Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth (Greens) advocates renaming the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (SPK), under whose umbrella numerous museums and cultural institutions in Germany are bundled. “What do Andy Warhol and Joseph Beuys have to do with Prussia?” Roth said mirror.
The current name does not “express the cosmopolitan nature of the cultural assets,” said Roth. “Besides the comprehensive structural reform, which now gives the individual institutions more autonomy and the ability to actwe also need an attractive, future-oriented name in a second step.” But there is still no suggestion for a new name. The name of the SPK also bothers Roth because it excludes a large part of Germany. “Prussia is an important one, but not our only heritage, this one-sided prioritization is wrong, Germany is much more.”
The President of the SPK, Hermann Parzinger, would also prefer a different name. “When I say SPK, I almost always have to explain which institution I represent,” he says. It’s not easy to find a new name, and he’s happy to accept good suggestions. “The aim of the reform must be that we make better use of our huge potential.”
Most recently, Annalena Baerbock renamed the Bismarck room in the Foreign Office
Prussia, according to many, was the reason Germany fell into the abyss of two world wars. Militarism, deification of the state, fixation on obedience and intolerance: According to this interpretation, Protestant Prussia had also left its mark on the newly founded German Reich since 1871 and pushed aside the more liberal, Catholic culture of southern Germany and Austria. But there are also positions to the contrary: Prussia, especially in the 19th century, is considered the epitome of effective administration and incorruptible officialdom, friendliness to education and tolerance towards religious minorities such as the Jews.
On the other hand, former Bundestag President Wolfgang Thierse criticized the renaming plans: This was an “attempt to free oneself from historical burdens”, a “new German special path”. Thierse accuses the Greens of “pursuing history with moral fury”. Because the Greens are currently having to make painful compromises that contradict their utopias, more than when the first red-green government was in office, “they probably need all the more substitute actions,” said Thierse.
In November, Roth had spoken out in favor of placing a banner with a controversial inscription composed of two Bible verses by the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV on the Berliner Humboldt Forum temporarily outshine with a light installation. Roth’s party colleague Annalena Baerbock, meanwhile, stayed in the Foreign Ministry she led the Bismarck room in the Foreign Office in Berlin rename. The room is given the name “Hall of German Unity”. The portrait of the former Chancellor was also taken down.