Cultural agreement

A cultural agreement is an international agreement that regulates the international cultural relations of two or more states.

Germany

Germany currently has bilateral cultural agreements with 100 countries (as of August 2018) as an instrument of foreign cultural policy .

→ Main article : List of Germany's cultural agreements

The goals of a cultural agreement are

• the protection of educational and cultural-political interests
• conveying a real-time and real picture of the participating states
• avoiding conflict through better understanding
• better European integration within the EU

The Foreign Office usually does not carry out the work itself, but regulates the activities of other authorities or intermediary organizations in the cultural agreement .

The focus is on university cooperation with the promotion of students and the awarding of scholarships, the exchange of scholars, the supervision of schools abroad, the maintenance of libraries and information centers, international symposia and the promotion of exhibitions by artists. The sending of groups of people to the respective partner country for a better understanding of the culture is also an important part of this work. Another important point is the return of cultural goods. This is understood to mean a regulation on the return of art objects ( looted art ) that were mostly stolen during or shortly after the Second World War .