The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation is Germany’s most important international cultural institution – and is to be reformed. In a first step, the many individual museums will be given greater independence. The name is now at the center of the debate. Secretary of State for Culture Roth would like to see the term Prussia abolished. There is advocacy and criticism.
Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth is in favor of renaming the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (SPK). “What do Andy Warhol and Joseph Beuys have to do with Prussia?” Roth told the “Spiegel”. The current name does not “express the cosmopolitan nature of the cultural assets”. Roth also complained that the name excludes a large part of Germany. “Prussia is an important legacy, but not our only one. This one-sided prioritization is wrong, Germany is much more.” In addition to a comprehensive structural reform, an “attractive, future-oriented name” is also necessary in a second step. So far there has been no proposal for this.
The president of the foundation, Hermann Parzinger, also spoke out in favor of a different name. “When I say SPK, I almost always have to explain which institution I represent,” he said. It’s not easy to find a new name, and he’s happy to accept good suggestions.
On the other hand, former Bundestag President Wolfgang Thierse criticized the renaming plans. According to “Spiegel”, the SPD politician saw this as an “attempt to free himself from historical burdens”, a “new German special path”. Thierse accused the Greens of “cleansing history with moral fury”.
The foundation, which is supported by the federal and state governments and is Germany’s most important international cultural institution, is to be reformed. It is classified as too sluggish, and its museums internationally as not up to the level of their potential. At the beginning of the month, the Board of Trustees decided to give the museums and institutions of the network greater autonomy. The controversial central point is to be reduced to overarching functions. The foundation with around 2000 employees includes the State Museums in Berlin, whose 15 collections with 4.7 million objects are presented at 19 locations.
However, the question of how the changes in content can be financed remains open. Proposals for this are to be submitted by the summer of 2023. The country shares have been capped since 1996. All countries together contribute around 15 percent of the budget, about 8 percent of which comes from Berlin as the home country. The federal government pays around 86 percent. Without the federal states, the federal government would have to raise around 50 million euros according to the most recently published calculations.
