The German government has approved a record €2.1bn Culture budget for the year 2021 to undertake projects such as the renovation of the Bayreuth Festival Theatre, programme to preserve Berlin museum buildings, projects to address the colonial past, and a grant for the Jewish Museum Berlin. The Budget Committee of the Lower House has made an increase of €155m for the Culture budget of 2021 from this year, following a trend that has seen the Culture budget rising over the past few years.
“This resounding acknowledgment by the parliament of the critical importance of culture and the media is a major signal in these difficult times,” Culture Minister Monika Grütters said in a statement. Even though much of the arts funding comes from the 16 states, the federal budget will be a much-needed push.
Bayreuth Festspielhaus, the theatre conceived and built by the famous music composer Richard Wagner to stage his operas, has been allocated almost €85m for its renovation and refurbishing. Another €76m is reserved for a programme to refurbish buildings belonging to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, the organization that manages Berlin’s museums, following a report by government advisors published earlier this year found that the institution is extremely underfunded. A sum of €3.2m has been earmarked for the Jewish Museum Berlin as additional funding so that the museum can waive the visitors’ admission fees. A further €1.75m has been allotted to programmes that include researches and addressing the colonial past. The German Lost Art Foundation budget is to be increased by €1.5m for grants to institutions conducting provenance research into Nazi-looted art, colonial-era acquisitions, and art confiscated by East German authorities. And €6.2m is allocated for two big German history museums, the German Historical Museum in Berlin and the Haus der Geschichte in Bonn, to modernize their permanent exhibitions.
