Germany commits extra 60 million Euros to culture
mainCulture Minister Monika Grütters has secured a 60m boost to the culture budget in the coming year.
Much of the money (38m Euros) will go to cover rising wage and pension costs, but two Berlin institutions – the Martin-Gropius-Bau and the Jewish Museum – have been earmarked for extra support.
You’re late at the news; the NSA knew it already.
One should remember this 60 million is only from the Federal government. Most arts funding in many European countries is locally procured and distributed. In Germany in 2006, for example, 9.2% came from the Feds, 37.3% from state governments, and 53.6% from counties and municipalities. The belief is that culture is by nature local, and that this should be reflected in how culture is funded. The 60M increase by the Federal government in Germany is only 0.4% of the approximately 13 billion various levels of government in Germany spend on the arts. By contrast, 60M would be almost half the budget of the NEA.
Are they imposing austerity measures on arts organizations… á la Greece?
The German economy has been relatively stable, so on the whole there have not been serious cuts. As conditions are now, the richer EU countries will get even richer, and the poorer countries even poorer until the EU disintegrates. This is due to an economic philosophy worked into the Maastricht Treaties referred to with the technical term “neo-liberalism.” See:
http://cpe.oxfordjournals.org/content/32/1/29.abstract
Or this article in the Guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/may/20/eastern-europe-neoliberal-disaster-arab-spring