SPD on culture and media

The SPD wants to build a Stadtmusikanten- und Literaturhaus (Town Musicians and Literature House) in downtown Bremen and modernize the concert hall Die Glocke. Culture is meant to keep the center lively in the evenings as well. Small, easy-to-access cultural offerings are planned alongside.

The SPD wants to build a new house downtown. It is for books and for the Bremen Town Musicians. The concert hall Die Glocke should also be renewed. Culture should make the city lively in the evening too.

The new house is to give the literary scene a central meeting place, host the tourist information office and present the Town Musicians. The platform sees it as an argument for Bremen's bid to become a UNESCO "City of Literature" and as a boost for the Balge quarter. Die Glocke is to be renovated, develop its program and open up more, including offerings before evening concerts. For this, the Domsheide square is to be redesigned as an entrance to the city center. Small stages and open-air venues are added, and possibly graffiti art, for example along a stretch of the Weser.

The SPD wants to highlight Bremen's town hall more strongly as a World Heritage site. The Untere Rathaushalle (lower town hall) is to become a World Heritage center, and new access points are to be created.

Bremen's town hall is a World Heritage site. That means it is specially valuable for the whole world. The SPD wants to show this better. A center is planned in the lower hall of the town hall. Visitors can learn more about Bremen's history there.

The center is to present the special features of the town hall, the history of Bremen and the state's independence. The Ratskeller with its wine collection is also to become better known. The SPD wants to examine whether new entrances to the historic wine cellar beneath the town hall and Domshof square are possible.

The SPD wants to give public funding to museums, galleries and other cultural institutions as places of learning outside school and link them more closely with schools. A pilot project called “Bremer Kulturschulen” (Bremen culture schools) is to give elementary schools money to build cultural offerings into the all-day program.

The SPD wants children to come into contact with culture more easily. Elementary schools should get money for this. They can use it to bring artists into the school. Museums should also work more with schools. There should be permanent jobs for this.

The pilot project is to provide a total of one million euros over four years for the more than 100 elementary schools. Schools can apply to run activities and clubs with artists or cultural institutions. Those that show lasting partnerships and a consistent concept receive the title “Bremer Kulturschule.” After a positive evaluation, the program is to be made permanent if possible. In addition, the SPD wants to create long-term positions with social insurance for cultural and museum education and keep funding short-term art projects for daycare centers and schools with materials and staff.

The SPD stands behind the programming of ARD, Radio Bremen, ZDF and Deutschlandradio. Radio Bremen is to remain an independent broadcaster. Public broadcasting should be able to develop across TV, radio and online, and be accessible to all.

The SPD supports the public broadcasters ARD, ZDF, Deutschlandradio and Radio Bremen. Radio Bremen should stay its own station. The broadcasters should be able to keep developing. Everyone should be able to use what they offer.

The platform calls Radio Bremen's independence non-negotiable, both for its contributions to ARD and for its regional programming. Development is to be trimedial, future-proof and accessible. Because public broadcasters, the press and private providers compete for news audiences online, the rules in the interstate treaties are to be followed closely. Broadcasters' online offerings should focus on video and audio and should not resemble press products.

The SPD wants to make sustainability a guiding principle in Bremen's broadcasting and media laws. It also wants this principle included in the interstate treaties covering ZDF, Deutschlandradio and private providers.

The SPD wants new rules for broadcasters. Broadcasters should act in a sustainable way. That means they should care for the environment and the future. This should be written into the laws.

The Radio Bremen Act and the Bremen State Media Act are to be amended. When the treaties for ZDF and Deutschlandradio are next revised, the SPD will push for the same requirement. In the Interstate Media Treaty, sustainability is to be anchored more firmly for private broadcasters, platforms and intermediaries as well. The SPD also wants to support private broadcasters in making this shift.

The SPD wants tighter regulation of international digital companies through the Interstate Media Treaty, because it sees them as a threat to free public debate. It also wants good conditions for local and regional journalism and supports net neutrality.

The SPD wants stricter rules for big internet companies. They should show openly how they work. Hate and false news online should be fought. The SPD also wants to protect local newspapers and media.

The SPD backs rules for more transparency, diversity and non-discrimination, and against hate speech and disinformation. Journalistic content, especially regional content, should be easier to find online. The range of newspapers in Bremen and Bremerhaven is to be preserved through the digital transition. The platform also values community media, where residents can produce and distribute their own content.

The SPD wants to deepen engagement with the Nazi past, colonialism and Bremen's migration history. Because many eyewitnesses are no longer alive, new ways of teaching this history are to be developed, including a regular youth exchange with the partner city of Haifa.

The SPD wants Bremen to remember its history. This includes the Nazi era. Young people from Bremen and Haifa should meet regularly. Haifa is a city in Israel. The history of immigration should also be told.

The SPD welcomes the memorial on Bremen's role in the plundering of the Jewish population and supports the related process of reckoning with that history. Work on colonialism and on collection items from colonial contexts is to continue and intensify. The platform says the postwar history of migration has so far been documented only with gaps. The SPD backs the redesign of the Focke Museum's collection exhibition and wants to encourage artistic work on migration, integration and diversity.

The SPD wants to improve pay in the cultural sector, for example artists' fees. Access to the Künstlersozialkasse (artists' social insurance fund) is to be made easier to prevent poverty in old age. The SPD also commits to protecting artistic freedom.

Artists should be paid fairly. It should be easier for them to join the artists' social insurance. This insurance helps them when they are old. That way they should not be poor in old age. Art should stay free.

The SPD will push for better access to the artists' social insurance fund in the relevant federal bodies. Cultural workers are to get institutional help when applying for scholarships, grants and other outside funding. Improving their social situation remains a goal for the coming legislative term. The SPD pledges to protect and defend the freedom of the arts and of the media.

The SPD wants to keep reliably funding theaters, museums, orchestras and other cultural institutions and to preserve the diversity of Bremen's cultural scene. Culture in the neighborhoods is to be strengthened as well. The platform points to culture's importance for the local economy and tourism.

The SPD wants to keep giving money to theaters, museums and orchestras. Everyone should be able to get into these places easily. There should also be good culture in the neighborhoods. The SPD says culture is also good for tourism.

Funding is to be used to improve accessibility in the institutions. The government departments involved are to cooperate better on cultural matters and remove obstacles where their responsibilities meet, including between business and culture. In the neighborhoods, the SPD wants to support modern cultural structures, innovation and networks. The platform describes community centers and cultural centers as important anchors and cites the Tabakquartier in Woltmershausen as a model.

The SPD wants significantly more people to take part in cultural life. Cultural institutions are to reach out into neighborhoods, and barriers for people with disabilities are to be removed. The platform sees this as a contribution to social cohesion.

The SPD wants more people to enjoy culture. Cultural groups should come to the neighborhoods. People with disabilities should get easier access. The SPD also wants to rethink ticket prices.

Cultural institutions are to get help with outreach programs in neighborhoods and with marketing, partly to win back audiences lost during the pandemic. A comprehensive survey of accessibility is planned. Offerings for people with hearing or visual impairments, wheelchair access, and accompanying texts in plain language are to be expanded. To promote participation, the SPD also wants to reconsider admission prices.

The SPD wants to turn the currently ad hoc arts education offerings in schools into a dependable network linking education and culture. It also backs Bremen's bid to become a City of Literature and the planned Stadtmusikanten- und Literaturhaus (Town Musicians and Literature House).

Artists already work in Bremen schools today. The SPD wants to turn this into a firm network. Schools should be able to rely on it. Bremen should also apply to become a City of Literature.

According to the platform, cultural offerings in schools have so far been distributed rather randomly, even though they are especially important in outlying areas. A reliable network is meant to change that; the University of the Arts, the University of Bremen, and other colleges can also be more closely involved. The City of Literature bid is meant to underline the importance of reading. The Town Musicians and Literature House in the city center is to enable encounters with literature and with the fairy tale.

The SPD wants to make the city's cultural offerings more visible, both offline and online. A digital platform and an app with an events calendar are to be created for this purpose. Digitalization in the cultural sector is to continue overall.

The SPD wants to make culture in Bremen easier to see. There will be a website and an app. They will include a calendar of events. This should also bring new people to culture.

The platform wants to enable new forms of work in culture and make digitalization permanent. This is also meant to reach groups that have not been interested in cultural offerings so far. At the same time, personal contact should not suffer, because in the SPD's view art depends on direct encounters. The platform and app are to bring the variety of offerings together in a clear overview.

The SPD wants to give young cultural initiatives more room to experiment. Vacant spaces are to be listed in a culture register and made available, and hurdles for creative venues and outdoor activities are to be lowered. The aim is to attract young creative people to Bremen and keep them there.

Young artists need room to try things out. The SPD wants to collect free spaces in a list. Young groups should be able to use these spaces. There should also be fewer hurdles for new ideas.

Beyond the culture register, the SPD wants to keep supporting temporary uses and look for permanent homes for new cultural offerings. The participatory project "Denkzellen" for developing the cultural landscape is to continue. Creative centers and hubs are to offer artists space, networks, and guidance on the way to self-employment, along with funded training and continuing education. The independent scene of associations and initiatives will continue to receive project funding and help finding space.

The SPD wants to keep broadly supporting clubs as socio-cultural venues worth protecting and as a foundation for live music. Open-air events are to continue receiving organizational and financial help. Conflicts with neighbors are to be kept to a minimum through mediation.

The SPD wants many different clubs in Bremen. It sees clubs as important places for music and meeting people. Outdoor events should keep getting money and help. When there is trouble with neighbors, someone should mediate.

The platform describes clubs as an enrichment of the cultural scene, a factor in the local economy, and places of open community. The SPD wants to keep funding open-air events, which are often co-organized by the club scene. Mediation procedures between organizers and residents are to be made possible. In addition, measures on addiction prevention, awareness, and traffic safety are to be expanded.