Extract from the city museum from the Humboldt Forum is hardly feasible

The black-red coalition’s list of cuts for the cultural budget in Berlin apparently still includes projects that cannot be implemented. This now also applies to the Berlin City Museum’s move out of the Humboldt Forum.

In its cuts plans, Black and Red decided that the city museum’s exhibition should leave the Humboldt Forum as early as 2025. This should save more than 3.6 million euros in the budget. However, legally and practically, this appears to be difficult to achieve.

There is an “unlimited usage agreement secured by the land registry” between the state of Berlin and the Humboldt Forum Foundation for the areas on the first floor of the house previously used by the city museum, foundation spokesman Michael Mathis told the Tagesspiegel. “A move by the city museum would not change this contractual situation.”

The city museum itself sees it similarly: “For organizational and contractual reasons” they cannot leave the Humboldt Forum at such short notice. In addition, this would initially only save the costs of energy and program content that has not yet been contractually fixed. “However, the expenses necessary to move out would exceed the savings,” the museum said.

Upon request, the cultural administration will confirm that there is a long-term usage agreement with the Humboldt Forum. This guarantees the state “an unlimited, free right of use for the Berlin areas”. In return, the state of Berlin is obliged to pay additional costs. The right and the obligation to pay the additional costs were passed on to the City Museum Foundation in a sub-usage agreement.

It still seems unlikely that the country will actually be able to completely save the 3.6 million euros planned for in the cuts. Culture Senator Joe Chialo (CDU) would then have to find the sum somewhere else in his budget – possibly through cuts to other projects.

The Senate administration did not want to comment further. “The contents of the supplementary budget law are currently the subject of ongoing parliamentary negotiations,” explained a spokesman. Only after its decision on December 19th in the House of Representatives would reliable statements be possible.