Germany

Last update: February, 2022

The topic of "cultural education" has received growing attention in Germany in recent years.

At the federal level, the main governmental responsibility for arts and cultural education lies within three federal agencies: the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

The Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth began implementing its "Autonomous Youth Policy" in 2011. In particular, the field of cultural education can move into the area of inclusion of non-formal education and cooperation with formal education. In addition to an Innovation Fund for Cultural Education within the "Autonomous Youth Policy", the Ministry contributed approximately EUR 8.5 million in 2012 for the improvement of federal infrastructure and school and vocational training within the framework of cultural policy practice. In December 2019, the Federal Government adopted the Youth Strategy, which was developed with the participation of all federal ministries concerned with youth issues. It identifies cross-departmental youth policy needs for action and 161 new or further developed measures to address them. With this interministerially agreed agenda, the Federal Government intends to gear its actions more strongly to the views and needs of young people in the future.

In 2013, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research launched the largest federal funding programme for cultural education to date. The aim of the programme "Kultur macht stark" is to promote extracurricular educational opportunities for disadvantaged children and young people from three to 18 years of age. In order to provide them with good educational opportunities and social participation, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has been supporting local alliances for education in the implementation of extracurricular cultural education projects since 2013. Funding began in 2013 and extended in the first phase until 2017, the second project phase started in 2018 and runs until 2022. The BMBF provides funding of up to 430 million euros until the end of the programme. The programme is implemented by 29 nationwide organisations with expertise in cultural education and child and youth work. The programme is based on a broad understanding of culture, including media education, everyday culture and culture of movement. More than 14 000 alliances for education have been active to date and have provided more than 35000 implemented projects. In 2020, an interim evaluation report was presented. In April 2021, it is announced that "Kultur macht stark" will be continued in a third phase from 2023 to 2027. 250 million euros are promised for the 5 years.

In the current cultural policy discussion, the view is gaining ground that cultural education for children and young people must be strengthened both inside and outside of school. The Enquete Commission "Culture in Germany" of the German Bundestag had also put this topic at the top of its agenda.

Initiatives that should be mentioned are:

a)       Programmes

• In spring 2007, a programme entitled "An Instrument for Every Child" was initiated in the Ruhr region by the Federal Cultural Foundation, the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Future Foundation for Education with the participation of the municipalities of the Ruhr region, private sponsors and the participating families as a cooperation project of the RUHR.2010 Capital of Culture. Every primary school child in the Ruhr region is to have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument of their own choice. The focus is on children making music together - from the first to the fourth grade. The costs of around 35 million euros are borne by the Federal Cultural Foundation, the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and private sponsors, as well as a small contribution from parents. After the four-year introductory phase, the Federal Cultural Foundation and the Future Foundation for Education in GLS Treuhand e.V. withdrew from funding the programme as planned. The state of North Rhine-Westphalia took over sole funding from the 2011/12 school year with around 8.7 million euros annually. In the 2014/15 school year, around 40 municipalities, 50 music schools, 576 primary schools, 25 special schools with around 60,000 children took part in the "JeKi" programme. In order to enable all municipalities in NRW to participate in the programme, it was launched in NRW with a new concept from the 2015/16 school year under the name "JeKits - Jedem Kind Instrumente, Tanzen, Singen". The programme is funded by the NRW state government with 15.8 million euros annually. 1001 schools in 186 municipalities are involved in the programme, and more than 90 000 children have participated so far.
• some federal states also have specific programmes such as "Culture and School" (Kultur und Schule). The state programme, which was launched in 2006, aims to strengthen artistic-cultural education in schools through additional projects
• The programme "Cultural Agents for Creative Schools" took place in five federal states (North Rhine-Westphalia, Berlin, Hamburg, Baden-Württemberg, Thuringia) from 2011 to 2019 with the aim of sustainably inspiring children and young people for art and culture and thereby promoting their personal development. It was a model programme of the non-profit Forum K&B GmbH, initiated and funded by the Federal Cultural Foundation and the Mercator Foundation in cooperation with the responsible state ministries and other partners. In the years from 2011- 2019, the programme took place at a total of 250 schools. More than 50 cultural agents developed model programmes for over 100 000 pupils In four of the federal states (North Rhine-Westphalia, Berlin, Hamburg and Thuringia), they are being continued as state programmes under different sponsorships (e.g. in North Rhine-Westphalia by the Ministry for Schools and Education and the Ministry for Culture and Science).
• In the state of NRW, the "Kulturrucksack" programme was launched in 2012. The aim is to help children and young people aged between 10 to 14 years of age free of charge or at a significantly reduced rate. The NRW Ministry of Culture provides 3 million euros annually for this purpose. At the beginning of the year, 245 municipalities were involved in the state programme.

b)  Competitions and prizes

• Since 2009, the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media has awarded an annual prize for cultural education worth 60 000 euros. It was divided among 3 projects that have already been realised and that convey art and culture to target groups in an innovative and sustainable way. In 2020, the prize was conceptually redesigned. The Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and the Cultural Foundation of the Federal States have established the German Prize for Cultural Education.
• "KULTURLICHTER" was launched. The award is aimed at cultural institutions and actors who wish to implement an innovative educational project. There are 3 awards: the Federal Prize, endowed with 20,000 euros, the Prize of the Länder, also endowed with 20 000 euros, and the Audience Prize, which is not endowed.
• In order to provide examples of good practice and cooperation between institutions of cultural education and schools, the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth and the Federal Association for Cultural Education for Children and Youth founded a competition called "Mixed Up!" (https://www.bkj.de/ganztagsbildung/mixed-up-wettbewerb/). Prizes have been awarded annually since 2005. The competition honours projects and regular cultural education programmes for children and young people that are implemented by a cooperation team.

c)  Events

The youth culture and youth education initiative entitled "Children to Olympus" of the Kulturstiftung der Länder in cooperation with private sponsors in the form of a biennial congress as a discourse and exchange platform (2004-2022). The Cultural Foundation of the Federal States, the Federal Agency for Civic Education and the Federal Cultural Foundation continue their joint initiative on cultural education. The 10th congress is planned for the summer of 2022, which will then be continued under the title "YUNIK".

In 2012, the 4th Education Report was presented, this time with the focus on "Cultural Education" or "Arts Education". "Cultural / artistic-aesthetic education in the life course". This focus has brought the topic of "cultural education" into sharper focus than before. However, it is also pointed out that there is an unsatisfactory

data situation for "cultural education" - not only because of the large number of actors with different surveys and survey methods.

The Council for Cultural Education (https://www.rat-kulturelle-bildung.de/) was founded in 2012. It is an independent advisory body that deals with the quality of cultural education in Germany. It has eleven members representing different areas of cultural education: Dance and Theatre Education, Music and Literature Education, Educational Research, Educational Sciences, Pedagogy, Political Education, Media Education, Sociology, Cultural Education and the Arts. The Council for Cultural Education is an initiative of various foundations in Germany. It publishes memoranda and studies, such as "Youth/YouTube/Cultural Education. Horizon 2019" - a study of 12 to 19-year-olds on the use of cultural education offerings at digital cultural sites,

"Libraries / Digitisation / Cultural Education. Horizon 2018" on the impact of digitisation in libraries, on cultural education in all-day schools (2017).

The Council for Socioculture and Cultural Education brings together key actors: 22 associations and institutions in the field of cultural education, such as the Federal Association for Cultural Youth Education, the Federal Association of Youth Art Schools and Cultural Education Institutions, the Federal Association of Museum Education, the Federal Association of Sociocultural Centres, the Socioculture Fund, the Federal Academy for Cultural Education Wolfenbüttel and the Academy of Cultural Education Remscheid.

Last update: February, 2022

Art, music, literature and music education are components of school education and fall under the responsibility of the Länder, which organise them differently in terms of scope and quality.

In the school year 2020/2021, 555 000 enrollments were made nationwide (for comparison, school year 2017/2018: 595 000 enrollments) in artistic subjects such as music, art, literature or similar in the qualification phases I and II of the gymnasiale Oberstufen at general education schools. In relation to the number of pupils, the indicator value for Germany was 1.0, meaning that on average every pupil took a course in an artistic subject. The values varied greatly between the federal states: from 0.6 to 1.6, which can also be explained by the different school regulations and laws in the individual states (See: Statistical Offices of the Federation and the Länder (2022): Kulturindikatoren kompakt, Wiesbaden).

Figures on the type and scope of artistic subjects in primary and secondary schools are published in the Education Report 2012 with the focus on "Cultural Education". According to this report, the number of hours for compulsory artistic subjects in the Länder ranges between 12 and 24 hours per week, for lower secondary schools between 11 and 26 hours per week, at Realschulen between 13 and 22 hours per week and at Gymnasiums between 6 and 20 hours per week.

Last update: February, 2022

Higher education in Germany consists mainly of three types of institutions with the following courses of study:

Art and music colleges:

• Study programmes in the fields of design, fine and performing arts and in film, television and media and various music fields;
• Study programmes for cultural management;
• Some teach the whole spectrum of artistic subjects, others only certain disciplines.

Universities:

• Courses of study in theoretical disciplines (e.g. art history or cultural studies);
• Study courses in the arts or music education (e.g. to become a primary or secondary school teacher);
• Courses of study for cultural management, cultural anthropology.

Universities of Applied Sciences:

• Courses of study in cultural work, cultural education, cultural mediation, cultural tourism.

Over the past 30 years, the range of courses of study in the field of culture has grown very rapidly. In order to give an overview of the variety of study programmes in the field of culture, especially in terms of cultural mediation, offered at universities, universities of applied sciences and academies of art and music, the Institute for Cultural Policy within the Association for Cultural Policy has conducted a research project on the topic Study - Labour Market - Culture. One of the results is an online database with profiles of more than 300 courses of study in cultural representation and promotion (e.g. cultural education, cultural management, cultural tourism, etc.).^[1]

Data on study programmes are only available for the subject group "Art and Art Studies". In 2020, a total of 98 800 students (compared to 94 300 students in 2017) were studying in this subject group. In 2020, 9800 graduates completed their studies in this subject group.

^[1] Blumenreich, Ulrike (2012): Studium – Arbeitsmarkt – Kultur. Ergebnisse eines Forschungsprojektes, Bonn / Essen: Kulturpolitische Gesellschaft / Klartext Verlag.

Last update: February, 2022

In Germany, there are independent extracurricular institutions and offers of cultural (youth) education (e.g. music schools, youth art schools, interdisciplinary cultural workshops, media centres), which are partly publicly funded, partly privately or with mixed funding. These out-of-school cultural education and cultural pedagogy programmes are gaining in importance and increasing in quality and scope. New concepts and institutions, which increasingly combine classical cultural education with the use of new media, have been established primarily by non-governmental institutions with the support of the public sector. The promotion of cultural education for children and young people has received a significant boost since this task was enshrined in § 11 of the Child and Youth Services Act (1991).

The Federal Association for Cultural Child and Youth Education (Bundesvereinigung Kulturelle Kinder- und Jugendbildung BKJ e. V.) is the umbrella organisation for cultural education in Germany. More than 50 nationwide specialist organisations and state associations have joined together in the BKJ. Various umbrella and professional associations exist in Germany for the various institutions: the Association of German Music Schools with its 16 federal state associations is the municipal professional and sponsoring association of the approximately 930 public music schools in Germany; and 450 independent music schools have joined together in the Federal Association of Independent Music Schools. The Federal Association of Youth Art Schools and Cultural Pedagogical Institutions (bjke) represents 400 youth art schools and cultural educational institutions nationwide since 1983 through its regional working groups and regional associations.

Statistical data are available for the music schools and adult education centres. In 2017, 1.5 million pupils were taught at 930 public music schools in Germany. The majority (85 %) of them were under 19 years of

Statistical data are available for the music schools and the adult education centres: In 2019, 1.5 million pupils were taught at 929 public music schools in Germany. At 83%, the majority of them were under 19 years of age at that time. In relation to the population of the same age, the proportion of learners aged 19 and under at public music schools nationwide was 8.7%. The Federal Association of Independent Music Schools currently estimates that there are approximately 200 000 students in 450 member music schools (for comparison, 2016: 158,000 music students in 349 member music schools).⁵⁵ At 852 of 870 Adult Education Centres in Germany, a total of 478 000 course enrollments in the programme area "Culture and Design" were counted for the year 2020 (for comparison, in 2017: at 883 of 895 Adult Education Centres, a total of 830 000 course enrollments). This corresponds to a share of 13.0 percent of all course enrollments.

Last update: February, 2022

In 2020, 8 400 people started their training in a cultural occupation. Due to Corona, the number of new apprenticeships decreased from 10 800 in 2019 to 8 400 in 2020, a decrease of 22.2 per cent. The five most common culture-related occupational groups were: technical media design (2020: approx. 2 100 new trainees),event, camera and sound technology (2020: 1 500 new trainees), event service and management (2020: 1 100 new trainees), interior design, visual marketing and interior design (2020: 1000 new trainees) and publishing and media management (2020: 650 new trainees). (See https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Gesellschaft-Umwelt/Bildung-Forschung- Culture/Culture/Publications/Downloads-Culture/Culture-Indicators-Compact-2022.pdf? blob=publicationFile, p. 37).