Berlin: Stefan Evers succeeds Sarah Wedl-Wilson as the new Senator for Culture

After the resignation of Berlin’s Senator for Culture Sarah Wedl-Wilson, Berlin’s Senator for Finance Stefan Evers (CDU) also takes over the management of the cultural administration. This was announced by Governing Mayor Kai Wegner. “Finance Senator Stefan Evers is already negotiating the capital city financing agreement, which also involves financing the capital’s culture,” said the CDU politician. “That’s why I would like to thank Stefan Evers very much for his willingness to take on the additional task for the coming months.”

The non-party Wedl-Wilson had to go against anti-Semitism because of the illegal allocation of funding. The 56-year-old announced her resignation on Friday and drew the conclusions from a report by the State Audit Office, which found the funding of projects in the area of ​​anti-Semitism prevention to be unlawful. Under Wedl-Wilson, the cultural administration violated the state budget regulations and other rules when allocating 2.6 million euros for 13 projects, according to the auditors’ report.

Evers, 46, grew up in Paderborn, studied law at the University of Potsdam and has lived in Berlin since 1999. He has been a member of the Berlin House of Representatives since 2011, where he was deputy parliamentary group leader of the CDU until 2018 and then parliamentary manager of the parliamentary group until 2023.

Already the third Senator for Culture in this electoral period

The vote for Evers came on Tuesday evening at a meeting of the CDU district chairmen, as the German Press Agency learned from several participants in the meeting. According to information from participants, the governing mayor and CDU state chairman Kai Wegner also took part in the meeting.

Evers is now the third Senator for Culture in this electoral period. Wedl-Wilson only became Senator for Culture last year, after the resignation of Joe Chialo (CDU). Chialo justified his departure with massive criticism of the major budget cuts in the cultural sector.

Almost five months before the election to the Berlin House of Representatives on September 20th, the funding affair caused great unrest. Many people in the CDU/CSU fear that it could harm the party in the election campaign.