Urgently needed funds approved: Parzinger thanks the Budget Committee and Minister of State for Culture Monika Grütters
Press release from 11/14/2016
State Library's acquisition budget increases - Pergamon Museum construction schedule secured - Plaster moulding shop to be expanded - Museum 4.0 launched
At the end of last week, the Budget Committee of the German Bundestag approved additional funding for the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. This expansion of the Foundation's financial framework will enable decisive steps to be taken in 2017. An additional 7.75 million euros will be available for the Berlin State Library, primarily for acquisitions. After years of declining acquisition funds, it is now finally in a position to resume its former more comprehensive acquisition practice and fulfil its profile as the largest academic universal library in the German-speaking world. A further 520,000 euros have been made available for the Gipsformerei of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin for improved production conditions and increased professional marketing, measures that will lead to a significant increase in the Foundation's income. In addition, 30 million euros have been earmarked for the Pergamon Museum to ensure that construction proceeds as planned. The federal government is also funding the "Museum 4.0 - Digital Strategies for the Museum of the Future" project, in which other project partners are involved in addition to the SPK, which is in charge of the project.
Foundation President Hermann Parzinger says: "I am extremely grateful to Rüdiger Kruse and Johannes Kahrs and all the other members of the Budget Committee, as well as Minister of State for Culture Monika Grütters, for this fantastic support. This puts us in a position to improve our infrastructure and services in a way that our visitors and users rightly expect. We also see this as safeguarding and strengthening the cultural interests of our country."