CDU on culture and media

The CDU wants to reinstate the free-admission museum Sunday within the current legislative term. In its view, culture, leisure, and sports should be affordable for everyone.

Berlin used to have a Sunday with free museum entry. The CDU wants to bring this day back. Culture should be affordable for everyone. People with little money should also visit museums.

The museum Sunday is meant to complement the Fairgnügen program. Fairgnügen offers people on low incomes more than 400 free or discounted activities. The goal is for social participation to go beyond basic needs.

The CDU wants to preserve the diversity of Berlin's culture even in tight budget times and secure affordable workspaces for artists. Culture should be accessible to everyone, and Berlin should become Europe's leading cultural hub.

Berlin has a lot of culture, like theaters and museums. The CDU wants to keep it. Artists should have cheap places to work. Culture should be open to everyone.

The workspace program is to continue receiving funding, with a focus on preserving existing spaces. Exhibitions by Berlin artists are to be funded through the districts, and money is to be provided for grants. Low-threshold offerings, private theaters, the independent scene, children's and youth theaters and small stages are to be supported. For the CDU, artistic freedom is non-negotiable.

The CDU wants to support access to culture for everyone. Programs like "KulturLeben Berlin," which let certain groups buy heavily discounted tickets, are to be expanded, especially to children and teenagers.

The CDU wants everyone to enjoy culture. A program called "KulturLeben Berlin" already exists. It gives some people very cheap tickets. The CDU wants more children and teens to get them too.

The program cites "KulturLeben Berlin" as an example of an offer that gives selected groups significantly reduced ticket prices. The CDU views such offers favorably. In the future, children and teenagers in particular are to benefit from them.

The CDU wants to keep funding top-tier culture and secure Berlin's cultural infrastructure long term, including renovating major venues. The CDU sees high culture as a draw for the city and an expression of a free society. A transformation fund is to cut costs through cooperation.

The CDU wants to keep supporting operas, theaters and museums. Important buildings will be renovated. Cultural venues should work together more. That way they can save money. There will also be one shared site for tickets.

The program cites the renovation of the Komische Oper, the planned renovation of the Staatsoper and that of the Philharmonie as part of capital-city funding talks. Funded institutions are to cooperate more closely without losing their independence as ensembles, modeled on the Stiftung Oper. A transformation fund is to save money, for example through shared storage depots and central ticketing contracts. A joint events platform is to make the offerings more visible and easier to book.

The CDU wants to promote artificial intelligence as a creative tool in culture and make the AI conference for the cultural sector a permanent event. Culture and the creative industries are also to be linked more closely, with more practical funding guidelines.

The CDU wants to use artificial intelligence in culture. People call it AI for short. There was a conference about AI and culture. It should happen regularly. Cultural businesses that earn money should get funding more easily.

In the CDU's view, Berlin as a cultural capital should lead the way on AI. Artists, researchers, policymakers and businesses are to be brought together further. Lawful use of AI for new art forms and to simplify administration and applications is to be supported, alongside fair rules for AI in culture. Funding guidelines are to be adjusted so that commercially operating cultural venues don't fall through the cracks between arts funding and business support.

The CDU wants to strengthen district music schools and keep phasing out freelance contracts. In the next legislative term, 90 percent of staff are to be permanently employed. At the federal level, freelance work is to be made legally secure.

The CDU wants to support music schools in the districts. Many teachers there work as freelancers. That means they have no steady contract. Soon, 9 out of 10 teachers should have steady jobs.

The shift away from mainly freelance employment at music schools, already underway, is to continue. The goal is a 90 percent permanent employment rate in the coming legislative term. At the same time, the CDU calls for a federal rule so that freelance work can still be done lawfully.

The CDU wants to work with the districts to turn neighborhood libraries into places for meeting and learning, and to allow Sunday opening. The Zentral- und Landesbibliothek (Central and State Library) is to get a single new location, preferably in the department store building at Alexanderplatz.

The CDU thinks libraries are very important. Neighborhood libraries should become places to meet. Libraries should be allowed to open on Sundays. The big state library should move to one place. The CDU suggests the department store at Alexanderplatz.

In the CDU's view, libraries remain key places for knowledge, education and participation even in the age of AI. Neighborhood libraries are to be strengthened in cooperation with the districts. Sunday opening is to be made possible through state and federal law. The ZLB is to be consolidated at one easily reachable site, creating a cultural venue at Alexanderplatz with appeal beyond the region.

The CDU wants to open up new cultural venues: the former Tempelhof Airport building with private capital, a "House of Jazz," and S-Bahn arches for young artists. Sites for clubs and the creative industries are to be secured early and through zoning.

The CDU wants more places for culture. The old Tempelhof Airport should become a culture venue. Private companies should help pay for it. Young artists should show work under S-Bahn train arches. Clubs should keep their places in the city.

For Tempelhof, a usage plan and a strategy to bring in private capital are to be developed with relevant stakeholders. The "House of Jazz" is being set up in the former Allied cinema L´Aiglon, and the CDU wants more federal funding for it. Together with Deutsche Bahn, S-Bahn arches are to be opened for art, culture, business and pop-up exhibitions. State-owned land is to be used more for creative businesses and clubs; the Clubcommission remains a key partner, and international networking of the club scene is to be promoted.

The CDU wants to secure remembrance institutions permanently in the state budget. The uniqueness of the Shoah and the reckoning with National Socialism and the SED dictatorship of East Germany are to stay in public awareness. Several memorial sites are to be secured and expanded.

The CDU wants people to remember the crimes of the Nazis. It also wants people to remember injustice in East Germany. Memorial sites should get steady money from the state. Young people should learn that freedom and democracy need protecting.

Memorial work, conversations with eyewitnesses and educational programs, especially for young people, are to be supported. The Hohenschönhausen memorial is considered the central site for confronting SED injustice; the former police prison on Keibelstraße is to become a memorial and education site in cooperation with it. The former Stasi headquarters on Normannenstraße is to be developed further as a "Campus for Democracy" together with the federal government and owners. Checkpoint Charlie is to get a dignified urban design, and the memorial to flight and expulsion at Theodor-Heuss-Platz is to become an education site and a listed state monument.

The CDU wants to keep traces of Berlin's history from the Electorate of Brandenburg, Prussia and the Weimar Republic visible. This includes caring for monuments and keeping historic street names instead of renaming them.

The CDU wants to take care of old monuments in Berlin. They remind people of the time of Prussia. Old street names from that time should stay. They should not get new names.

In the CDU's view, the history of these eras is an essential part of Berlin's identity. As neglected examples, the program names remnants of the old customs and excise wall and the national monument to the Wars of Liberation on the Kreuzberg. These sites are to be maintained in line with heritage standards and visibly tied into the city's history.

The CDU backs public broadcasting and wants to continue the reforms started after the rbb scandal. The state treaty governing rbb is to be reviewed regularly for effectiveness and thrift. Public broadcasting is to concentrate on its core tasks again.

The CDU wants to keep public broadcasting. There was a scandal at the broadcaster rbb. After that, new rules came. These rules should be checked often. Broadcasting should save money and focus on what matters most.

According to the program, a new state treaty strengthened oversight, transparency and compliance at rbb, expanded the powers of its boards, slimmed down leadership and capped salaries. After the pending Federal Constitutional Court ruling, the license fee system is to be reorganized. To keep the fee stable long term, questions about broadcaster locations are also to be discussed. For private radio, FM is retained while DAB+ continues to expand.

The CDU wants to strengthen Berlin as a leading film and cinema hub and is pushing for renewed nationwide cinema funding for technical upgrades. The video game industry is also to keep growing.

The CDU wants to support movie theaters in Berlin. The federal government should pay for this again. Theaters could then buy new technology. Video game companies should also grow.

The program points to about 25 million euros a year for Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, funding for cinemas and the Berlinale, and a help desk for faster film permits. The CDU backs all kinds of cinemas, from neighborhood theaters to multiplexes, and Berlin's status as Europe's largest arthouse cinema market. The DFFB film school is getting a new site in Moabit. With the "House of Games," Berlin is to be strengthened further as a gaming hub.