Detail page - Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz

Over 200 guests from politics, culture, science, business, tourism and society attended the annual reception of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation at the James-Simon-Galerie on Berlin's Museum Island on Wednesday (12 March). Among them were the Minister Presidents of Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, Michael Kretschmer and Reiner Haseloff, the Governing Mayor of Berlin, Kai Wegner, and Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth. Members of the German Bundestag and the Berlin House of Representatives, numerous Berlin directors, museum directors and heads of well-known companies were also welcomed. At the now traditional annual reception, the SPK institutions presented highlights and focal points of the current year. It was the last annual reception for outgoing President Hermann Parzinger and the first for his designated successor Marion Ackermann.

The President of the Foundation said: "Today we signed the new funding agreement for the SPK with Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the Minister Presidents of the federal states. From 2026, the SPK will receive twelve million euros more per year. We won't be plugging any holes with this, but the money will be channelled into improving the quality of our facilities. We are very grateful for this because we know how tight the cultural budgets at federal and state level currently are. We see this clear plea as a sign of recognition for our reform process."

The Chairman of the Conference of Minister Presidents, Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer, emphasised: "Art and culture set minds and hearts in motion and ensure exchange and encounters between people. With the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, we have an invaluable, vital and mobile heritage. Working together to care for and preserve this rich cultural heritage is and remains a very important task. The new agreement contributes to this and is also a joint commitment by the federal and state governments to our country's largest cultural institution. From the perspective of the federal states, the foundation's federal programme and strong outreach to all regions is particularly important."

The Chairwoman of the SPK Foundation Council, Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth, emphasised: "With leaner structures, less bureaucracy and more efficient processes, the SPK will be able to focus fully on its core business in future: Making its unique collections and art treasures shine even brighter and attracting an even larger and broader audience for them in this country and worldwide. It is a great success that we were able to pass the law in this legislative period and thus finalise the reform process that has been ongoing since 2020. With today's funding agreement between the federal and state governments, we were also able to underpin the successful implementation of this reform financially. With this and the new President Marion Ackermann, the SPK is now very well positioned for the future. I would like to take this opportunity to expressly thank Hermann Parzinger, who has shaped the Foundation with his expertise and foresight and, last but not least, helped to initiate and drive forward the reform."

The SPK President referred to the current status of the reform, which will be largely completed this year: "It was a success that the German Bundestag passed the new Foundation Act by a large majority before the elections at the end of January. That was the keystone of our reform, now it's time to finalise the statutes. The new SPK is thus legitimised. Also important for the future of the SPK is the strategy process, which has the motto: 'We connect people, times and spaces'."

The SPK strategy is particularly focussed on attracting the public. Last year, the State Museums counted a good 3.7 million visitors despite the Pergamon Museum being closed, additional closing days and times and higher admission prices. The State Library recorded over 1.2 million visits to its two museums.

The foundation wants to "actively engage with our audience and inspire new visitor groups with our diverse formats". In an interview with presenter Shelly Kupferberg, the Director of the Gemäldegalerie, Dagmar Hirschfelder, and the Director General of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Achim Bonte, described how this can be achieved.

"In all our projects, we focus on our visitors, who are addressed through a wide variety of formats. The recent Berlin Salon in the Gemäldegalerie was a huge success. We were able to inspire a new, diverse audience for the dialogue between contemporary fashion and old masters. With our current exhibition of European paintings from the Odesa Museum, we are also explicitly addressing Ukrainian refugees, whose cultural identity needs to be preserved. Museums should also have the courage to take a socio-political stance," says Dagmar Hirschfelder.

On behalf of the State Library, Achim Bonte says: "The aim of public cultural and academic institutions must be to become even more inclusive in future, to break down barriers and increase opportunities for participation. With our diverse events in the StabiLab, the expansion of our scholarship programme and a highly successful volunteering initiative, we are spreading our arms at the State Library and turning users into participants."

The SPK President emphasised that cultural institutions are also under great pressure due to the current global situation and that various audiences are relying on archives, libraries and museums right now: "Our mission is to impart knowledge. We are free and independent organisations and it is our job to use our work to educate, convey tolerance and explain contexts. That's why millions of visitors and users trust us."

This makes it all the more important that the SPK continues to expand and deepen its international collaborations: "One highlight this year will certainly be a major international symposium entitled "The Future of Collections" on 20 and 21 May 2025 in the James-Simon-Galerie with partners from all over the world. I am very much looking forward to panels on topics such as "Contested Heritage", "Entanglements and Networks" and "New Horizons in Collection Research".

Other highlights that were presented in the stage programme:

At the Kulturforum, the Kupferstichkabinett is showing the exhibition "Kosmos Blauer Reiter. From Kandinsky to Campendonk" , a comprehensive exhibition of the museum's own holdings of this world-famous group. The Neue Nationalgalerie is showing the first retrospective of the Brazilian artist Lygia Clark (1920-1988) in Germany. With around 120 works of art, the show presents her entire artistic oeuvre - from geometric-abstract paintings to participatory sculptures and performative works. The Museum of Decorative Arts is dedicated to the French fashion designer Madame Grès (1903-1993), who is considered one of the most important pioneers of haute couture in the 20th century.

The 200th anniversary is being celebrated in style on the Museum Island . Three major special exhibitions will open the celebrations, which will extend over a total of five years: "Foundation Stone Antiquity. Berlin's First Museum" sheds light on the origins of the Altes Museumand the Collection of Classical Antiquities, while "Myths in Stone" explores the UNESCO World Heritage site of Göbekli Tepe in south-east Turkey. The Alte Nationalgalerie is showing "Goya - Monet - Degas - Bonnard - Grosse. The Scharf Collection", the most important German private collection of French art in its entirety for the first time.

The Hamburger Bahnhof - Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart is showing Klára Hosnedlová's monumental installation for the CHANEL Commission in the historic hall. The work revolves around the homeland, utopias and everyday life in different political systems. Hosnedlová's largest expansive, sculptural scenery to date is created from tapestries up to nine metres high, site-specific objects, organic-looking reliefs and large-scale embroideries.

The Ibero-American Institute presented a joint German-Argentinean project in which the respective experiences with the implementation of the Open Science approach in the social sciences and humanities are analysed from a comparative perspective. A core objective of the project is to jointly develop new findings on Open Science in both countries and to learn with and from each other in the process.

The Berlin State Library is delighted about the welcome addition to the comics collection. Since the 1950s, Stefan Neuhaus (1947-2022) has systematically built up a comic collection that impressively documents the breadth of comic culture and the development of the literary and artistic genre right up to the present day. Thanks to a generous donation from his wife Heidemarie Küttner-Neuhaus, the diverse collection of various books, booklets and originals has now been added to our holdings. The collection contains around 4,400 books and booklets from the years 1951 to 2022, half of them from the United States, France and Belgium, which are important countries for the comic market, a further 1,000 titles from Germany, around 700 works from Japan, China, Taiwan, North and South Korea as well as smaller collections from countries such as Israel, Iceland, Scandinavia and South Africa. In addition, there are around two metres of booklets in series, large-format boxes, selected research literature as well as original drawings and prints.

The Geheime Staatsarchiv gives its all to genealogical research: in times of multiple crises, societies and individuals are in search of orientation and identity. This need is also directly felt by the "Memory of Prussia": people who want to decipher the history of their origins or their region come to the archive building in Dahlem; researchers who are looking for historical parallels to very current topics.

For the State Institute for Music Research with its Musical Instrument Museum, 2025 is a year of transition - a year of reflection and experimentation with new formats and offers for the public in order to create a more open museum that is accessible to everyone. In addition to guided tours with different thematic focuses, the public can experience short concerts ("Music in the Dark") or special tours ("Listen! - Guided tour through the SIM's acoustic rooms") on Thursday evenings. The museum emphasises its function as a knowledge platform: in the "Meet the Maker | Meet the Musician" series, we invite instrument makers and musicians to talk about their profession and career.