#25: Merz's reactionary culture guy: Wolfram Weimer
First in a series: Germans you've never heard of but should probably know about
In this issue of Update Germany, journalist Josh Axelrod explores one of the German government’s more thorny figures.
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Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s cabinet has its fair share of… should we call them… quirky members?
Shout out to Dorothee Bär, Minister for Research, Technology and Space, who was roundly mocked for her efforts to get Flugtaxis or flying taxis off the ground (literally) in a country that struggles to provide basic Internet service.
And who could forget about Alois Rainer, the Bavarian butcher running Food and Agriculture, who called for Germany to create a national stockpile of tinned ravioli and who shut down his own butcher shop the moment food safety inspectors came knocking?
The big freedom guy
But, in Merz’s zany band of misfits, there’s one cabinet minister who deserves a closer look: Wolfram Weimer, the Federal Commissioner for Culture and Media, a right-wing journalist with no background in the arts. Weimer was the editor-in-chief of Axel Springer’s Die Welt before founding the conservative magazine Cicero.
Here’s what the right-leaning newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said about his appointment last year: “His concept of culture and his understanding of history indicate that he is the wrong man in the wrong place.” Ouch.
The harsh criticism from FAZ focused on Weimer’s 2018 book “The Conservative Manifesto: Ten Commandments Of The New Bourgeoisie.” In it, he harkens back to the age of the “amoral Renaissance”, laments the “biological self-abandonment” of Europe forfeiting the “continuity of its own blood” and makes all sorts of other suspect pronouncements about history.
Plagiarism researcher Stefan Weber claims that large portions of that book were plagiarized. If you’re going to make racist claims about Germany’s Judeo-Christian roots, at least write them yourself!
The manifesto’s culture war grievances are no outlier. Since his appointment, Weimer has railed against wokeness in the arts, writing this 2025 op-ed titled “Defend Freedom” in Süddeutsche Zeitung: “In a social climate whose pace is driven by left-wing alarmism, preemptive obedience, paternalism, and language policing seem to be the ultimate solution.”
He adds, “anyone who confuses aesthetic categories with moral postulates and forbids everything that deviates from them must be accused of locking away the crown jewels of Western Enlightenment: freedom.”
So Weimer fancies himself a big freedom guy, against “rigid interventions in the visibility of artistic creation” from “zealots.” And yet, his actions paint a much different picture.
Berlinale backlash
Most notably, Weimer tried to oust Berlin Film Festival Director Tricia Tuttle after a particularly political festival this February, where Israel-Gaza politics overshadowed the films themselves. Tuttle’s offenses: allowing Syrian-Palestinian director Abdallah al-Khatib, who had just won a best first feature award for his film Chronicles From the Siege, to make a speech criticizing Germany as being “partners in the genocide”; and posing with members of the crew, as is customary for the director during all film premieres, who were wearing keffiyehs and holding a Palestinian flag.
At the time, Weimer said, “The Berlinale must not be a place for incitement, threats or anti-Semitism. Hatred against Israel has no place there - especially not financed with taxpayers’ money.” But after widespread outcry from filmmakers — including this year’s Golden Bear winner İlker Çatak promising to never show a film at the Berlinale again — Weimer backed down from the fight and Tuttle has her job for now.
Other moves from Weimer:
He referred three antifascist bookstores to Germany’s domestic intelligence agency for investigation over alleged extremist left-wing ties that were never shared with the bookstore or the public; and then had them removed from the jury list of the annual German Bookshop prize.
His ministry intervened at the Capital City Cultural Fund to halt a €30,000 grant to translate the work of Palestinian authors; the translator was told she should make it “less one-sided” by including Jewish Israeli representatives.
He’s banned the use of gender-inclusive language in official communications from his department and is strongly urging museums, foundations and public broadcasters to do the same.
So, we know what Weimer doesn’t want. All of which raises the question: What is Weimer actually for?
In February, the culture commissioner announced a boost in film investment, nearly doubling film funding to €250 million annually. The plan has a catch for streamers like Netflix and Amazon — they must reinvest at least 8% of their annual revenue back into the European entertainment industry.
And there’s a certain kind of German film Weimer specifically wants to see more of:
“We are world champions in arthouse funding — and that’s fine,” he said. “But in the field of popular audience films, we are too weak — we need to get better.”
Look out Christian Petzold, that’s a shot across the bow. For Weimer, that means more flicks like Das Kanu des Manitu, Germany’s biggest film of 2025, which helped boost domestic box office. For those who haven’t seen the Blazing Saddles-esque parody, it’s a sequel to Der Schuh des Manitu, a 2001 stereotype-laden hit widely criticized for its offensive portrayal of Native Americans and gay people.
There’s a tension here. Weimer wants the anemic German film industry to be a world leader, and is genuinely putting money where his mouth is. All the while, he’s picking fights with the very community he claims to support, making clear what kinds of content he finds acceptable or not, and undermining political expression by tampering with independent prizes and grants.
If Weimer really wants to see Germany’s arts scene thrive, maybe he should heed his own words in that SZ op-ed:
“The state can act as a patron, but should refrain from interfering in the content. Both left and right want to politicize art, but have chosen a decidedly unsuitable object. It is in the very nature of art to breathe freedom and to remain ambiguous.”
Thanks for reading!
Josh
What else happened this week?
✈️ Men under 45 allowed to go abroad again
🚊 Fare evasion is a crime that can send you to prison
📽️ German festival blocks prize for film linking 2020s genocide and 1930s fascism
🏭 Essen: Germany’s best kept secret?
📺 We call it techno: documentary about Germany’s early techno scene
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Friends:
In a column in a Dutch newspaper I read last week, a journalist had visited a large book fair in the US where many of the talks and workshops focused on safety: what to do when extremists show up at your shop? When you face pressure to take books of shelves?
The journalist then looked to Europe and highlighted exactly the same example you did: Weimer’s pressure on book shops.
I do occasional tour guiding and tell groups of people what happened on Bebelplatz at least once a week.
It’s absolutely disturbing to see similar pressures recur, as small as they may be right now. History has shown small steps can compound quickly.