) between Europe and the USA was adopted in 2013, there were demands in the cultural sector in Germany for exceptions for the cultural and media sector. Central points of criticism from numerous actors from the cultural, nature conservation and environmental sectors were, among other things, the equal treatment of cultural goods with regular economic goods, which does not satisfy the dual character of the concept of culture, and above all the concern that cultural funding in Germany could be seen as a restriction on free trade. In July 2014, the European Citizens’ Initiative “Stop TTIP” was formed, among 150 actors from 18 European countries. This citizens’ initiative was rejected by the European Commission. The alliance appealed against it to the European Court of Justice. The alliance also launched a signature campaign in autumn 2014 and handed over more than 1 million signatures to the Commission President in December. In 2015, the Day of Cultural Diversity (21 May) became a day against TTIP, and on 10 October 2015, a large demonstration “Stop TTIP” took place in Berlin, attended by more than 250,000 people. In May 2017, the European Court of Justice ruled on the complaint of the European Citizens’ Initiative and rejected it. The self-organised Citizens’ Initiative, founded in response to the rejection of the official European Citizens’ Initiative, collected 3.2 million signatures against TTIP and CETA between October 2014 and October 2015 and reached a quorum in 23 member states.

Concept-based cultural policy in the federal states

Numerous federal states have drawn attention to themselves in recent years with new cultural policy structures and programmes. In the meantime, there are concrete initiatives for a more concept-based and planned cultural policy in most of the 16 federal states. They use different instruments: e.g. cultural conventions (Saxony-Anhalt 2013), cultural policy strategies (Brandenburg 2012), cultural concepts (Thuringia 2012, Bavaria 2012, Saxony-Anhalt 2014), cultural development concept (Lower Saxony 2011), cultural dialogue (Baden-Württemberg 2020, Schleswig-Holstein 2022), master plan (Bremen 2006, Hesse 2022), cultural policy guidelines (Mecklenburg-Vorpormmern 2020), framework concepts (Hamburg 2004). Federal Länder submit cultural reports, which are usually updated every several years.

State culture laws

In North Rhine-Westphalia, a state culture law – i.e. a law that does not only deal with one sector but with the comprehensive cultural sector – came into force for the first time in December 2014. The discussion about this as well as other laws supporting culture also reached the parliaments in some other federal states (see also chapter 4.2.). This was preceded in previous years by specific laws on individual sectors (e.g. libraries and music schools) in individual Länder. In November 2021, the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia passed the new Cultural Code for NRW, which will come into force in January 2022 (see also Chapter 4.2). Other federal states are also considering drafting their own cultural laws.

Humboldt Forum

In June 2013, the then Federal President Joachim Gauck laid the foundation stone for the reconstruction of the Berlin Palace, the former residence of the Prussian kings. After completion, collections of non- European cultures from Berlin museums (including the Ethnological Museum and the Museum of Asian Art) will be displayed there under the name “Humboldt Forum”. The topping-out ceremony took place in June 2015. As early as 2002, an international commission of experts had presented a concept for the use of the City Palace and recommended the establishment of a Humboldt Forum – as a place for dialogue between world cultures in the centre of the capital – also in connection with the collections of European art on the Museum Island. The Humboldt Forum was and is the subject of numerous debates, some of them very emotional, including questions of location (including the demolition of the Palace of the Republic of the GDR), provenance, self-staging, spatial separation from the European ethnological collections, and cost increases19. In December 2020, the museum was opened digitally (corona-related), and with the opening in July 2021, visitor operations also began.

Provenance research / repatriation of unlawfully removed artworks + dealing with collection items from colonial contexts

Since the fall of the “Iron Curtain”, international discussions on the return of cultural property unlawfully seized from its owners during the Second World War have led to concrete restitutions of art objects. Since 2003, the “Advisory Commission in connection with the restitution of Nazi-confiscated cultural property, especially from Jewish ownership” has been active, taking on the role of mediator in the event of problems in the course of restitution claims. Its members are academics and prominent personalities. In autumn 2006, a far-reaching debate began about the restitution of works of art, which arose when a famous painting by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was returned by the government of Berlin to the heirs of the former owner. Subsequently, a number of similar cases became known. Museums intensified research into the provenance of their artworks and were supported by special funds. At the beginning of 2008, an office for provenance research was established at the federal level at the Institute for Museum Research of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation to support museums in their research into art stolen under National Socialism. The announcement of the Schwabing Art Find in November 2013, which included more than 1,400 works, sparked the debate about restitution and the return of unlawfully acquired cultural property. At the beginning of 2015, the Provenance Research Unit was transferred to the newly created
German Centre for the Loss of Cultural Property based in Magedeburg. In 2015/2016, the first chairs for provenance research were also established at universities in Germany. A focus on the expansion of provenance research was set in the BKM; for example, a guide on dealing with collection items from colonial contexts was published in 2018. The 2018 report by Felwine Saar and Benedicte Savoy on the restitution of African cultural property, which was also published in German in 2019, also sparked a debate in Germany. The discussion about cultural objects from Africa in collections in Germany. In 2019, a Provenance Research Day was held in Germany for the first time. In January 2022, the Coordination Office for Provenance Research in North Rhine-Westphalia, based at the LVR-Landesmuseum in Bonn, began its work.

Culture and Climate / Culture and Sustainability

For some years now, the topic of sustainability in culture has gained importance in cultural policy discourse. In this context, an ecological deficit of cultural policy is lamented, a new nature-based understanding of culture and sustainability as a guiding goal of cultural policy action are demanded. At the federal level, a Council for Sustainable Development and a Sustainability Culture Fund have been established. The Länder and municipalities are beginning to develop concepts, as are cultural institutions. The German Cultural Council has launched a campaign to network the sustainability discourse between the environmental and cultural sectors, and the Institute for Cultural Policy is working intensively on the topic in various research projects. In 2020, an action network “Sustainability in Culture and Media” (https://aktionsnetzwerk-nachhaltigkeit.de/) was founded (see also 2.8).

Capital of Culture 2025

One particular measure supported by the EU cultural funding programme is the initiative “European Capital of Culture“. After Berlin (1988) and Weimar (1999), Essen was the third European Capital of Culture in Germany for the Ruhr region with RUHR.2010. According to a rotation decided in 2014, Germany will again host a European Capital of Culture in 2025 (alongside Slovenia). The German pre-selection will be made in a multi-stage process by the federal states, the Federal Foreign Office and the Conference of Ministers of Culture. On 12 December 2019, the shortlist consisting of five cities was announced with Magdeburg, Hanover, Nuremberg, Chemnitz and Hildesheim. The European expert jury decided at the end of 2020, and the Conference of Ministers of Culture confirmed the decision in January 2021: Chemnitz will be European Capital of Culture in 2025 under the motto “C the Unseen” (https://chemnitz2025.de/).

Women in Culture and Media

For the past 10 years or so, the topic of “Women in Culture and the Media” has come into sharper focus, as evidenced by its thematisation in public hearings in the Cultural Committee of the German Bundestag as well as a series of enquiries. In 2016, a study commissioned by the Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media and prepared by the German Cultural Council, “Women in Culture and the Media. An overview of current trends, developments and proposed solutions” (https://www.kulturrat.de/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Frauen-in-Kultur-und-Medien.pdf). Based on the result of this study – the still prevailing imbalance – a project office “Women in Culture and Media” (https://www.kulturrat.de/thema/frauen-in-kultur- medien/projektbuero/), based at the German Cultural Council, was established in 2017. In addition to committee and network work, its fields of work include in particular a “mentoring programme” (https://www.kulturrat.de/thema/frauen-in-kultur-medien/mentoring- programm/). This is aimed at women who aspire to become leaders in the cultural and media sector. Since 2017, five mentoring rounds with 130 tandems have already been realised. A sixth round of calls is planned for spring 2022.

COVID-19

As in all areas of society, Covid-19 has also had a huge impact on culture since March 2019. The closure of cultural institutions and cultural education facilities, the cancellation of cultural events and the non- realisation of art and cultural projects pose enormous challenges for all cultural actors, threatening the existence of quite a few artists, cultural associations, cultural institutions and companies in the cultural and creative industries. Politicians and administrators at the federal level as well as in the individual federal states and also in some municipalities have aA variety of support instruments have been developed, consisting of a set of direct financial benefits (grants, loans), indirect financial benefits (tax relief) or changes in access rights and grant regulations, as well as advisory services. There are general and culture-specific instruments. But civil society also supports cultural practitioners and cultural institutions with donations and through established funds. With “NEUSTART KULTUR”, the Federal Government launched a comprehensive “rescue and future programme” for the cultural sector in summer 2020. It initially comprised 1 billion euros, which was increased to 2 billion euros in spring 2021. The funds were spent in different programme lines by the cultural associations.In addition, the federal government has provided a special fund for cultural events amounting to 2.5 billion euros. It consists of economic aid for (smaller) events that can only take place with a reduced audience and of cancellation insurance for larger events. (See also: https://www.culturalpolicies.net/covid- 19/country-reports/germany/).