An investigative committee is supposed to clarify whether the Berlin Cultural Senate has distributed funding for anti-Semitism prevention irregularly.
Has the Berlin Cultural Senate awarded funding for the prevention of anti-Semitism irregularly? This suspicion will be confirmed from Friday Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry in the Berlin House of Representatives. The focus of the investigation is the non-party Senator for Culture Sarah Wedl-Wilson and her predecessor Joe Chialo (CDU).
Since November, allegations have been circulating about funds from the state budget for “projects of particular political importance,” which flowed into a special pot in the cultural budget to prevent and combat anti-Semitism. The opposition accuses Chialo and Wedl-Wilson of having given significant sums of money from the 3.4 million euro special budget to project sponsors with little knowledge of the topic but good contacts in the CDU.
The CDU parliamentary group leader Dirk Stettner and the CDU budget expert Christian Goiny are said to have influenced the composition of a responsible project committee. They are also said to have told the then Minister of Culture, Chialo, which projects he should support. Chialo is said to have released some of them personally and against the advice of his administration.
According to current research by… Tagesspiegel Many of the project sponsors were unable or unwilling to provide information about the use of the allocated funds, while others were not yet able to work or had carried out tiny sub-projects for a lot of money. There are also said to be noticeable personal connections: a board member of the funded “Zera Institute,” which was only founded in December 2024, is said to have also managed two other projects at the same time that received money from the same pot.
Funding pot treated like party property
Die South German newspaper has now been able to take a look at official documents in advance, which the research portal has requested to be disclosed “Ask the state” had pushed. These include emails in which the Cultural Senate divides the anti-Semitism fund like party property: “CDU €3,000,000, SPD €300,000…”.
The “Funding Money” investigative committee must now clarify what the allegations are and whether the irregular processes violated budget law. One thing is already certain: there is no way to fight anti-Semitism. This is consistent with current figures, according to which the number of anti-Semitic crimes in Berlin is at its highest level since 1995.
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