What do the parties in Hesse say on culture and media?

The AfD wants to protect the German language as a cultural asset and emphasize German as the language of instruction in schools and universities. It rejects language courses in immigrant languages; migrants who want to stay permanently should master spoken and written German.

The AfD wants to protect the German language. Schools and universities should teach in German. The AfD rejects courses in the languages of immigrants. People who want to live in Germany for good should speak and write German.

The AfD commits to a German Leitkultur (guiding culture) and wants state incentives to preserve cultural heritage. Funded cultural institutions and associations should be politically neutral, and what the party sees as one-sided funding should end. A new school subject, "Heimatkunde" (local and homeland studies), would also cover the history of Germany's former eastern territories.

The AfD wants to keep German culture as the guiding culture. The state should give incentives for this. Clubs and cultural venues that get state money should be politically neutral. Schools should get a new subject about the homeland. It should also cover former German areas in the east.

The AfD wants to abolish the broadcasting fee and shrink public broadcasting to a free "Grundfunk" (basic service) with about one tenth of today's programming. It would be funded by levies on corporations that distribute audiovisual content and offer streaming. The internet should be free of censorship except for criminal content.

The AfD wants to end the broadcasting fee. Public broadcasters should become much smaller. Only about one tenth of the programs would remain. Streaming companies should pay for it. There should be no censorship online, except for crimes.

The CDU wants to keep funding and expanding existing music education programs because, in its view, music supports children's development and language learning. It also plans a recorder project, culture buses and a new institute for cultural education.

The CDU wants more music for children. Children starting school should get a recorder. Buses should take rural children to cultural places. A new institute should steer all the programs.

The CDU wants to make heritage protection more practical and affordable. The register of protected buildings is to be updated, the law adjusted, and agency responsibilities streamlined. Buyers of listed buildings are to receive funding for renovation.

Old buildings are often protected by law. The CDU wants to make these rules simpler. Owners should get money for repairs. The list of protected buildings should be checked again.

The CDU wants to actively support traditions, customs and cultural identity and create a dedicated Heimat (homeland) division in the agriculture ministry. Dialects are to be strengthened in daycare centers and schools, local studies sharpened in elementary school, and a "House of Hessian History" prepared.

The CDU wants to do more for local identity and old customs. One ministry should get its own division for this. Children should learn more about dialects in daycare and school. Town signs may also show the name in dialect. A new building should show the history of Hesse.

The CDU wants to give special support to cultural life and clubs in rural areas because, in its view, they shape quality of life and cohesion in villages. It plans mobile cultural offerings and more construction and modernization of sports facilities.

The CDU wants to give more support to culture and clubs in the countryside. Museums should come to villages by bus. Rural movie theaters should get funding. Sports fields, gyms and swimming pools should be renovated.

The CDU wants to keep alive the memory of the flight, expulsion and deportation of Germans after World War II. To that end, the day of remembrance is to be secured, the topic expanded in school lessons, and research and cultural preservation funded.

After World War II, many Germans had to leave their homes in the East. The CDU wants people to remember this. The day of remembrance in Hesse should stay. Students should learn more about it. Towns and counties should look after the memorials.

The CDU wants to support Hesse's entire cultural scene, from major institutions to traditional customs and choirs, film, music, literature and urban arts. Volunteers are to be relieved, for example by having the state cover GEMA (music licensing) fees and by simplifying funding procedures; the party also rejects what it calls cancel culture.

The CDU wants to support culture across Hesse. This includes theaters, museums, choirs, carnival, film and books. Clubs should have less paperwork. The state should pay GEMA fees for clubs. These are fees for playing music in public.

The CDU wants to continue museum funding, keep strongly supporting the three state museums and maintain a fixed budget for art acquisitions. A non-commercial NFT platform is meant to make museum holdings that are not on display known to the public.

The CDU wants to keep funding museums in Hesse. Museums should be able to buy important works of art. Many artworks sit in storage. The CDU wants to show them online. Children and young people should learn more about art.

The CDU wants to preserve Kassel's documenta as a globally important art exhibition and thoroughly overhaul its structures to that end. Dealing with the events surrounding antisemitic content at the most recent edition is to be a priority.

Documenta is a big art show in Kassel. At the last show there were images hostile to Jews. The CDU wants this to be examined closely. Documenta should get new rules and a new structure. There may also be a museum of its own.

The CDU wants to give priority in future budgets to renovating state-owned palaces, castles and gardens and to turn the palace administration into a major provider of cultural education in rural areas. Funding for heritage conservation is also to grow, with faster procedures at the authorities.

Hesse has many palaces, castles and gardens. The CDU wants to repair and preserve them. There should be more learning programs there. Old protected buildings should also get more help. The offices in charge should decide faster.

The CDU wants to keep funding and renovating the three state theaters and to increase state support for festivals. The independent theater scene is also to receive state money so that ensembles can plan reliably.

Hesse has three big state theaters. The CDU wants to keep paying for them and repair the buildings. Festivals should also get more money. Independent theater groups should get money from the state. This helps them plan ahead.

The CDU wants to draw up Hesse's first overall plan for memorials and sites of remembrance. It would rest on three pillars: the victims of National Socialism, the history of East Germany, and sites of democratic history.

Memorial sites remind people of important and terrible times in history. The CDU wants to make a big plan for them. It should remember the victims of the Nazi era. It should also remember East Germany and the history of democracy.

The CDU calls for a fundamental reform of public broadcasting aimed at quality, transparency, stable license fees and balanced reporting. It stands by an independent Hessischer Rundfunk (Hesse's public broadcaster) and the state media authority, and takes a critical view of EU media regulation.

The CDU wants to change public broadcasters like ARD and ZDF. They should report in a neutral way and work openly. The broadcasting fee should stay as stable as possible. Hesse's own broadcaster should stay independent. The CDU is critical of new EU media rules.

The CDU wants to expand media literacy programs across Hesse and bundle existing offerings in a single concept. People of all ages should be able to assess information and spot fake news.

The CDU wants people to handle media well. They should be able to spot false news. The many programs for this should work together better. Older people should also learn more about digital media.

The FDP wants a culture act for Hesse that secures arts funding over the long term and sets a stable legal framework. State spending on culture is to be made permanent and increased, while funding procedures are to be made less bureaucratic.

The FDP wants a culture law for Hesse. The law should secure money for culture for the long term. The state should spend more on culture. Applying for funding should be easier. More money should reach the artists.

The FDP wants to give schools their own culture budget, based on the number of students and managed by the schools themselves. Music schools are to get more state money so that lessons are available across the whole state.

Schools should get their own money for culture. The amount depends on the number of children. The school decides how to use it. Music schools should get more money from the state. To get it, they need well-trained teachers.

The FDP wants libraries in Hesse to stop charging fees and to be allowed to open on Sundays. It sees libraries as easily accessible places for education, culture and digital participation.

Libraries should cost nothing. They should be allowed to open on Sundays too. The state should give towns and cities more money for this. There should be libraries all over Hesse. They should become meeting places for everyone.

The FDP wants to give the state theaters and state-funded stages long-term planning security through a theater pact and to keep all venues. For museums, it calls for a plan for cooperation and distinct profiles, plus help with digital offerings.

The FDP wants to make an agreement with the theaters. It is called a theater pact. It lets theaters plan for the long term. All venues should stay. Museums should work together more. They should also show their art digitally.

The FDP wants to continue funding the preservation of historic monuments and to reconcile their protection with their use. For major privately owned monuments whose owners cannot afford the upkeep, it seeks a model based on the British National Trust.

The FDP wants to keep funding historic monuments. Some owners cannot afford to keep up their monument. They should be able to hand it over to the public. The public owner must then preserve it.

The FDP wants to keep funding the documenta art exhibition but to revise its structures together with the city of Kassel and the federal government. The reason is the antisemitic incidents at documenta 15, which are to be examined by researchers.

The documenta is a big art show in Kassel. The FDP wants to keep funding it. At the last show there were incidents hostile to Jews. So the documenta should be organized in a new way.

The FDP wants Hesse's collections to research the origins of their holdings, especially Nazi-looted art and objects from colonial contexts. Works that were acquired unjustly should be returned where possible.

Museums should check where their objects come from. Some objects were stolen from their owners, for example in the Nazi era. Such objects should be given back if possible. This also applies to objects from former colonies.

The FDP wants to preserve memorial sites and places of remembrance and to develop a statewide memorial concept. Every student should visit a memorial for the victims of National Socialism once during their school years.

The FDP wants to preserve and support memorial sites. Every student should visit a memorial for the victims of the Nazis once. Local projects such as Stolpersteine also get support.

The FDP supports public broadcasting and the Hessischer Rundfunk (Hesse's public broadcaster) but considers the parallel national services of ARD and ZDF no longer necessary. In the future, a single institution should fulfill the nationwide mandate, while the Hessischer Rundfunk stays responsible for regional programming.

The FDP wants to keep public broadcasting. But ARD and ZDF should become one broadcaster for all of Germany. The Hessischer Rundfunk stays responsible for Hesse. It should trim its programming.

The FDP wants to transfer the hr-Sinfonieorchester and the hr-Bigband into a public-law foundation. The state and the Hessischer Rundfunk would fund it jointly so that the ensembles are secured for the long term.

The Hessischer Rundfunk has an orchestra and a big band. The FDP wants to put both into a foundation. The state of Hesse and the broadcaster should pay for it. This should keep the music groups going for good.

The FDP aims for a noticeable cut in the broadcasting fee and sees no need for further increases. The Hessischer Rundfunk's old pension burdens would be spun off, the Beitragsservice (fee collection agency) abolished, and the fee collected by the tax offices.

The FDP wants the broadcasting fee to go down. The Hessischer Rundfunk should save money. The fee collection agency should be closed. The tax office should collect the fee instead.

The FDP wants to abolish the license requirement for broadcasting and replace it with a simple notification to the state media authorities. Private broadcasters should get enough frequencies and more room to expand.

Private broadcasters need a license today. The FDP wants to change that. Broadcasters should only have to notify the media authority. Live streaming should need no license at all.

The Greens want to implement the state's "Masterplan Kultur" and keep raising the culture budget to do so. A culture funding act would set guidelines for state support, and a culture advisory board would advise and connect the arts scene.

The Greens want to spend more money on culture. Hesse has a plan for culture. They want to carry out this plan. A new law should set rules for how the state funds culture. A board of people from the arts should give advice.

The Greens want to improve artists' social security through fairer pay. The state is to lead by example, for instance with a minimum fee for exhibitions at state museums. There should also be more affordable studios and workspaces.

The Greens want artists to be paid better. State museums should pay a minimum fee for exhibitions. Funding rules should also demand fair pay. Artists should find cheap workspaces more easily.

The Greens stand by documenta in Kassel and want a thorough reckoning with the antisemitic incidents at documenta fifteen. The expert panel's recommendations are to be implemented and the art show's structures reworked.

Documenta is a big art show in Kassel. The Greens want to keep it. At the last documenta there were anti-Jewish incidents. The Greens want these incidents examined closely. The way the show is run should be reorganized.

The Greens want to open the cultural sector to the whole of society. Women, queer people and groups that have been underrepresented are to become more visible in the arts, and institutions are to become more accessible and inclusive.

The Greens want culture to be there for everyone. Women and queer people should be more visible in the arts. Disadvantaged artists should get special support. Cultural venues should have fewer barriers.

The Greens want to end Hesse's ban on dancing on certain public holidays and days of remembrance. Religious ceremonies would still take priority on those days, and municipalities could prohibit individual events in public squares.

On some holidays, dancing is banned in Hesse. The Greens want to end this ban. Religious ceremonies should still come first on these days. Towns may forbid single events in public squares.

The Greens want to give more support to subculture and club culture, which have had little funding so far. A dedicated state funding line for artists and event organizers is to be set up.

Clubs and small music scenes get little money so far. The Greens want to change that. The state should fund artists and organizers. There should also be new ideas for supporting pop music.

The Greens want to introduce a "Hessenpass Kultur und Freizeit" (culture and leisure pass) for people on low incomes that reduces admission prices statewide. In the party's view, out-of-school education should not depend on parents' money.

The Greens want to introduce a new pass. It is called the Hessenpass for culture and leisure. People with little money get it. With it they pay less for admission across Hesse. Young people should get into museums for free more often.

The Greens want to expand cultural offerings outside the metropolitan areas. The "Landkulturperlen" rural culture program is to grow statewide, regional culture managers are to be deployed, and sociocultural centers and mobile offerings are to get more funding.

There should be plenty of culture in the countryside too. The Greens want to fund more projects there. Every region should have culture managers. Touring theaters and festivals should get more money. Buses should bring rural people to the big theaters.

The Greens want to preserve cultural monuments for the long term and found a "Hessische Bauhütte" (heritage building workshop) to do so. Museums, palaces and gardens are to get modern visitor concepts, and archives are to be digitized quickly.

The Greens want to preserve old buildings and monuments. A new building workshop should look after them. Skilled craftspeople work together there. Museums and palaces should become more modern for visitors. Archives should put their holdings in digital form.

The Greens want cultural institutions to operate in a more resource-saving way. Every state cultural institution is to draw up a sustainability plan, and a "Green Culture Pass" is to serve as a guide.

Cultural institutions should be kinder to the environment. Every state institution should write a plan for this. A guide should help them. It is called the Green Culture Pass.

The Greens want to keep supporting museums in dealing with Nazi-looted art and collections from colonial contexts. Provenance research is to be expanded, and a legal framework for returns is to be created.

Museums hold objects from colonial times and art stolen in the Nazi era. The Greens want their origins researched more closely. There should be rules for giving things back. A new professorship should study colonial heritage in Hesse.

The Greens want to keep alive the memory of the Shoah and of the genocide of Sinti and Roma and to counter antisemitism and antigypsyism. The state agency for civic education is to be strengthened.

The Greens want to remember the crimes of the Nazi era. They oppose hatred of Jews and of Sinti and Roma. Trips to memorial sites should get more support. The state agency for civic education should become stronger.

The Greens want to preserve media diversity in Hesse and stand by public broadcasting funded through the license fee. The broadcasting council is to reflect society better, and nonprofit journalism is to find it easier to fund itself through donations.

The Greens want many different media in Hesse. Public broadcasting should still be paid for by the license fee. It should become more independent of politics. Nonprofit journalism should get donations more easily.

The Greens want to expand film funding in Hesse to make it a more attractive production location. Cinema funding is to be made permanent and refocused, especially to benefit cinemas in rural areas.

The Greens want to give more money for films from Hesse. Young filmmakers should get special support. Cinemas should get lasting money for investments. This applies above all to cinemas in the countryside.

The SPD wants to further develop and permanently secure state support for the cultural and creative industries. The games industry would get its own funding line.

The SPD wants to support the creative economy. This includes companies that make video games. These companies should get their own funding program. Parents should be able to learn more about video games.

The SPD wants to give more weight to cultural education inside and outside schools and introduce a statewide culture pass for everyone under 18. The aim is free access to culture for children and teenagers. The platform treats culture as an essential public service, including in rural areas.

The SPD wants more cultural education for children and teenagers. There should be a culture pass for all of Hesse. It is for everyone up to age 18. With it, they can enjoy culture for free. Rural areas should have cultural offerings too.

The SPD wants to keep funding the state theaters and give the independent performing arts scene multi-year funding. Theaters are to become more open, with more diversity in leadership and more outreach programs. The party argues this secures theaters for future generations.

The SPD wants to keep paying for the state theaters. Independent theater groups should get money for several years. Theaters should be open to more people. More different kinds of people should work as leaders there.

The SPD wants to sharpen the profile of state museums and archives, open them further and give them more staff and money. Collections are to be made accessible digitally. Proven looted objects are to be returned, which the platform calls an ethical obligation.

The SPD wants to strengthen museums and archives. They should get more money and more staff. The collections should also be visible online. Museums should give back objects that were stolen.

The SPD wants to support independent artists with higher funding, affordable workspaces and minimum fees. Music clubs are to be recognized as cultural institutions rather than mere entertainment venues and be better protected. The platform cites the sometimes precarious working conditions in the scene.

The SPD wants to give independent artists more money. They should get cheap places to work. There should be minimum fees. That is pay that must not go lower. Music clubs should count as places of culture.

The SPD wants to use incentives to promote cooperation on cultural offerings in cities and rural areas. The Frankfurt RheinMain cultural region and its cultural fund are to grow, and a comparable cooperation is planned for northern Hesse.

The SPD wants cities and villages to work together on culture. There should be incentives for this. The Rhine-Main area already has such cooperation. Northern Hesse should get a similar one.

The SPD wants to preserve and expand the news and information offerings of Hessischer Rundfunk (hr, Hesse's public broadcaster). Public broadcasting is to contribute to democratic opinion-forming as a leading medium and become cross-media. The party commits to the broadcaster's symphony orchestra and big band.

The SPD wants to strengthen Hesse's public broadcaster. It should offer a lot of good information. There should be more programs in easy language. The broadcaster's orchestra and big band should stay.

The SPD wants to raise economic film funding and expand HessenFilm und Medien GmbH, the state film funding body. This is meant to close a gap with states that increased their budgets during the pandemic. The platform also counts the games sector among the growing creative industries.

The SPD wants to give more money for films from Hesse. Other German states have raised their funding. Hesse should catch up. Young filmmakers should get help too.