CDU on culture and media

The CDU wants to create a promenade on the Binnenalster lake on lengthened and widened jetties. In addition, cultural and academic buildings announced years ago are to be built quickly and combined where possible.

The CDU wants to build a long promenade on the water at the Binnenalster. There would be room for restaurants and for relaxing. Planned museums and libraries should be built faster. Some of them could move into one shared building.

Together with the Jungfernstieg, the promenade is meant to attract locals and tourists and offer room for restaurants, beach clubs and boat landings. According to the platform, still pending are the "Haus der digitalen Welt," the renovation or rebuilding of the State and University Library, a building for the Academy of Sciences, and several museums; only the port museum has a fixed site. The CDU wants to examine whether the Haus der digitalen Welt, a new library and the academy's seat could be combined in one building. The new buildings are to offer good conditions for research and use while also upgrading city neighborhoods. An art axis is to include existing and planned cultural institutions.

The CDU commits to the freedom of art and culture and rejects boycott calls and intimidation. At the same time, a clause is meant to prevent public money from going to extremist or anti-constitutional organizers and content.

Art should be free. The CDU is against boycotts and intimidation. But extremists should not get money from the state. A new funding rule is meant to make sure of that.

The program sees the limit of artistic freedom where human dignity is violated, antisemitism or racism is spread, or the constitutional order is threatened. Initiatives and events that glorify anti-democratic role models or are run by extremists and religious fanatics are to be excluded from funding. The CDU also calls for closer study of the causes behind the failure of the Weimar Republic. For cultural tourism, it plans a new marketing strategy.

The CDU wants the city's culture funding to rise at least in line with inflation. Access to culture should not depend on income, and barriers for people with disabilities should be reduced further.

The CDU wants to support culture in Hamburg. The city's money should rise when prices rise. Everyone should be able to enjoy culture. That includes people with little money or with disabilities.

The platform sees cultural policy as enabling rather than steering. The CDU considers flagship venues such as the Elbphilharmonie just as important as off-scene and neighborhood offerings. The city should also help cultural institutions invest in climate and resource protection. Barriers for people with disabilities are to be reduced further.

The CDU wants to improve conditions for Hamburg's music scene and fund its institutions adequately where needed. It plans to improve pay for teachers at the Jugendmusikschule (public youth music school).

The CDU wants to strengthen music in Hamburg. Orchestras, clubs and choirs should have good conditions. The youth music school needs enough teachers. So the CDU wants to improve pay there.

The platform counts concert halls, the opera, orchestras, clubs, choirs, church music and musical theaters as part of the music scene. The club scene and the Reeperbahn Festival are to be preserved and supported; the CDU sees them as part of urban development. According to the platform, music schools are under pressure from federal tax decisions. Pay at the youth music school should become attractive enough to find sufficient teachers.

The CDU wants a new external review of funding for Hamburg's private theaters so that it is sufficient and fair. The building of the Hamburger Kammerspiele theater should be bought back early if possible.

Hamburg has many private theaters. The CDU wants a check on whether they get enough money. Outside experts should do this check. The city should buy back the Kammerspiele theater building.

The Privattheatertage (private theater festival) is to continue, also with money from Hamburg. Private stages in particular should get help to become accessible and to cut energy use and operating costs with modern technology. For the Kammerspiele in the Grindel district, whose Jewish background the platform highlights, all options should be pursued to buy the building back from its current owner before the ground lease ends.

The CDU wants to draw up a plan that reviews the planned museum projects, ranks them by importance, and sets out costs and a timeline. Its priorities are the German Port Museum and the Evolutioneum in HafenCity.

Hamburg is planning several new museums. The CDU wants to make a plan for them. The plan should settle costs and timing. The port museum and a nature museum should come first.

The museums should not fall behind those of other cultural capitals and should draw more visitors, for example through special exhibitions. Collections are to be secured, maintained and digitized with public support. According to the platform, the Port Museum stands for the importance of the harbor and the Evolutioneum for research on threatened biodiversity. The CDU also supports the idea of a Jewish Museum in Hamburg.

The CDU wants the Bücherhallen (public libraries) to open more often on Sundays and holidays and to develop them into places for meeting and integration. Neighborhood culture is to receive targeted support, especially in districts with few meeting places.

The Bücherhallen are Hamburg's public libraries. The CDU wants them open more often on Sundays. People should be able to meet there. Culture in the neighborhoods should also get more help.

According to the platform, the Bücherhallen are the city's most used cultural institution. New neighborhood offerings should emerge where there are few meeting places so far, and cultural projects that aid integration should get targeted support. The CDU regards the work of local history workshops as worth funding. Spaces for visual arts and photography should be kept permanently or newly created in redevelopment areas.

The CDU wants to keep monuments, memorial sites and historic street names in the cityscape and add context rather than remove them. The city itself should set an example in heritage protection and not demolish listed buildings.

The CDU wants to keep old buildings and monuments. Streets should keep their old names. Signs should explain the history behind them. The city should not tear down protected buildings.

Creative solutions for preserving and using listed buildings in a modern way are to be found. Traditional sailing ships should be able to keep operating under adapted safety standards; the CDU wants to work for this at state and federal level. Memorial sites and plaques are to be maintained and serve as places of learning. People that streets are named after should be judged in their historical context, and Hamburg's colonial past should also be examined in a nuanced way.

The CDU wants a strategy that sharpens Hamburg's profile as a media hub and lowers barriers for companies to settle there. Training, universities and continuing education should supply enough skilled staff for journalism and the media industry.

Hamburg should stay an important city for media. The CDU wants to make a plan for this. Companies should find it easier to settle there. There should be enough skilled people for the media.

The platform considers it important to attract and keep digital corporations but notes that their decision-makers are not based in Hamburg. The strategy is explicitly meant to include local media. In the CDU's view, reporting from the neighborhoods matters for local life and identity, and it has declined sharply.

The CDU calls public broadcasting a pillar of democracy and at the same time wants to reform its structure and content. Costs should not rise while digital offerings are strengthened, for example through a single shared media library.

The CDU says public broadcasting matters for democracy. But it should change. It should not get more expensive. There should be one shared online library for all channels.

Together with other states, the CDU wants a single media library for TV, radio and online as the central platform. Savings are to come from fewer niche channels nationwide, a more pooled overnight program and specialized newsrooms for non-regional topics. The platform regards the Hamburg/Schleswig-Holstein media authority as a successful example of northern cooperation. Media literacy programs for young people online are to be expanded.