Cultural-political society

Company headquarters in Bonn's House of Culture (2012)

The Kulturpolitische Gesellschaft e. V. , also abbreviated to KuPoGe , is a Federal German association of people and institutions interested in culture and politics , which was founded on June 10, 1976 in Hamburg - Altona with 169 members and is based in Bonn .

history

The society was founded at the suggestion of participants in the “Loccumer Kulturpolitische Kolloquien” of the Evangelical Academy in Loccum in 1976 in Hamburg. The initiators were several cultural-political actors who became known in the era of the social-liberal coalition , such as Hermann Glaser and Hilmar Hoffmann . Founders were the founding chairman Olaf Schwencke and Alfons Spielhoff . Until the 1980s, the cultural policies of the respective federal governments were not very spectacular. In the government statements, which often lasted several hours, cultural-political issues usually take up three to four minutes. The funding structures were not very transparent; Moreover, given the federal structure and the country's competence in culture, there was a lack of an overarching exchange of experience and programmatic debates. To date, the activities of the federal states in the field of culture are difficult to quantify and, because of the different treatment in the respective state budgets, can hardly be compared.

In this situation, it was natural to found a working group that set itself the task of observing developments in cultural policy in cities, regions, federal states as well as nationwide and in international comparison, advising art-creating and art-mediating institutions, and suggesting new programs, sponsorship structures and financing models . The association is neither a professional interest group nor tied to political parties , churches or trade unions . Although he seeks dialogue with politics, he does not see himself as a lobby like the German Cultural Council founded in 1981 or the Kulturrat NRW , in which the cultural and political society is represented as an institutional member or with guest status, but rather as a “ think tank ”.

The founders stated that the main goal of the association was to advance the process of cultural democratization. To achieve this goal, as stated in the declaration of principles of 1976, it is necessary

to overcome the separation of the aesthetic and spiritual world from the realities of everyday life;
to promote the development and development of social, communicative and aesthetic possibilities and needs as well as the participation of all citizens in cultural life;
to enable cultural alternatives and innovations to traditional cultural offerings.

Society caused a sensation with theses such as cultural policy is social policy (1976) or the Hagen Declaration (1993). She anchored the term socioculture in the cultural-political debate and advocated the establishment of the Socioculture Fund (1986), in whose committees she has been involved since 1988. From 1990 to 1994 she set up an office for the new federal states in Berlin .

After the company was initially located in Cologne , it moved to Hagen in 1982 , where the Hohenhof in the Emst district served as its office. It has had its seat in Bonn since June 1996, where it is entered in the register of associations of the local court (VR 8284) and resides in the Haus der Kultur , Weberstrasse 59.

In 1977 the society held the first of 55 meetings in Loccum to date. In 1993 a congress was held in Dortmund under the title Looking Back Forward . In 2001 the conference kunst.macht.kulturpolitik marked the beginning of a series of five federal cultural and political congresses with the same title.

At the general assembly in Berlin in September 2012, a new basic program with the headline cultural policy is social policy was unanimously adopted. The central point is the state goal of culture in the Basic Law as well as a legal anchoring of culture as a mandatory self-administration task of the municipalities. Other subject areas include changing audiences , culture in the digital society , intercultural opening, and cultural and creative industries .

Structure and board

Society accepts institutions and individuals as members. In 1981 the Kulturpolitische Gesellschaft had 650 members; in 2003 there were 1,400 individual and 200 corporate members, including cultural officials, scientists, artists and writers as well as employees of institutions relevant to cultural policy. In 2016 there were 1,300 individual members and 200 corporate members.

Regional and state groups of the Cultural Political Society exist in Baden-Württemberg , Bavaria , Berlin-Brandenburg , Hamburg , Hesse , Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , Lower Saxony , Rhine-Neckar , Saxony-Leipzig , Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia .

The chairman and president of the association was Oliver Scheytt from 1997 to 2018 , his two deputies were Iris Jana Magdowski (until 2017 councilor for education, culture and sport of the LH Potsdam) and Tobias J. Knoblich (cultural director of the city of Erfurt) and treasurer Kurt Eichler ( Managing Director of Kulturbetriebe Dortmund). Andreas Bialas (SPD) from North Rhine-Westphalia as well as Andrea Hausmann from the European University Viadrina Frankfurt / Oder, the cultural mayor of the state capital Dresden, Ralf Lunau , Birgit Mandel from the University of Hildesheim and the student of cultural studies were newly elected as assessors Friederike Menz from Holzminden.

From 1987 to the end of 2019 Norbert Sievers was managing director and, after a restructuring in spring 2013, he was general manager and scientific director of the Institute for Cultural Policy from July 1, 2013 until the end of 2019. Marc Grandmontagne was appointed to his side as the new managing director . In January 2017 , he moved to the German stage association as managing director . At the beginning of February 2017, the board of the Kulturpolitische Gesellschaft appointed the Austrian-born Barbara Neundlinger as the new managing director, who started her work on June 1, 2017. At the 18th Annual General Meeting in Bonn on November 24, 2018, Tobias J. Knoblich was elected as the new President. As of January 1, 2020, Henning Mohr, who holds a doctorate in social science, succeeded Norbert Sievers, who had retired for reasons of age, and took over the management of the Institute for Cultural Policy. With this, Mohr and Barbara Neundlinger also take over the management of the Kulturpolitische Gesellschaft.

The association also has two vice-presidents, a treasurer and 16 assessors as well as 231 corporate and 1,331 individual members (as of October 2017).

The society is funded by the Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia .

activities

The company's area of responsibility currently includes:

the intensification of the cultural-political debate;
the publication of information and opinions on cultural policy;
the elaboration of scientific expertise, inventories and research assignments.

The society is the sponsor of the Institute for Cultural Policy , founded in 1996 , which has been funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media since 2000 and which also houses the EU-funded Cultural Contact Point Germany (CCP). This cultural contact point was set up in 1998 as a point of contact and provides information on the topic of European cultural funding through seminars, electronic newsletters and on the website.

Since 2008 the company has maintained the contact point Germany Europe for Citizens (KS EfBB) funded by EU funds and by the Federal Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth . It promotes events and publications that bring the European Union, its institutions and the underlying values closer to the citizens and serve European integration.

The association also runs a “Studies / Labor Market Culture” project and the “Fair Internship” initiative against the exploitation of interns in the cultural sector.

Since 1977, the society has published the Kulturpolitische Mitteilungen (KuMi) (formerly the Kulturpolitischer Statusbericht) quarterly , four times a year a members' newsletter and since 2001 the yearbook for cultural policy . Furthermore, three series of publications are published, mostly in cooperation with the Essen Klartext Verlag : Documentations (since 1978, so far 68 titles), edition umbruch (since 1993, so far 25 titles) and materials .

Every year the company awards a culture prize to an exemplary socio-cultural or cultural-political initiative.

Winner of the Culture Prize of the Kulturpolitische Gesellschaft

The culture prize has been awarded since 1977 . It sees itself as an award for innovative cultural projects and cultural-political initiatives that emphasize the social responsibility of art and culture. The focus is not on the individual "enjoyment of art", but on the cultural exchange between people of different origins on the question of how we want to live together , according to the KuPoGe.

1977 Citizen Aid Social Psychiatry Frankfurt / M. e. V.

1978 Workers ' initiative of the Eisenheim workers' settlement in Oberhausen

1979 Association SO 36 and citizens' initiative SO 36 in Berlin-Kreuzberg

1980 European Training Center for Craftsmen in Monument Protection, San Servolo Island , Venice

1981 Self-administered communication center "KOMM" , Nuremberg

1982 Regional office for the promotion of foreign children and young people (RAA) in the Ruhr area, Oberhausen

1983 TRAUM-A-LAND, Association for the Promotion of Alternative Lifestyles in the Province e. V., Boxberg-Wölchingen

1984 Culture Cooperative Ruhr (KKR), Dortmund

1985 Socio-cultural centers “ Club Voltaire ”, Tübingen, and “Goldener Anker”, Pforzheim

1986 Museum of Labor , Hamburg

1986 Linden leisure home , Hanover (additional award for social cultural work).

1987 Art school for young people in the Kreativ-Haus, Münster

1988 Office for Unusual Measures , West Berlin

1989 Giovanni Children's Circus, Hanover-Wettbergen

1990 Children's art gallery Sonnensegel, Brandenburg

1991 Germany's broadcaster culture , East Berlin

1992 Lange Wiese culture barn, Haunetal

1994 Documentation and Information Center (DIZ) Emslandlager , Papenburg

1995 Radio SFB4 MultiKulti , Berlin

1996 German-Polish Literature Office Oderregion e. V., Frankfurt / Oder

1999 Bremen Initiative for Culture "Kick" & Bremen Cultural Council

2001 Volunteer at the Reiss Museum , Mannheim

2002 Cranach Foundation , Wittenberg

2003 Workshop of Cultures , Berlin

2004 Geißstrasse 7 Foundation, Stuttgart

2005 Cultural Action Project (KAP) Torgau e. V., Torgau

2006 Kulturhaus Kresslesmühle , Augsburg

2007 Unperfekthaus , Essen

2008 48 hours Neukölln , Berlin

2009 Artificial e. V., Lich

2010 Archive of Youth Cultures , Berlin

2011 KulturForum TurkeyGermany

2012 (not awarded)

2013 Theater am Rand in the village of Zollbrücke im Oderbruch

Honorary members

2011 Hermann Glaser ( cultural scientist and cultural politician )
2012 Paul Raabe ( literary scholar and librarian )
2013 Gerhart Rudolf Baum (former Federal Minister)

literature

Annual yearbook for cultural policy , Klartext Verlag Essen; last published volume 14, 2014, topic: Neue Kulturförderung , ISBN 978-3-8375-1396-7 ; Volume 15, 2015/16 topic: Transformative cultural policy and Volume 16, 2017/18 topic: World.Culture.Politics. Cultural Policy in Times of Globalization , ISBN 978-3-8376-4252-0 .

Four times a year the journal Kulturpolitische Mitteilungen (KuMi), most recently published: Issue 153 II / 2016: Art as Goods // Forty Years , Issue 154 III / 2016: Cultural Real Estate , Issue 155 IV / 2016: Cultural Policy Research - 20 Years of the Institute for Cultural Policy in Bonn , Issue 156 I / 2017: European cultural heritage in a globalized world , Issue 157 II / 2017: Cultural Policy and Globalization , Issue 158: III / 2017: Growth or Shrinkage? , Issue 159 IV / 2017: 10 years of federal culture quests and Issue 160 I / 2018: Digitization and Cultural Policy , Issue 161 II / 2018: Future of Libraries , Issue 162 III / 2018: 20 Years of Federal Cultural Policy , Issue 163 IV / 2018: Cultural Policy for rural areas , Issue 164 I / 2019: Klimagerechte Kulturpolitik , Issue 165 II / 2019: Project Funding , Issue 166 III / 2019: KULTUR.MACHT.HEIMATen and Issue IV / 2019: New Methods and Formats. Social project work .

Oliver Scheytt (Ed. With the assistance of Michael Zimmermann): What remains? Cultural policy in personal balance. Kulturpolitische Gesellschaft / Klartext Verlag, Bonn / Essen 2001 (Umbruch 16 edition), p. 151 ff., ISBN 3-89861-053-5

Max Fuchs : Cultural Policy. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2007, ISBN 978-3-531-90647-8

Ralf Kleinfeld, Annette Zimmer, Ulrich Willems (eds.): Lobbying. Structures, actors, strategies. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2007, pp. 265–268, ISBN 3-8100-3961-6

Volker Thomas : The culture-political society. Recognize what is feasible and implement it together. Goethe-Institut, online editorial office, April 1, 2007, accessed December 16, 2012 .

Kulturpolitische Gesellschaft (Ed.): Culture.Might.Europe - Europe.Might.Culture. Justifications and perspectives of European cultural policy. Documentation of the fourth federal cultural and political congress. Klartext Verlag, Essen 2009 (Umbruch 23 edition), ISBN 978-3-89861-942-4