“Threatened in its existence as a vibrant cultural sector”: comics funding on the brink

State funding for comic projects in Germany is relatively new, and the financial scope has so far been relatively small compared to other art forms such as literature, theater or fine art. In view of the current austerity policy at the federal and state levels, the fear in the comics scene of losing the status it has achieved over the past ten years is even greater.

“The existence of the comic medium as a lively cultural sector is directly threatened by the planned cuts in cultural funding,” says one open letter to the members of the Bundestag and the Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth (Greens)which was published at the beginning of November by a group of well-known German illustrators and the comics union founded in 2022.

More than 1,000 people have now signed the petition, including numerous other comic creators, publishers and several organizations that deal with comics in this country.

The current focus of the letter is the cuts that became known in the summer in the funding programs of the Federal Cultural Fund, which is financed with money from the federal budget. These include the German Literature Fund, which, for the first time since last year, has been supporting comic creators with grants of up to 3,000 euros per month, in line with previous literature funding.

These cuts to half of the previous amounts would be “in blatant contradiction to the coalition agreement of the governing parties, in which the promotion of comics in 2021 was explicitly anchored,” says the petition, whose first signatories: Sheree Domingo, Jennifer Daniel, Aisha Franz, Mia Oberländer , Leonie Ott, Elizabeth Pich, Patrick Spät, Barbara Yelin and Olivia Vieweg.

In fact, the coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP is the first government alliance in German history to explicitly support support for comics in its contract – although three years ago there were different assessments of how extensive this support could be.

“In recent years, comics have experienced increasing appreciation in the cultural landscape and visibility in the media,” the petition says. The number of comics and graphic novels published in Germany has increased, as has the number of freelance comic artists.

“The quality of the work has increased in profile, and local comic productions are increasingly being translated into other languages ​​and published by international publishers,” the open letter continues. “Compared to established comic markets – such as in the Franco-Belgian region, where the medium of comics has long been recognized as an independent art form – a strong, catch-up development could be observed in this country.”

Against the background of the increased importance of comics in Germany, the petition now calls not only for the cuts to be reversed, but also for more money and attention for the art form: additional funding programs, the anchoring of comics in school lessons, the financial security of festivals and other scene institutions as well a better financial situation for artists.

There are definitely positive reactions from the members of the Bundestag addressed with the open letter, even though the appeal has unexpectedly found itself in a political vacuum due to the exit from the traffic light coalition: a few days after the publication of the open letter, the parties that were still in government announced their break known from the previous alliance.

Therefore, some cultural politicians say that they understand the funding from the comics scene. But the coalition agreement, in which the comic also played a role, is now a waste of time. And who will determine German cultural policy in the future will only become clear after the federal election on February 23rd.

Regardless of this, some politicians are joining the appeal and want to support its demands in the coming legislative period – if they are re-elected to the Bundestag.

“I consider the calls for greater support for the comics scene to be an important concern, as they would promote both the recognition of this art form and the promotion of the creative industries,” explains the cultural policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group, Helge Lindh, for example.

“Especially in Germany, where the comic scene is often overshadowed by other art forms, we have to take action to offer it a stronger platform,” says Lindh. Against this background, the SPD parliamentary group tried to reverse the cuts in the federal cultural funds. “I regret the break of the coalition by the FDP all the more, as we were already on the right track here.”

Lindh promises to continue to work to promote comics in Germany more strongly in the future. In the coming legislative period, he wants to advocate for a program to support small and medium-sized publishers in order to ensure a wide range of topics and diverse publishing programs. “This is intended to keep the publishing landscape in Germany diverse and include comics as an important component.”

“The demands of the petition are justified and reflect the challenges facing the comic scene in Germany,” he explains. “From financial support to school integration – all of these points are necessary to strengthen the medium in the long term.”

According to the SPD cultural politician, comics “make a valuable contribution to cultural diversity and have great potential to convey socially relevant topics in an accessible and creative way.” The demand for social security for artists and targeted support programs also reflects the general need for one fairer promotion of the independent cultural scene.

The FDP cultural politician Anikó Glogowski-Merten also wants to work for greater promotion of German comic culture in the next legislative period. “As a cultural politician who is also an art historian myself, I can absolutely understand the turmoil in the comics scene,” she explains.

“I have actively followed how much appreciation comics have received in recent years and that publications have also increased dramatically,” says the politician. She and other FDP MPs have therefore been “promoting comics as a lively cultural sector” for a long time.

Your criticism is aimed primarily at Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth. Their cultural policy “seemed increasingly unpredictable even before the coalition collapsed, which caused considerable planning uncertainty in the cultural sector.” The decision to halve the funding for the federal cultural funds again after a sharp increase in 2024 poses great challenges for those working in the arts.

“This erratic approach by Claudia Roth has raised the hopes of many cultural workers that can no longer be fulfilled,” says Glogowski-Merten. Therefore, the petition from the ranks of the comic industry is “absolutely right”. The FDP politician announces that she will “continue to work intensively in the next Bundestag to ensure that the concerns of cultural workers are heard in the parliamentary process.”

According to the initiators of the petition, Jan Korte, cultural policy spokesman for the Left in the Bundestag, has also declared his solidarity with the demands. Among other things, he referred to an amendment from the Left group to increase the federal cultural fund, which was rejected by all other factions. According to the initiators, the CDU/CSU cultural representative Dorothee Bär agreed to talk.

Cuts also in Berlin comic funding

In addition to the austerity measures at the federal level, the comics scene is currently also having to adapt to cuts in the states. In Berlin, for example, which has done a lot for the art form of comics in recent years with a Senate comics scholarship and support for the Comic Invasion festival, billions of euros in budget cuts are imminent.

To what extent the austerity constraints also affect the current comic funding program can only be speculated at present. However, it is becoming apparent that scholarship programs that, among other things, finance comic projects are also affected. At least that’s what austerity lists published in the last few days suggest that are circulating in Berlin’s black-red coalition.

The office of Senator for Culture Joe Chialo (CDU) says: “The numbers and lists are not yet final and were created in the parliamentary or political sphere.” They do not correspond to the cultural decisions of the responsible administration. It is also emphasized that the parliamentary process has not yet been completed. So a lot could still change.