Linke on culture and media

The Left wants to preserve the freedom and autonomy of arts and culture and opposes screening of cultural and civil society groups by the domestic intelligence service. According to the platform, cultural workers must be able to work without fear of repression. The party also wants to strengthen minority cultures in the city.

The Left wants to protect the freedom of art. The state should not check artists' opinions. The domestic intelligence service should not screen cultural projects. The Left also wants to strengthen minority cultures.

The platform criticizes unrequested screening of cultural and civil society groups by the Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence service) and cites the so-called Haber procedure, which the party says was used to exclude left-wing bookstores from state prizes. Fighting racism, antisemitism, and hatred of groups is described as a foundation of left cultural policy, but the party objects to using such safeguards to push critical positions out of public funding. Migrant and Jewish cultures as well as those of Sinti and Roma and Black Germans are to be strengthened. At the federal level the Left backs making culture a state objective in the Basic Law, and in Berlin it supports collecting equality data in the cultural sector.

The Left wants to raise culture's share of Berlin's total budget from under 2 percent today to 2.5 percent in the short term and 3 percent in the following years. The money is meant above all to better equip the boroughs for cultural work and cultural participation. The platform sees culture as a public responsibility.

Berlin spends less than 2 percent of its money on culture today. The Left wants to change that. Soon it should be 2.5 percent. Later it should be 3 percent. The boroughs should get more money for culture.

A fixed share of the City Tax (Berlin's overnight-stay tax) would go to basic cultural services such as libraries, music schools, youth art schools, and community culture. Culture is to get a share of special funds and investment loans; federal money would pay for things like climate neutrality, accessibility, and digital archives in cultural venues. The Hauptstadtkulturfonds (capital culture fund) should grow rather than shrink in the next round of talks with the federal government. At the federal level, the Left calls for bringing back a wealth tax that would also benefit public cultural funding.

The Left wants to review and simplify the cultural funding system together with professional associations. Cultural workers are to help shape funding programs, and independent juries are to play a larger role. A Berlin cultural funding law would serve as a guideline.

The rules for cultural funding are complicated. The Left wants to make them simpler. Artists and associations should have a say. Independent juries should decide on funding. Politicians should accept these decisions.

Grant law is to become more transparent so that access to public money is easier. The Left backs the ongoing participation process for a cultural funding law and wants artists, professional associations, and institutions involved in developing and evaluating programs. The makeup and work of juries would be standardized with input from the associations, and their decisions would be binding on politicians. Culture is to get equal standing with sports in the use of public spaces, and pilot projects with democratically built organizational structures are to be possible.

The Left wants to set up an independent contact point for people affected by abuse of power in the cultural sector. It would be paired with binding procedures for complaints and conflicts and more transparency on fees and salaries. The platform regards abuse of power as a structural problem.

There is abuse of power in the cultural sector. The Left wants an independent office for people affected. They can get help there. Theaters and museums should disclose their fees. The pay of their directors should also be public.

Binding standard procedures are to apply to complaint and conflict management, with priority given to the perspective of those affected. The Left calls for fee transparency at all state cultural institutions and for publishing the salaries of artistic directors. The Senate is to disclose which private third-party funds flow into the publicly funded cultural sector. The party also supports pilot projects in which cultural institutions are run as cultural commons, meaning they are managed collectively.

The Left wants collective bargaining agreements in all cultural institutions, rising minimum fees across all funding lines, and permanent jobs for freelance teachers at music schools. The platform justifies this with the low incomes of many freelance cultural workers. The party rejects converting the state-owned theaters to a different model.

Many artists earn very little. The Left wants higher minimum fees. All cultural institutions should have collective pay agreements. Music school teachers should get permanent jobs if they want them. The state's theaters should stay with the state.

The agreements would be modeled on the public-sector contracts TVöD and TV-L; the Left opposes extending the NV Bühne stage contract to technical trades and using contract non-renewal as a means of pressure. Fee guidelines and minimum standards are to be binding and reflect the rising cost of living. For permanent positions for music school freelancers, which the platform bases on the Herrenberg court ruling, about 19 million euros a year would be put in the budget. At the federal level the party wants to keep the Künstlersozialkasse (artists' social insurance fund), open it to all creative professions, and require unemployment and retirement coverage for the solo self-employed.

The Left wants to give the Stiftung für Kulturelle Weiterbildung und Kulturberatung (foundation for cultural training and consulting) more money and staff and secure it for the long term. Training on discrimination awareness and prevention would become mandatory in all cultural institutions. Existing anti-discrimination structures in the cultural sector are to be adequately funded.

Berlin has a foundation for cultural training. The Left wants to give it more money and staff. All cultural institutions should have required training against discrimination. Offices that work against discrimination should get enough money.

According to the platform, the foundation combines cultural education, reducing discrimination in access to arts and culture, and research on cultural participation. It also supports the boroughs' music schools, which have about 60,000 students. The Left wants to expand these tasks in a targeted way.

The Left wants stable multi-year funding for the independent arts scene instead of leaving it in uncertainty every year. The platform views the independent scene as a sector in its own right rather than an add-on to the major institutions. Funding tools for the individual art forms are to be developed further.

The independent scene means artists without permanent venues. The Left wants to fund them over several years. That makes planning easier. Grants and fees for exhibitions should become normal. Programs that were cut should get more money again.

The plan includes reliable project grants, ongoing concept funding, and exhibition fees as a standard. Wage increases under collective agreements are to be covered in a way that does not cut into artistic programs. Funding for newcomers is to grow, and the "Künstlerische Forschung" (artistic research) program is to return. Funding for culture in public space would first go back to its level before the 2024 cuts and rise further later.

The Left wants to keep Berlin's clubs from being pushed out of their locations. It plans a dedicated state funding program for venues, more money for soundproofing and simpler permits. At the federal level it wants to push for capped commercial rents and stronger protection against eviction.

Many clubs in Berlin have to close or move. The Left wants to protect the clubs. The state should give clubs money. There should be more money for noise protection. Rents for business spaces should have an upper limit.

At the federal level, the program calls for a rent cap on commercial space, better protection against lease termination, recognition of clubs as cultural institutions in the Federal Building Code and a reform of noise rules. In Berlin, a venue funding program is to be created that takes clubs' social and political engagement into account; the soundproofing fund is to grow and permit procedures are to be simplified. Non-commercial open-air events in public space are to become easier, and the annual Day of Club Culture is to stay. Support is also planned for community-oriented and collectively run clubs, awareness work and low-threshold harm reduction services for drug use.

The Left wants to secure the long-term supply of affordable studios and rehearsal rooms and add 1,000 workspaces rented at cost. It argues that many artists cannot afford space on the open market and that the workspace program has been cut sharply.

Many artists cannot find affordable rooms to work in. The Left wants to create 1,000 new workspaces. The rent should only cover the costs. Empty offices should be used for culture. Cultural sites should not be sold.

The state is to lease workspaces itself on a reliable basis and pass them on, allocation is to be transparent, and existing funding programs are to grow. Shared material stores, equipment pools and production collectives are to receive support. Pointing to 1.82 million square meters of vacant office space, the party wants to make cultural use of empty buildings easier and will examine temporary use, cooperative models, partnerships or socialization for that purpose. In new city districts and larger construction projects, cultural spaces are to be a mandatory part of planning. The party opposes any privatization of existing cultural sites.

The Left wants to secure and expand libraries, music schools, adult education centers, youth art schools and municipal galleries for the long term. It calls for minimum standards, dedicated laws for libraries and music schools, and adequate funding for the districts. The Central and State Library is to get a new site at Alexanderplatz.

The Left wants to strengthen libraries and music schools in the districts. There should be new laws for this. The districts should get enough money for culture. Music school teachers should have permanent jobs. The big state library should move to Alexanderplatz.

These institutions, along with small venues and artists' workspaces, are to be included in social infrastructure planning, with the districts' participation required. Under the principle of connexity, whoever assigns tasks to the districts must also pay for them. The program envisions binding minimum standards, a library development law, a music school law and a cultural funding law; freelance music school teachers are to be given permanent contracts. According to the program, Berlin lacks 68 library locations. The state library's current sites on Breite Straße and the Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek are to remain cultural venues.

The Left wants to ensure cultural participation regardless of income. Its plans include a permanent state KulturPass (culture pass) for young people, a 3-euro ticket at all public cultural institutions and more cultural programs for children and for people living in refugee housing.

Culture should be affordable for everyone. Young people aged 16 to 21 should get 100 euros a year for culture. Public cultural institutions should offer a ticket for 3 euros. Children in refugee housing should also get cultural programs.

The state KulturPass is to apply permanently to those aged 16 to 21 with a yearly credit of 100 euros; at the federal level the party wants the abolished KulturPass brought back. The 3-euro ticket is to be mandatory and available online, and a solidarity ticket is to be examined as well. Partnerships between cultural institutions and schools or daycare centers, such as TUSCH and TUKI, are to be adequately funded across departments. District galleries are to receive more resources for free programs, as are offers for holders of the volunteer card. For children and teenagers in refugee housing, the program calls for outreach cultural work and support for the initiatives providing it.

The Left wants to draw up a long-term strategy for an accessible cultural life together with institutions and advocacy groups. Accessibility is to apply to audiences as well as to people working in cultural institutions.

Many cultural places have barriers for people with disabilities. The Left wants a long-term plan to fix this. People affected should have a say. People with disabilities should also be able to work well in culture. There should be money for this.

In the program's view, accessibility of cultural venues and offerings in Berlin is inadequate so far. The term covers physical access, accessible communication, accessible working conditions and inclusive funding structures. People with disabilities are to be considered not only as audience members but also as employees. The measures are to be backed with dedicated funding.

The Left wants to fund the ecological conversion of cultural institutions and build sustainability criteria into cultural funding. It calls for a dedicated strategy for digitizing culture and for protecting copyright where artificial intelligence is used.

Cultural venues should harm the climate less. There should be funding and advice for this. Culture should also become more digital. Artificial intelligence must not simply use artists' works. Artists should be paid fairly for it.

Funding programs are to support climate-neutral productions and the ecological retrofitting of cultural venues; sustainability criteria are to come with advice rather than added bureaucracy. The digital strategy is to promote long-term archiving, accessible digital outreach and digital co-creation. On artificial intelligence, transparency about training data, opt-out and opt-in mechanisms and fair pay are to become conditions of state funding. At the federal level the party backs corresponding rules to protect artistic work.

The Left wants remembrance and memorial site work to be adequately funded and shielded from political interference. May 8 is to become an annual work-free day of remembrance. On East German history, the party seeks a nuanced remembrance culture that covers all of Germany.

Berlin should remember the crimes of the Nazi era. The Left wants to give memorial sites enough money. Politicians should not interfere there. May 8 should be a day off for remembrance every year. Berlin should also remember the history of East Germany.

Memorial work is to draw connections to present-day threats to democracy and human rights; the party rejects historical revisionism. For remembering Nazism and the Holocaust without living witnesses, digital and participatory formats, critical historical learning and educational outreach are to be expanded in cooperation with remembrance initiatives. The memory of the murdered Soviet prisoners of war is also to be preserved. On the GDR, the program wants to honor the cultural and life achievements of people in the East without concealing state injustice and the lack of democracy.

The Left wants to set up a commission to address Berlin's colonial legacy. Civil society groups are to negotiate the renaming of streets and squares there. In addition, a central site for learning about and remembering German colonialism is to be created.

Some streets in Berlin are named after men from the colonial era. These men were responsible for exploitation and genocide. A commission should discuss new street names. Berlin should get a place for learning about the colonial era.

The program points out that Berlin hosted the so-called Africa Conference of 1884/85 and that streets and squares still bear the names of people responsible for exploitation and genocide. The commission is also to broaden remembrance in the cityscape. The "Kolonialismus Erinnern" team at the Stadtmuseum and the coordination office at Decolonize Berlin are to be strengthened.

The Left wants to reform public broadcasting: broader participation, more news and culture, more transparency and more say for the public. The broadcasting fee should still be set through an independent process, while more people should be exempt from paying it. DAB+ digital radio should be kept permanently.

The Left wants to change public broadcasting. It should offer more news and culture. It should show more openly how it spends money. More people should not have to pay the broadcasting fee. Radio by antenna should stay.

The program lists the goals of the reform as broad participation, social fairness, more news and culture in programming, transparent decisions and spending, more public involvement, and adaptation to current technology and usage habits. Society's diversity should be visible both on air and within the broadcasters. The fee level should continue to be determined independently; additional exemptions would be offset with tax money. DAB+ should remain as an over-the-air distribution channel. In the Left's view, moving broadcasts entirely online would exclude some people and act like a second fee through the cost of an internet provider.

The Left wants stricter transparency rules and more staff co-determination written into the interstate treaty governing rbb, the public broadcaster for Berlin and Brandenburg. Staff cuts and program cuts should end, and freelancers should be paid like employees. The broadcasting council should better reflect Berlin's diversity.

rbb is the public broadcaster for Berlin and Brandenburg. The Left wants more openness there and more say for staff. The broadcaster should stop cutting jobs and programs. Freelancers should get the same pay as employees.

The program justifies these demands with past misconduct at the top of the broadcaster, which it says damaged rbb's reputation. The Left considers the claim that rbb lacks revenue to be wrong and therefore rejects further cuts to staff and programming. It backs freelancers in their effort to bring their fees in line with employees' pay. Berlin's state equality law should be amended to cover female freelancers with employee-like status. The treaty should also guarantee DAB+ permanently, strengthen German-Polish cooperation and anchor reporting from the state parliaments.

The Left wants to limit the opinion-shaping power of large online platforms such as Meta, TikTok and Google. To do so, media concentration law should be broadened and the Medienanstalt Berlin-Brandenburg (mabb, the regional media regulator) given stronger legal powers and more money. The program also relies on media literacy education for young people.

Big internet companies decide which news people see. The Left wants to limit that power. The media regulator in Berlin should get more rights and more money. Young people should learn to use media critically.

According to the program, platforms use algorithms to select what information reaches people, which it says hampers democratic debate and gives hate speech room. The commission that reviews concentration in the media sector should therefore also cover dominant platforms and be able to act against them. The planned interstate treaty on digital media should give state media authorities effective tools against platform power and discrimination and for more transparency. The so-called Vorwegabzug, a deduction that reduces mabb's share of the broadcasting fee, should be dropped entirely. The Left wants to secure budget funds for media literacy projects run by independent nonprofit providers.

The Left wants non-commercial community radio stations to be legally recognized as a third pillar alongside public and private broadcasters and to receive basic funding. Existing support for local journalism should be made permanent.

Community radio stations do not aim to make a profit. People can make their own radio there. The Left wants to protect these stations by law and give them steady money. Local news should also get lasting support.

In the program's view, community radio gives a voice to groups rarely heard in traditional media and makes media production more democratic. Their recognition as a third pillar should be written into the interstate treaty on private media. The basic funding would cover staff and material costs and be developed together with the stations and mabb. The program sees local journalism as a precondition for opinion-forming and participation at district and neighborhood level; its structures should be strengthened and expanded.

The Left wants to give the Medienboard, the film and media funding body for Berlin and Brandenburg, sufficient resources. Support should go to all film genres, film festivals, the games and visual effects industries, and cinemas as cultural venues.

Berlin is a film city. The Left wants to give more money for film funding. Film festivals, video games and small cinemas should also get support. Old films should be saved in digital form.

Alongside large flagship projects, documentary, animated, experimental, short and children's films should also receive money. The Left welcomes that committees now decide on film and new media funding and suggests the same for festivals; festival funding should keep rising and be awarded under clear criteria drawn up with the festival scene. For games, the focus is on small and mid-sized companies, and support for visual effects firms should continue. Cinema funding should become a fixed part of the state budget, with arthouse and neighborhood cinemas in mind. Berlin should also do more to digitize its film heritage.

The Left wants to develop press funding together with other German states that leaves editorial independence untouched. Protection against SLAPPs, lawsuits meant to intimidate journalists, should also apply to purely domestic cases.

Newspapers are struggling because big internet companies are strong. The Left wants to support the press with money. The state should not interfere with reporting. Journalists should be better protected from lawsuits meant to scare them.

The program cites the pressure newspapers face, mainly from digital platforms. The planned funding would support public-interest media and new digital business models. The Left sees the EU's anti-SLAPP directive as progress but considers its reach in Germany too narrow. It also wants journalists to be able to work without danger in light of rising violence against them.

The Left wants broadcaster contracts and film funding tied more closely to collective agreements, jobs with social insurance and fair fees. For artificial intelligence in media, it calls for clear rules and worker co-determination. The share of women and diversity in the industry should increase.

People who work in media should get fair pay. Companies with public funding should follow union wage agreements. There should be clear rules for artificial intelligence. More women and more different kinds of people should work in media.

The requirements would apply to contracts awarded by broadcasters and to film productions; funding recipients should also disclose how they employ people. According to the program, AI must neither displace good jobs nor devalue creative and journalistic professions. Working hours should be easier to combine with care and parenting duties. Women should be better represented not just in leadership but across the industry. The makeup of professional groups should follow the Charta der Vielfalt, a voluntary employer commitment to diversity.

The Left wants to write the funding of key memorial institutions into Berlin's state constitution to secure them even under governments that include the AfD. At the same time, remembrance culture is to be broadened to cover German colonialism and victim groups that have received little attention so far.

The Left wants to protect important memorial sites for the long term. The money for them should be written into Berlin's constitution. There should be new memorial sites, for example on German colonialism. Colonialism means Germany once ruled over other countries. Staff should get better working conditions.

The sites to be secured include the "Topography of Terror" and the House of the Wannsee Conference; turning these institutions into public-law corporations is to be examined. The Left demands that the reckoning with colonialism be put back into the federal memorial sites concept and wants to initiate a memorial site on the subject. Plans include expanding the Nazi Forced Labor Documentation Center in Schöneweide, a memorial for victims of German occupation and the war of annihilation in Eastern Europe, and a place of remembrance for people persecuted as "asocials and career criminals." The memorial to the murdered Sinti and Roma is to be fully preserved. Educational and freelance staff are to get better, aligned working conditions, and a new office is to support small memorial projects in districts and neighborhoods. Victims' associations and descendants are to be involved in planning from the start.