Germany 7.1.2

Table 6. Public cultural expenditure by level of government, 2017

Sources: Statistical Offices of the Federation and the Länder (2020): Kulturfinanzbericht 2020, Wiesbaden.

In 2017, the municipalities accounted for the largest share of public cultural expenditure with 44.36 per cent, followed by the Länder with 38.68 per cent, and the federal government’s share was 16.98 per cent. An examination of the development of the respective shares shows that the share of the municipalities has remained almost constant since 2001 and ranged between 43.6 per cent (2003) and

45.5 per cent (2005). With one exception (2003), the share of the municipalities was always higher than that of the Länder. Since 2007 (43.0%), the share of the Länder has been falling steadily to 38.7% in 2017. The increasing role of the federal government in financing the cultural sector is also reflected in the development of the respective shares of the territorial authorities. While the federal government’s share was 12.4 per cent in 2001, it rose continuously and reached 17.0 per cent in 2017.