Germany 7.1.3
Aug 04

Germany 7.1.3

  • August 4, 2019

Table 7: cultural expenditure and cultural related expenditures 2015 in Germany by federal level, federal state level and local level

Field/Domain/Sub-domain TOTAL Federal level Federal state level Local level
in million EUR in % in million EUR in % in million EUR in % in million EUR in %
Cultural heritage 500.4 4.8 77.6 5.0 235.5 5.6 187.3 4.0
Museums and exhibitions 1,9069 18.3 331.7 17.4 618.1 32.4 957.0 50.2
Libraries 1,5045 14.4 317.0 20.6 420.4 10.0 767.1 16.4
Theater and music 3,683.7 35.4 33.7 2.2 1,644.3 39.2 2,005.7 42.9
Cultural foreign affairs 552.2 5.3 551.9 35.8 0.3 0.0 0.0 0.0
Administration for cultural affairs 239.7 2.3 0.0 0.0 176.5 4.2 63.2 1.4
Public universities for arts and music 540.1 5.2 0.0 0.0 540.1 12.9 0.0 0.0
Other cultural activities 1,4900 14.3 228.0 14.8 563.6 13.4 698.4 14.9
Total cultural expenditure 10,4174 100.0 1,5399 100.0 4,1988 100.0 4,6787 100.0
                 
Adult education centers 1,037.3 52.2 266.9 47.0 451.8 42.7 318.6 88.0
Church affairs 651.7 32.8 6.0 1.1 602.3 57.0 43.3 12.0
Radio and television 298.4 15.0 295.3 52.0 3.0 0.3 0.0 0.0
Total culture related activities expenditure 1,987.3 100.0 568.3 100.0 1,057.1 100.0 361.9 100.0

Source: Kulturfinanzbericht 2018 and own calculations

The distribution of public expenditure on culture among the eight cultural sectors in 2015 shows that theatre and music accounted for 35.4 %, or more than a third. Another 18.3 % went to financing museums, collections and exhibitions and 14.4 % to libraries.

A comparison of the expenditure structure of the level of governments shows that the focus varies according to the different distribution of tasks.

The municipalities were most involved in financing the theatre and music sector with 42.9 %. Museums, collections and exhibitions accounted for the second largest share of expenditure at 20.5 %, while libraries were in third place with 16.4 %.

The share of funding for theatre and music at the federal state level lies at 39.2 %, which is also significantly higher than the share of funding for museums (14.7 %) and for other cultural activities (13.4 %) and libraries (10.0 %). The structure of cultural expenditure also varied between the federal states. For example, the share of funding for libraries in the federal states ranged from 8.3 % (Thuringia) to 17.8 % (Lower Saxony).

The Federal Government provides the largest share of its culture expenditure on cultural foreign affairs, 35.8%. Expenditure on museums, collections and exhibitions ranked second with 21.5 % and expenditure on libraries third with 20.6 % within federal cultural expenditure.

Public budgets provided a total of 3.7 million EUR for the theatre and music sector. Compared to 2014, public spending increased by 1.6 % and compared to 2005 by 25.5 %. For libraries, public spending in 2015 amounted to 1.5 billion EUR. Compared to 2014, public spending rose by 2.7 %, and compared to 2005, it increased by 26.6 %. In 2015, the federal, state and local governments provided a total of 1.9 billion EUR for museums, collections and exhibitions. Compared to 2014, public expenditure for this area of responsibility decreased by 0.1 %, and compared to 2005, expenditure increased by 31.5 %.

Further information on the individual divisions can be found in the divisional reports prepared in the project Nationwide Cultural Statistics. So far, the Divisional Reports Music (Spartenbericht Musik) (2016), Museums, Libraries and Archives (2017), Building Culture, Monument Conservation and Preservation (2018) and Film, Television and Radio (2019) have been published.[1] Further sectoral reports will follow.

[1] All sector reports are available via https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Gesellschaft-Umwelt/Bildung-Forschung-Kultur/Kultur/Publikationen/_publikationen-innen-spartenberichte.html (Last access: 12.11.2019).