SPD on culture and media

The SPD wants to support Jewish life in Hamburg and make it visible, and to fight every form of antisemitism. The Bornplatz Synagogue in the Grindel quarter is to be rebuilt and its surroundings redesigned together with the Jewish community.

The SPD wants to strengthen Jewish life in Hamburg. It opposes hatred of Jews. The Bornplatz Synagogue should be rebuilt. The area around it should be redesigned. The Jewish community will help plan this.

For the rebuilding, the architectural competition is to be held swiftly; planning and construction are to begin as early as possible. According to the program, the bunker on Allende-Platz will be torn down. The remains of the temple on Poolstraße are to be restored and turned into a place of remembrance, encounter and culture.

The SPD wants to continue the dialogue among religions and worldviews and to keep the state treaties with the Muslim religious communities. The shared religious education for all is to be secured through stronger degree programs and professorships.

People of many religions live in Hamburg. The SPD wants to keep talking with all communities. The treaties with the Muslim communities should stay. Children learn about religions together. More teachers should be trained for this.

According to the program, state and church remain separate but work together against extremism, discrimination, antisemitism and anti-Muslim attitudes. For the shared religious education, degree programs and professorships in Protestant and Catholic theology and in Jewish, Alevi and Islamic religious studies are to be strengthened. In the SPD's view, the state treaties with the Muslim communities have proven their worth. The SPD affirms Muslim life as part of Hamburg and welcomes the Protestant Kirchentag coming to the city in 2029.

The SPD wants to preserve and expand Hamburg's cultural infrastructure and secure both institutional and project funding. Funded institutions are to reach out to a more diverse audience, and cultural education is to grow.

The SPD wants to keep funding theaters, museums, and music in Hamburg. Culture should be there for everyone. Venues should reach out to new visitors. Children and teenagers should get more cultural programs.

Funded institutions are to take on attracting a diverse audience as a permanent task. The framework for children's and youth culture is to be put into practice together with young people, cooperation between culture and schools strengthened, and cultural education expanded. Amateur music is to be strengthened together with the state music council. The low-priced 12-euro tickets at the Elbphilharmonie are to be better publicized. In the platform's view, culture reinforces the foundations of a free and open society.

The SPD wants to give better support to cultural producers outside institutionally funded venues. This includes a new grant for independent literary publishers and more money for clubs, film, and the independent arts scene.

The SPD wants to give money to small book publishers. Music clubs should also get more money. There will be more funding for films too. Independent artists and art spaces will get more help.

Club funding is to be raised and developed further; music networks and the Reeperbahn Festival are to be strengthened. Film funding will be better resourced so Hamburg can benefit from federal reforms, and the Filmfest will also get more support. The independent performing arts scene is to receive more money. Funding for art in public space will be reorganized with a city curator, and independent art venues and visual arts will be better funded.

The SPD wants space for culture to be planned, preserved, and newly created in every urban development process. The city's Kreativ Gesellschaft (creative industries agency) is to become the central partner for this.

Hamburg is growing and getting denser. The SPD still wants to keep spaces for culture. New spaces should be created too. The city's creative agency should take care of this.

Preserving and developing cultural spaces is to be built into all urban development processes. The real estate expertise of the Kreativ Gesellschaft is to grow, drawing on experience from the "Frei_Fläche" program. It is to become the main partner for developing space for culture and creative businesses.

The SPD wants to establish good working conditions in the cultural sector. Neighborhood cultural centers are to receive enough money to pay their staff in line with job evaluations.

People working in culture should be paid fairly. Neighborhood cultural centers will get more money for this. Artists should receive minimum fees. Funding should be easier for everyone to access.

Minimum fees and exhibition payments are already being built into funding rules, and this course is to continue. Funding programs are to pay more attention to diversity. Existing barriers to accessing funding are to be lowered further.

The SPD wants to continue major cultural projects despite tight budgets. These include the Haus der digitalen Welt (House of the Digital World), the German Port Museum, renovations of several venues, and a new opera house with a private foundation.

The SPD wants to keep building big cultural projects. One is a House of the Digital World in the city center. A port museum and a new opera house are also planned. Old cultural buildings will be renovated.

In the former HSH Nordbank building, a place for information and meeting is to be created with the public libraries and the adult education center. The new port museum on Grasbrook will be advanced with city money as well. After ongoing renovations, Kampnagel and the MARKK museum follow, which requires a new storage building. The Hamburg Music Hall at Diebsteich is to be developed with a private operator, the opera at Baakenhöft with a private foundation. A Jewish museum will be studied for feasibility, and the concept for a House of Migration pursued further.

The SPD wants to implement the memorial sites concept, renew the exhibitions at Neuengamme, and address Hamburg's colonial past. Heritage protection is to continue in dialogue with private initiatives.

The SPD wants to remember the crimes of the Nazi era. The exhibitions at the Neuengamme memorial will be renewed. Hamburg should also deal with its colonial history. Old buildings should stay protected.

A coordination office for decolonization is to be set up quickly and work with civil society. The state archive will get a modern storage building. The SPD supports public authorities and institutions having their Nazi-era past examined by researchers. On heritage protection, it relies on cooperation with the Denkmalverein (heritage association) and wants to show how it can be reconciled with climate protection.

The SPD wants to strengthen Hamburg as an innovative media hub, help media companies adopt AI and other technologies, and expand games funding. Journalistic skills and news literacy are also to receive more support.

Many media companies work in Hamburg. The SPD wants to help them with new technology such as AI. Video game companies should get more funding. Good journalism should also be strengthened. People should learn to judge news properly.

Hamburg is to keep contributing to interstate media treaties and to federal and EU legislation. The nextMedia.Hamburg network will get new programs on generative AI. The games funding of GameCityHH will be developed further, including with a view to trade fairs, esports, and media education festivals; the nextreality.Hamburg network will be strengthened. The SPD also wants to address ethical and legal questions raised by new technologies. Initiatives such as #UseTheNews are to be expanded, which the platform calls essential for democracy.