Cultural life in Germany is characterised by the activities of a large number of associations and other groups based on voluntary commitment. They range from small local or district-based cultural organisations to museum associations that run their own facilities. Especially in smaller communities, many cultural institutions are often organised in the form of associations and are based on the voluntary commitment of their members. This applies to the activities of libraries, the preservation of historical monuments, local history and culture, the sponsorship of local history rooms, history museums, cultural centres and art galleries.
For all their diversity, what they have in common is that they are a place for the development of civic engagement, with the larger ones in particular being exemplary in their intermeshing of voluntary and professional work. The cultural associations thus form an indispensable supporting structure for cultural activities in the Federal Republic of Germany.
According to the 2019 “Freiwilligensurvey” (a survey conducted every five years), 39.7 per cent of the resident population in Germany aged 14 and over are involved in voluntary work (compared to 43.6 per cent in 2014), 8.6 per cent in the field of culture and music (compared to 9.0 per cent in 2014 and 5.2 per cent in 2009).
Volunteer Day is celebrated annually on 15 December.
The socio-cultural centres play a very important role, in particular they enable a low-threshold access to culture. There are more than 700 socio-cultural centres in Germany. The majority of sociocultural centres are members of the Federal Association of Socioculture (Bundesverband Soziokultur, BuSZ) through their regional associations. This publishes the results of its member survey every two years. According to the last survey of the Federal Association, which collected data for the business year 2017, published in 2019 and the sector report Socioculture and Cultural Education , more than 80 000 individual events, 227000 continuous offers (courses) and 33 000 open offers were offered by the 566 sociocultural centres organised in the Federal Association. The range of services offered includes interdisciplinary event work as well as educational and political work, district work, children’s and youth work, intercultural work, work with senior citizens and other special target groups. In addition to their own events, the premises of the member institutions of the BuSZ were used for around 9,600 external events in 2017. The diverse events of the socio-cultural institutions in the BuSZ resulted in around12.6 million visits in 2017. The activities of the centres reach people of all age groups: about one fifth each is under 20 years old and over 60 years old, 14 percent of the users are migrants. Civic engagement is also very strong around the socio-cultural centres: of the approximately 27,500 people who work in socio-cultural institutions, about 16,200 are volunteers, which corresponds to 59 percent of all actors. The total income of the centres was 230 million euros. In 2017, slightly more than half of the income (58%) came from various funding sources (27% from the municipalities, 18% from the Länder, 5% from federal funds as well as other funds from the EU, foundations and other sponsors), while 42% were own funds.
Against the backdrop of the Corona pandemic, the Federal Association of Socioculture has conducted a special survey, covering the period from April 2020 to April 2021, entitled “3, 2, 1… up! Situation of socio-cultural centres and initiatives, literary and cultural centres and cultural initiatives 2021” has been published. It gives an insight into the personnel and financial situation of the scene under pandemic conditions.
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