Thanks to this division of tasks the German cultural landscape is very diverse. At 1.13 billion Euro, the Federal Government provides approximately 12 percent of the public funding for art and culture, and thus makes a substantial contribution to fulfilling the cultural policy tasks of the entire state. The responsibility for some cultural policy tasks, such as European cultural policy, is shared by the Federation and the Laender. Art and culture require a statutory and economic framework which can often only be created at national level.
There are some cultural establishments of national importance, such as the German Literature Archive in Marbach, the German Film Institute in Frankfurt or the Francke Foundations in Halle, which the Federal Government funds jointly with the Laender and partly also with the local authorities. Festivals of international significance, such as the Bayreuth Festival and the Weimar Arts Festival are co-financed by the Federal Government. Under the Federal Expellees Act (Bundesvertriebenengesetz), the Federation and the Laender are jointly obliged to do research on German culture and history in Eastern Europe and to present this to the public. In this context cross-border cultural outreach work and youth exchanges play a key role.
In order to support innovative programmes and projects with an international background, in 2002 the Federal Government established the Federal Cultural Foundation based in Halle. For its part, the foundation, to which around 36 million Euro will be made available by the Minister of State for Culture and the Media in 2008, allocates financial subsidies for projects throughout Germany from all walks of art and develops funding programmes on socially relevant themes.
As Germany has not only public funding but also a number of civil initiatives to thank for its cultural richness, the Minister of State for Culture and the Media also supports the Association of Independent Cultural Institutions (Arbeitskreis selbständiger Kulturinstitute).
Where the Federal Government faces particular challenges
Culture in the new German Laender
The cultural landscape in Eastern Germany is rich and varied. Since the reunification in 1990 the Federal Government has been providing targeted support for cultural establishments of national significance located in the federal states (Laender) in Eastern Germany. To date more than 900 million Euro have been invested in their upkeep and modernization. All investments are made in cooperation with the respective German Laender of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. This is an example of particularly successful cooperation in a cultural landscape characterised by a proven separation of power between national and regional level, where most of the responsibility lies at regional level.
In the context of its "Flagship Programme", the Federal Government will continue its support of outstanding cultural establishments in Eastern Germany. It will provide around 35 million Euro in the year 2008. A list of the cultural flagships, the so-called "Blue Book”, was compiled in 2001 on behalf of the Minister of State for Culture and the Media and re-published in 2006. The establishments supported include the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, the Luther Memorials Foundation, the Bach Archive in Leipzig and the Wartburg Foundation in Eisenach.
Further institutions of national importance are supported by the Federal Government on the basis of the programme "Investments for national cultural establishments in Eastern Germany”. The Minister of State for Culture and the Media makes available around six million Euro a year for this programme. The beneficiaries include the German Hygiene Museum in Dresden, the Grassi Museums in Leipzig and the Moritzburg Foundation in Halle. In addition, individual construction projects are supported separately. Thus the Federal Government contributed 15 million Euro to the construction of the new building of the Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig as well as 15 million Euro for the construction of the Ozeaneum in Stralsund, which was half of the total construction costs of the Ozeaneum. The Federal Government made 8.5 million Euro available as a share in costs of the reconstruction of the Herzogin Anna Amalia Library in Weimar, which caught fire in 2004 and was made accessible to the public again in 2007.
Preservation of historical monuments
Photo: picture-alliance/ dpa
Reopening of the Herzogin Anna Amalia LibraryIn Germany there are around one million monuments. The Federal Government commits substantial resources for their conservation. In autumn 2007 the German Parliament resolved upon the most extensive cultural investment programme in the history of the Federal Republic. The Minister of State for Culture and the Media’s programme for nationally significant cultural investments, endowed with 400 million Euro, will make an impressive contribution to the preservation of the cultural heritage.A particular concern is to provide fast help for endangered monuments all over Germany. To this end the Minister of State for Culture and the Media has made Euro 40 million available within the new special programme for the preservation of individual historical monuments throughout the entire Federal Republic which are characteristic of Germany’s cultural heritage. This sum is being co-financed by the German Laender.
200 million Euro from the cultural investment programme will flow into the redevelopment of the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden, 77.5 million Euro will be provided for urgent redevelopment requirements of the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg, and a further 45 million Euro is to be given to the Foundation of Weimar Classics, amongst other things for the restoration of the city castle and the redevelopment of the Goethe and Schiller Archive.
Under the historical monuments preservation programme "Nationally Valuable Cultural Monuments” the Federal Government is supporting a total of 86 properties in 2008 with around 12 million Euro. These include the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex in Essen, the Emperor’s Cathedrals in Speyer and Königslutter, the smelting house workers’ accommodation "Alte Schmelz” in St. Ingbert in the Saarland, the Church of St. Mary in Greifswald, St. Catherine’s church in Hamburg and the Cistercian Abbey of Waldsassen in the Upper Palatinate.
Capital city culture
The Federal Government has a strong interest in creating an attractive cultural scene in the capital city Berlin and has therefore promoted culture in the city since 1999 with considerable federal funds. In this way the Federal Government has responded to the greatly increased demands and expectations, at an international level too, of a prestigious cultural life in the capital city. This is why the Federal Government continues its financial commitment to Berlin as a cultural location at a high level.
Under the capital city financing agreement which came into force in 2008, the Federal Government is supporting cultural policy measures of specific importance in Berlin. Support by the Federal Government for cultural establishments and projects in Berlin in 2007 amounted to more than 350 million Euro, and a similar amount is also planned for the following years.
This includes amongst other things the Capital City Cultural Fund, allocations for the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, the German Historical Museum, the Jewish Museum in Berlin, the Topography of Terror Foundation, the Berlin Festival, the International Film Festival Berlinale, the House of World Cultures, the Martin Gropius Building, the Rundfunkorchester und Chöre GmbH, the Academy of Arts and Deutsche Kinemathek.
All in all the Minister of State for Culture and the Media has invested more than 3,000 million Euro in culture and its establishments in Berlin since 1999. This also includes the expenditure on the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, where the redevelopment and reconstruction measures have been financed solely by the Federal Government since 2002. A total of 1,300 million Euro of federal funds has been poured into the construction activities at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Berlin Museum Island, alone. In the redeveloped Berlin Castle a site of world cultures is going to be set up in collaboration with the Humboldt-Forum in the historic heart of the capital.
