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The museums, libraries, archives and research institutions of the SPK will be granted significantly more autonomy. At the same time, they will pursue greater cooperation on individual projects and across disciplines as a coordinated unit functioning under the umbrella of the SPK. This prioritization of content will be accompanied and supported by organizational and structural changes with the aim of making administration more streamlined and agile and overhauling the financial structure of the SPK.

Hermann Parzinger, President of the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation), comments: “The SPK of the future will be a different organization. Today's decision by the Foundation Board is a milestone. I want to especially thank Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media Monika Grütters and the entire reform commission for believing in the SPK's readiness to reform and in its viability for the future. Recent months, in particular, have shown the great willingness to change at all levels of the SPK. A great deal has also been set in motion internally to make the one-of-a-kind SPK network more effective. Now, together with our sponsors at the federal and state levels and an external consulting company, we intend to continue along that path resolutely and successfully.

A year ago, I said that I very much welcomed the key points of the recommendations from the Wissenschaftsrat (German Council of Science and the Humanities): more autonomy for the institutions, including the individual museums, since they all make up the diverse faces of the SPK, as well as the elimination of unnecessary complexity and layers of hierarchy. It is an important sign of support that our sponsors also recognize the need diagnosed by the Wissenschaftsrat for significantly more hires and financial resources at the Foundation, and that they intend to respond appropriately; I am especially grateful to them for that.

But it is also right and important to cultivate and carry forward the enormous opportunities of this one-of-a-kind interdisciplinary network of the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation), with its magnificent museums, libraries, archives and research institutes and the wide-ranging professional expertise of its employees: through a fundamentally overhauled and up-to-date system of governance, adequate financing and a modified administrative structure to ensure it can operate effectively.

Throughout all the steps that are taken, our highest priority must be to offer an even more attractive program for our visitors and first-rate service for our users, based on the excellent research we perform on our collections. We must continue on the road to the digital age; virtual technology makes it possible for people around the globe to experience the cultural heritage assembled in the SPK cosmos in an entirely new way.

We have a lot of work ahead, but the awareness of the immense potential of this foundation is an important incentive for all of us.”

Links for Additional Information

• Press release „Konkrete Schritte bei der Reform der SPK beschlossen – Parzinger zum heutigen Beschluss des Stiftungsrats: „Die SPK der Zukunft wird eine andere sein. Mit der heutigen Entscheidung im Stiftungsrat der SPK ist ein Meilenstein erreicht.“ (29.06.2021)
• Press release: "SPK-Reformkommission beschließt Empfehlungen an den Stiftungsrat – Kulturstaatsministerin Grütters: „Ziel der Reform ist es, die Eigenständigkeit der Einrichtungen und ihre Zusammenarbeit untereinander nachhaltig zu stärken“ (24.6.2021)