“Collegial bodies” in power!
Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth and Hermann Parzinger, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
Source: picture alliance/dpa/Monika Skolimowska
Radical reforms were always called for at the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth has now submitted a paper on the restructuring of the foundation. Some changes are being made. There are new freedoms. But old problems remain.
DThe Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (SPK) in Berlin with its five institutions, almost 1900 employees and 4.7 million artefacts is being reformed. Monika Grütters, predecessor of Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth, made the start and commissioned the Science Council with an expert opinion.
In 2020, the result of the report triggered a debate that was as heated as if the Pergamon Altar had been restituted. After this disastrous verdict on the museum authorities, the consequence should actually have been that Hermann Parzinger, President of the SPK, would have vacated the chair and the SPK would have been completely redesigned. But nothing happened, the veil of oblivion lifted …
However, one no longer has to grapple with the details of the criticism at the time. Because hardly any of it will be implemented. The reform of the Humboldt Forum is postponed in its entirety. Was the effort in vain?
Not quite. Because one demand is being implemented: the position of general director is being abolished. Even then it was identified as paralyzing and bureaucratic, an unnecessary authority between the directors of the museums and the president of the foundation, for example between Klaus Biesenbach, director of the New National Gallery, and Hermann Parzinger.
If you look at the paper that WELT has, you can see the will to dismantle hierarchies – and to create a central “collegiate body”, which is what legal jargon calls the good old “board”. Although the president is in charge of the seven-member body and bears responsibility, he is changed to an equal footing. In addition to him, the vice-president and the president of the State Library and, among other things, two representatives of the museums have been elected for four years.
And now comes the substantive bang: the future board should only deal with “overarching issues”, and the museums are finally managing their own program budget. The institutions thus gain a completely new freedom. But freedom is only fun if you can shape it – if you have the financial means.
Visions don’t have to be expensive
Klaus Biesenbach still can’t believe his “luck”, as he says in an interview with WELT. So far, you couldn’t even buy a pencil yourself, but now he’ll think about a new concept for the museums with Matthias Wemhoff from the Museum of Prehistory and Early History. They would apply for their own press office and new posts.
And here lies the crux. A pitch at the museums is started without knowing the future budget. One can hope that the museums will not develop visions, will finally wake up from their lethargy – and in the end the federal and state governments will only insist on further “efficiency optimization”.
When asked about the amount of funds, Roth has already waved it off. It’s the old song and sorrow: Visions don’t have to be expensive. But that is precisely the catch with this minimal solution of a minimal solution. In this case, Berlin would not have gained anything, but simply lost one job – the general director.