At its meeting on 11 November 2024, the Board of Trustees of the ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS approved a total of 13 projects, these including efforts focused on “Press Freedom and Strengthening Democracy”, the “Culture of Remembrance” and “Support for Individual Artists”. The funded initiatives follow the ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS' strategy of broadening existing projects and intensifying its alliances with other organizations and civil society actors. For in today’s world, German society and many individual organizations face profound challenges. Threats posed by right-wing, extremist forces endanger social cohesion and drive exclusion and polarization. The need for projects which reinforce democracy is thus growing enormously.
Strengthening Democracy – Focused, Unbureaucratic and Sustainable
The ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS is responding to the current situation with special, expedited funding that includes one million euros in additional grants for projects that strengthen democracy and civil society actors. This includes additional resources for the joint initiative “Zukunftswege Ost” [Paths Forward in the East], an effort which we have helped to guide and which this year has already supported more than 64 initiatives, campaigns and democracy projects in Germany’s eastern states. We are also expanding the “Streit & Zuversicht” [Argument and Optimism] event series. Here we discuss with a youthful audience controversial questions associated with current social topics, all with the aim of developing greater mutual understanding among people having opposing viewpoints. The educational initiative “Gemeinsam wachsen” [Growing Together] will also receive additional support; the program fosters an awareness and understanding of discrimination, racism and anti-Semitism, at the same time striving to enhance students' own sense of identity. Resources are also earmarked for “Stärkung der Demokratie” [Strengthening Democracy], an overarching funding program under which other democracy-promoting projects are grouped.
Supporting Freedom of the Press – Nationally and Locally
Defending media freedom remains a central focus of our activities in support of the press. For this reason, the Hamburger Woche der Pressefreiheit [Hamburg “Week of Press Freedom”], launched in 2023 by the ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS and the Körber-Stiftung, will continue to be supported over the next three years. The Media Forward Fund, set up this year by us together with other foundations is also one of the approved projects. The fund supports media outlets, organizations and innovative approaches to journalism leading to the publication of sound, trustworthy content, thereby enabling even more independent, quality media providers with sustainable business models in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. But press freedom is not an issue exclusive to large-scale forums and initiatives; it is rather encountered also on our own doorsteps, at a local level. The newly approved project “Investigative Recherche im Lokaljournalismus” [Investigative Research in Local Journalism] aims to infuse local journalism with new vigor and provide grassroots journalists with the resources and support they need to carry out investigative research in their own communities.
Individual Support for Artists – In Music as well as the Performing and Visual Arts
Art has always addressed the reality of the present – but it also contemplates the potential of the future and utopian worlds. Against this backdrop, in 2024 we established “Scholarships for the Performing Arts”; under the motif of “freedom”, the inaugural recipients have already been selected from a large pool of applicants. Together with the existing “Artist funding by the ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS”, which is aimed at visual artists, the “Scholarships for the Performing Arts” have been extended for a further three years. And one of our longest-standing grant projects is also focused on supporting individual artists: the “Gerd Bucerius Scholarships (Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben)”. This scholarship program as well has been extended for three years. Our sponsorship of culture and the performing arts is rounded off with the staging of works created by graduates of the nationally renowned “Stage Direction” program at the Theater Academy of the Hamburg University of Music and Drama (HfMT). Under this program, 25 graduates will receive support over the next five years.
More Space for Culture of Remembrance: Support for the Open-Air History Laboratory
In addition to providing individual grants to artists, the ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS is continuing its efforts towards fostering a culture of remembrance. To this end, the Hamburg Open-Air History Laboratory in the attic space of the “Hannoverscher Bahnhof Memorial Documentation Center” is receiving financial support for the expansion of its facilities. In the future, three instead of two school classes will be able to learn about history on the grounds of the documentation center, formerly the central deportation site in Hamburg during the Nazi regime.
Other approved projects include successful event series sponsored by the foundation – such as the “ZEIT Forum Wissenschaft” [ZEIT Science Forum] and its spin-off “Wissen unplugged” [Knowledge Unplugged], which will be continued for a further two years – as well as the “Werner Otto Scholarships for Arab Israeli Women Graduate Students” awarded by the Association of German Friends of the University of Haifa. The Academy of the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra Hamburg will also receive funding for three years, as will the Deutsche Nationalstiftung.
