The promotion of culture in Germany is a constant focus of public interest. Although public spending on culture has risen continuously since 2005, current economic and social developments pose a challenge. Public budgets in particular are under pressure to reduce their expenditure.
Berlin's Senator for Culture, Joe Chialo, told the Tagesspiegel newspaper in May last year (Schaper, 2023): “One thing is clear: nothing will remain as it is [...]”, referring to the overall tight budget situation due to war, the consequences of the pandemic, migration movements and rising energy costs, not just for culture alone.
Public cultural expenditure has risen by EUR 8.0 billion or 80% since 2005 to EUR 14.5 billion in 2020. In the same period, total tax revenue only increased by around 63%. Looking at the recent past, public spending has increased by an average of 8.2 % annually since 2017. If cultural expenditure in 2017 had been adjusted for inflation, the value in 2020 would have been 21 % below the actual value of EUR 14.5 billion. The extreme increase from 15.6% in 2019 to 2020 can be attributed to the considerable additional expenditure on aid and support programs by the federal and state governments in the context of the coronavirus pandemic.
In 2020, a total of 1.89 % of the total public budget was allocated to culture, compared to just 1.68 % in 2010. This means that public funds account for the lion's share (64.7 %) of funding for cultural organizations, followed by admission fees and membership fees (17.5%) and sponsorship and donations (15.7 %). The distribution of public cultural expenditure between the federal government, federal states and municipalities has shifted since 2010. While the federal government's share of total public cultural expenditure has risen from 13% (in 2005) to 22 % (in 2022), the federal states' share has fallen from 42% to 39% and the municipalities' share from 46 % to 39 %.
The current situation and future prospects for public cultural funding in Germany are mixed. While the cultural budget in some federal states, such as Saxony-Anhalt, will increase by 26 % from 169 to 212.6 million euros by 2024, the cultural budget of the federal budget for 2024 will be significantly lower than in the previous year. In the chapters allocated to the Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media, expenditure totaling 2.15 billion euros is planned. This is around 254 million euros less than the target for 2023 (Bundestag, 2023 & MDR, 2024). Olaf Zimmermann, editor of Politik & Kultur and managing director of the German Cultural Council, states:
“The trend is that the larger the city, the more money flows in theater and music. Many municipalities are under considerable pressure in terms of their financial situation” (Politik und Kultur No. 05/24).
Those in charge are worried about tight budgets and at the same time increasing burdens due to higher wage settlements and more tasks and expectations from target groups. This requires a conscious prioritization and analysis of their own activities and processes in order to identify opportunities for optimization, for example through digitalization.
actori supports cultural institutions and municipalities in optimizing their use of funds.
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A contribution from Jonas Salzer, consultant.