Culture savings plans: Berlin sacrifices popular museum Sunday!

Culture savings plans: Berlin sacrifices popular museum Sunday!

A cultural Highlight in Berlin loses its place: the free museum Sunday, which moved tens of thousands of visitors to the city's museums for over three years, is deleted. This decision, which results from the savings plans of the Berlin Senate, makes both culture and the art scene in the capital. The black and red coalition is planning savings of three billion euros, with two million euros on the museum Sunday on the prank list, such as Tageschau.de reports .

Since July 2021, the museum Sunday had made it possible for Berliners to enter over 80 museums free of charge every first Sunday of the month. The initiative was introduced to reduce access barriers and promote cultural participation. Overall, over two million visits were counted by the beginning of 2024, but now the doors are closed. The last free day took place on December 1, 2024, and critics express the decision that it would be saved in the wrong place. As the head of the museum of things on the Spittelmarkt, Florentine Nadolni, noted that "it is very bitter", because without the urban subsidy, smaller museums cannot survive. A significant part of the budget is shortened, and that could mean that even events and exhibitions are on the brink, as rbb24 reports .

The situation is described as particularly dramatic, since museums that do not receive any direct funding, like those on the museum island, have given up the initiative. Managing Director Moritz van Dülmen said that without the coordination and advertising from the city museums, the entire character of the museum Sunday decreases. The ruling mayor of Berlin, Kai Wegner, defended the austerity measures and emphasized the need to manage the financial resources more sustainable. The savings in the cultural budget are estimated at around 130 million euros, which corresponds to around twelve percent of the expenditure.