Linke on culture and media

The Left wants to found a Bremen memorial sites foundation to develop the concept of Nazi-era remembrance and look after memorial sites. Crime sites and structures from that period are to be explained more clearly and artistically reworked.

The Left wants to set up a foundation for memorial sites in Bremen. It should take care of remembering the Nazi era. Places of Nazi crimes should become better known. There should also be a place about the persecution of queer people.

The foundation is to bundle responsibility for the Denkort Bunker Valentin memorial and other sites and receive enough staff and resources from the start. Structures such as the Lichtbringer relief on Böttcherstraße or the memorial on Altmannshöhe are to be artistically reworked. For sites such as the Ostertorwache or the burial ground at Reitbrake, an independent commission is to develop commemoration together with victims' associations and successor states of the Soviet Union. The memorial on "Aryanization" is to be accompanied by educational work. Digital formats and permanent jobs in memorial work are to be supported, and the day commemorating the 1918 November Revolution is to be put into practice with programs for schools and workplaces.

The Left wants unlawfully acquired objects in Bremen's museums fully returned to their societies of origin. Streets with colonial references are to be renamed, and colonial traces in the city made visible and put in context.

Bremen's museums hold things that were stolen in colonial times. The Left wants to give them back. Streets named after colonial criminals should get new names. Residents should not have to pay for this. The Bismarck statue should be changed by artists.

Returning human remains is to take priority; only where return is not possible or not wanted should another solution be found with the countries of origin. Museums are to receive additional funds for this. New street names should commemorate those who suffered under colonial rule, and district councils should get more support in the process. Sites such as the cotton exchange or the relief in the main station are to be put in context. The Bismarck statue on Domshof is to be artistically reworked as a symbolic break with militarism and colonialism. Positions for working through the history of colonial violence are also to be created.

The Left wants to introduce regular free-admission days at museums and anchor culture in all city districts. Space for culture is to be planned into new development areas, and new rehearsal rooms for bands are to be created.

The Left wants everyone to be able to enjoy culture. Museums should be free on some days. New neighborhoods should have space for culture. Bands should get new rooms to rehearse. Open-air parties should stay allowed.

The 360-degree program for more diversity in cultural institutions is to be expanded and made permanent, and the Breminale is to remain a free festival. In the city center, major venues such as the Glocke concert hall are to be modernized; alongside a house of literature, small and subcultural venues should also find a place. The party wants to keep the liberal rules for open-air parties. New spaces for graffiti are to be designated on public buildings and bridges. In Bremerhaven, vacant premises are to be opened temporarily for cultural initiatives.

The Left wants to further increase public funding for culture. Projects that operate continuously are to receive permanent institutional funding, project grants are to grow, and a stipend program for artists is to continue.

The Left wants to spend more money on culture. Projects that work regularly should get lasting funding. Projects by women should get at least an equal share. Artists should keep getting stipends. Applications should be simple.

Projects by women are to be represented at least equally in funding. The Pop-Office Bremen is to become permanent. Through so-called matching funds, the party wants to provide the required co-financing so that more federal money flows to Bremen. Low-threshold funding for the young scene and subculture is to continue with simple applications. The stipend program introduced during the pandemic is to give artists regular periods of free production.

The Left wants to introduce exhibition fees for visual artists at publicly funded venues. Minimum fees in project funding should be adequate and honored, and fees at the Volkshochschule (adult education center) should rise.

Artists should be paid when museums show their work. This should apply to venues that get public money. Teachers at the adult education center should get higher fees. More art on public buildings should bring new commissions.

The fee requirement is to apply to publicly funded galleries and museums. In project funding, the party wants to make sure agreed minimum fees are enough to live on. The agreements between the adult education center and its freelance teachers are to be implemented further. Strengthening art in public construction is meant to create additional public commissions for visual art.

The Left wants to develop cultural education through a framework plan and expand cooperation between cultural practitioners and schools. The city library is to get more staff as a meeting place.

The Left wants a plan for cultural education. Artists and schools should work together more. Projects should only need one application at one office. The city library should get more staff. It is a place where people meet.

According to the platform, projects often have to file applications with two or three offices; in future, one central contact point and a single application should suffice. In the party's view, the library has developed from a lending site into a meeting place, which additional staff should support. The storage facility for the two library buses is to be modernized soon. Artists should find it easier to work in both Bremen and Bremerhaven.

The Left wants Radio Bremen funded according to need, the broadcasting fee made more socially fair and advertising removed from public broadcasting. It also calls for reforms in transparency and oversight and for press subsidies kept at arm's length from the state.

The Left wants to keep Radio Bremen and public broadcasting. The broadcasting fee should be fairer to people with less money. Public channels should no longer show ads. Broadcasters should be more open and better supervised. Newspapers should get support without the state steering them.

The platform sees a need for reform in transparency, oversight structures and above-scale pay for top management. More permanent jobs are to be created in newsrooms, since the situation of long-term freelancers is described as partly insecure. Press subsidies are to secure good employment and support regional diversity nationwide. Bremen's state media authority is to be kept and given additional positions for new tasks arising from interstate treaties and EU directives. The media literacy network is to get more funding, and the party wants to examine modernizing community broadcasting.