The Federal Government is substantially responsible for setting the statutory framework of culture and the media. Major successes have been achieved here:

• At the intervention of Bernd Neumann, the rate of value added tax was held at the reduced level of seven percent for cultural items.
• The steps taken to ensure the funding of social security for artists (Künstlersozialversicherung) have been a total success. Effective social security is of existential significance for artists and journalists. But the parties who make use of the work of artists also benefit from the clear reduction in the rate of contributions, as they are now all equally called upon to make contributions. Overall this will further support the cultural and creative industry in Germany.
• One focus of cultural policy in this legislative period is the strengthening of the involvement of citizens, which makes a substantial contribution to the cultural wealth of Germany.
• In 2007 with the law on strengthening the involvement of citizens, amongst other things the tax-deductibility of donations and contributions to associations was substantially improved.
• In 2007 Germany joined the important UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions and transposed the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property into German legislation.
• A new legal basis was established for the work of the Federal Commissioner for the Documents of the State Security Service (Stasi) of the former German Democratic Republic (BStU).
• On questions of the return of cultural assets seized in connection with NS persecution, the Minister of State for Culture and the Media seized the initiative for a fair and peaceable reconciliation of interests in the spirit of the 1998 Washington Declaration. In November 2007 a reworked handout was put forward as an orientation aid for cultural establishments in their own independent provenance investigations and research. Additionally, since July 2008 museums, libraries and archives have been able to submit applications for support from the Post for Provenance Research and Investigation at the Institute for Museum Research of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. The Post works closely with the central office for the coordination of lost cultural property in Magdeburg, which is also financed by the Minister of State for Culture and the Media.

Literature and the Arts strengthened

• The construction of the Museum of Modern Literature in Marbach was made possible jointly with the Land of Baden-Württemberg.
• As the only institution which supports German contemporary literature trans-regionally and independently of the market, the German Literature Fund is co-financed by the Minister of State for Culture and the Media.
• There are close cultural ties between Germany and Italy. In order to support and deepen these, in cooperation with the Federal Foreign Office in 2008 the Minister of State for Culture and the Media created the German-Italian translation prize. In addition the Minister of State maintains the Casa di Goethe in Rome as a cultural centre and Germany’s only museum of literature abroad.
• Support for contemporary art is an important task of the Minister of State. Thus the collection of contemporary art of the Federal Republic of Germany, which now numbers more than 1,300 works, documents the development of contemporary art in Germany. On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the institution of the Minister of State for Culture and the Media , the collection is being presented from October 2008 in the Gropius Building in Berlin. The exhibitions "documenta” in Kassel and the Berlin Biennale are events of international renown. They are supported by funds from the Minister of State for Culture and the Media via the German Federal Cultural Foundation.
• Every year young artists receive grants to study at the Villa Massimo and Casa Baldi in Rome, the Villa Romana in Florence and at the German Study Centre in Venice. The Minister of State for Culture and the Media sponsors these study visits to German establishments in Italy to a total of 1.75 million Euro. Three grants from the Federal Government enable young media artists to stay at the artists’ residence Villa Aurora in Los Angeles.