Berlin culture minister resigns over irregular distribution of funds to fight antisemitism | Germany
Berlin’s top cultural official, British-born Sarah Wedl-Wilson, has stood down over a funding scandal involving the irregular distribution of €2.6m of public money to programs to combat anti-Semitism.
Wedl-Wilson, as cultural senator for the Berlin regional government, had already sacked his department’s foreign minister, Oliver Friederici, over this week’s incident, but the opposition described him as merely a scapegoat.
Kai Wegner, the city’s mayor who is fighting a tough battle for re-election in September, said Friday he had accepted his resignation.
“Sarah Wedl-Wilson has taken political and personal responsibility – that’s why she deserves respect,” said Wegner, who must find a replacement to run the department with an annual budget of 110 million euros for the remaining five months of his term.
Wedl-Wilson, who had resisted accepting blame for the incident for weeks, announced early Friday that he was leaving his post “above all to prevent damage to the vital struggle against rising antisemitism in Berlin.”
A state auditor investigation published this week found that funds were “arbitrarily” and “manifestly illegal” distributed to 13 projects on a list compiled by lawmakers from the ruling Christian Democrats (CDU), despite concerns from cultural office staff that the groups were not properly vetted.
Media reports stated that Friederici, whom Wedl-Wilson fired on Tuesday, was among the most outspoken whistleblowers.
Wedl-Wilson, who is not a member of any political party, signed up for the financing anyway after a pressure campaign by CDU representatives.
The public inquiry focused on recipients, including the Zera Institute, an “interdisciplinary think tank” that received €390,000 in support from the public purse.
Shortly after its founding in 2024, director Maral Salmassi called out Jewish billionaire philanthropist George Soros, a frequent target of anti-Semitic propaganda: A “parasite” on social mediaAccording to the news magazine Der Spiegel. He later apologized.
Last September, Salmassi compared the Guardian to the Nazi publication Der Stürmer over a report asking Israelis about their views on the war in Gaza. Salmassi described his remarks as “polemic provocation”.
Matthias J Becker, who was hired by the institute to investigate antisemitism online, falsely claimed to work at Cambridge University, Der Spiegel said. He told the magazine that he had not misrepresented his affiliations.
Following the report, Salmassi published a statement on the institute’s website condemning an attack. “politically motivated press campaign” against him and the organization.
The Berlin audit office’s review, which led to Wedl-Wilson’s resignation, focused on the process of funding the 13 groups, not the merits of her work. It now needs to be decided whether organizations will have to pay back the public funding they received.
Wedl-Wilson, who is of British and Austrian nationality and has a background in classical music management, took office last May, replacing the CDU’s Joe Chialo, who resigned amid sudden cuts in subsidies for the arts in the capital.
He thanked Wegner for the trust he had placed in him as a political outsider. “It is by no means certain that as a British woman and an independent I will be able to hold and shape this office,” she said.
German authorities are alarmed by a sharp increase in anti-Semitic crimes since Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, and the ensuing Gaza war.
pro-Palestinian activists objected on the grounds that the definition of such actions was too broad It also includes criticism of the Israeli government.
Werner Graf, the opposition Green party’s candidate to unseat Wegner, said the incident undermined the fight against anti-Semitic hatred in Berlin, the city where the Holocaust was planned.
“This has done immeasurable damage not only to the fight against antisemitism, but also to trust in democratic institutions as a whole,” he said in a statement.
