AfD on culture and media

The AfD wants to preserve, cultivate and promote the German language as the core of culture. It rejects gender-inclusive language, which it sees as political interference in the natural development of the language.

The AfD wants to protect and support the German language. It is against gender-inclusive language. That is a way of writing that names women and men with special signs. The AfD says this divides society.

The program calls caring for the German language the foremost task of cultural policy. It says the language reflects history, traditions and identity. In the AfD's view, gender-inclusive language breaks spelling rules and is an attempt at re-education that divides society.

The AfD wants new guidelines for public arts funding: projects directed against the democratic constitutional order or that encourage antisemitism should get no money, and applicants' political views should play no role. Both major institutions and grassroots culture, especially in the outer districts, are to be supported.

The AfD wants new rules for public money for culture. Projects against democracy should get no money. Projects that support hatred of Jews should get none either. Political opinions should not matter for funding. The outer districts should get more culture too.

The AfD commits to artistic freedom but does not want to fund calls for extremism and violence. Institutions' successes should be reflected more clearly in their budgets. The federal government should contribute more through the Hauptstadtkulturfonds (Capital Cultural Fund) to institutions of national importance. Spaces are to be provided for cultural work in the outer districts, and offerings for children and young people should not be cut. For the creative industries, the program plans venture capital, microloans and startup advice, and Berlin is to get a lasting, internationally competitive art fair.

The AfD wants to better secure museums, archives and monuments and create a state law to protect cultural property. Preserving collections should take budget priority over funding for artists, and heritage protection offices should get more staff.

The AfD wants to better protect old buildings and works of art. Berlin should get its own law for this. The offices that protect monuments should get more staff. Museums and archives should get money first. Traditional crafts should be strengthened.

The program justifies the extra positions by saying valuable buildings are torn down because offices lack staff to review them; it cites the Landesdenkmalrat (state monument council). Security in museums and public spaces is to be improved, including for disasters. Training and contracting for trades such as stonemasons, plasterers and restorers are to be strengthened. The restoration degree program at HTW Berlin is to be kept permanently, and the Jugendbauhütte (youth heritage workshop) is to get more support.

The AfD opposes renaming streets and squares for what it considers ideological reasons. New names should be chosen by objective criteria, and residents should have more say.

The AfD wants to keep street names. It is against renaming for political reasons. There should be clear rules for new names. Residents should have more say.

In the AfD's view, the names of distinguished figures are part of the city's historic character. For new names, the program lists historical and cultural significance, contribution to society and the person's connection to the place as the criteria. It says residents' interests have rarely been considered so far.

The AfD wants to restore lost historic buildings and urban spaces in Berlin according to their original design in order to foster identity. This is to be paid for mainly through donations and private patrons.

The AfD wants to rebuild old structures in Berlin. They should look as they did in the past. This should make the city's history visible again. The money should come mainly from donors.

The program names Schinkel's Bauakademie, new construction in the old town at Molkenmarkt and the Berolina statue. The Neptune Fountain and the Horse Tamers are to return to the palace. The Luther monument and replicas of the Siegesallee statues are to be examined. Reconstruction should be possible where the original is well documented and the site gains in urban quality; costs and benefits are to be weighed. The program cites the Berlin Palace as the funding model.

The AfD wants to terminate the Rundfunkstaatsvertrag (interstate broadcasting treaty) and abolish the mandatory broadcasting fee. Public broadcasters should fund themselves through voluntary payments, such as subscriptions or pay-per-view.

The AfD wants to end the broadcasting fee. Nobody should have to pay for public TV and radio anymore. The stations should get money only from people who choose to pay. For example through a subscription.

If a state-run basic broadcaster providing a minimum service is set up, it should be bound to factual and balanced reporting. The AfD considers new structures necessary for this because, in its view, the current system has not proven itself.

The AfD wants to bar public authorities and publicly funded bodies from blocking citizens on social networks because of their opinions. The licensing requirement for online services is to be dropped, and the state media authorities should stick to core tasks.

The AfD wants to protect free speech on the internet. Public offices should not be allowed to block citizens there. Internet companies should not need a license from the state. The media regulators should have fewer tasks.

The program rejects censorship of independent media. It names allocating frequencies and protecting minors as the core tasks of the state media authorities. Images and videos made with artificial intelligence should be clearly labeled, and publicly funded projects should disclose their use of AI. Artists are to be protected from AI plagiarism.

The AfD wants to strengthen remembrance of the injustices of the SED dictatorship in East Germany and create new memorial and research sites. In its view, remembrance policy should show German history in full, including achievements as well as Nazi rule and the communist dictatorship.

The AfD wants more remembrance of injustice in East Germany. An old police prison should become a memorial site. There should also be an institute that studies communism. Remembrance should show all of German history.

The former police prison on Keibelstraße is to quickly become a central memorial site, alongside the Hohenschönhausen memorial and the Campus für Demokratie on the old Stasi grounds. The AfD backs an institute for research on communism on that campus. The planned forum on opposition and resistance from 1945 to 1990 is to be realized quickly.

The AfD wants a new concept for the memorial to the East German uprising of June 17, 1953, located in Zehlendorf. The occasion is the 75th anniversary of the uprising. The platform says the site has been neglected for a long time.

On June 17, 1953, people in East Germany rose up. A memorial in Zehlendorf recalls this. The AfD wants to redesign the memorial. Visitors should learn more there. It should also be easier to reach.

The memorial is located at the Kleeblatt highway interchange in Zehlendorf. The platform calls for a new concept with more information on site and better access. It ties this to the upcoming 75th anniversary of the uprising. In the same context, the AfD rejects a large new archive building on the former Stasi grounds because protected historic buildings would have to be torn down for it.

The AfD rejects postcolonialism as an ideology and wants to stop giving public money to initiatives of this kind. In the platform's view, postcolonial theories endanger a balanced culture of remembrance and social cohesion.

Some groups look critically at the colonial era. This is called postcolonialism. The AfD rejects this way of thinking. Such groups should get no more state money. The AfD says this thinking harms social cohesion.

The platform cites the renaming of Mohrenstraße as an example of what it sees as a wrong turn. It also accuses many proponents of postcolonial theories of antisemitism. State funding for such initiatives is to end. Instead, the AfD wants the colonial era to be viewed in a differentiated way again.