phd design berlin

Universität der Künste Berlin

Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK) is one of the biggest, most diversified and traditional universities of the arts worldwide. The teaching offered at the four colleges of Fine Art, Design, Music and Performing Arts as well as at the Central Institute of Further Education encompasses the full spectrum of the arts and related academic studies in more than 40 courses. Having the right to confer doctorates and post-doctoral qualifications, the University of the Arts in Berlin is also one of Germany's few art colleges with full university status. Research at UdK covers a wide field: from experiments in art and design to applied research and classical research in art-related scientific fields. It is possible to work for a doctorate in any subject area at the individual colleges where the university can provide appropriately qualified supervision by academic staff. The prerequisite for doing a doctorate is a degree in a scientific or artistic-scientific study program. In addition to individual doctorates, you can also embark on a doctorate within the interdisciplinary Research Training Group "Knowledge of the Arts". Interested doctoral candidates are cordially requested to consult the Scientific Council or the coordinator of the Research Training Group. Further information: <link http://www.udk-berlin.de/forschung - external-link-new-window "Opens external link in new window">www.udk-berlin.de/forschung</link>.

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• Dahlem Research School

Dahlem Research School (DRS) is the central contact point for current and prospective doctoral researchers. DRS offers individual advice, an extensive qualification program and information on all general aspects of doctoral research. Special consideration is given to the needs of international researchers.

• Step by Step towards the Doctorate
• DRS Course Program for Doctoral Researchers
• Una Europa Early Career Host Program

Funded by the German Academic Exchange Service Freie Universität Berlin offers support for doctoral researchers who wish to gain experience in hosting scientific workshops, developed and organized with participants of other universities within the Una Europa network.

• FUB-CSC-Program

In cooperation with the China Scholarship Council (CSC), Freie Universität Berlin offers qualified chinese young academics the opportunity for a PhD or postdoctoral scholarship.

Mobility for Doctoral Researchers: Direct Exchange

Within the so-called "Direct Exchange" doctoral researchers can apply for research stays at prestigious partner universities of Freie Universität Berlin and gain new intercultural experiences.

• General Information
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Mobility: Erasmus+ Europe and Worldwide

As part of Erasmus+ enrolled doctoral researchers at Freie Universität Berlin can apply for student mobility, teaching stays and internships in Europa and beyond. Doctoral researchers with an employment contract can also participate in training stays.

• Erasmus+ Teaching and Training Stays
• Erasmus+ Internships
• Erasmus+ Student Mobility (if places available)
• PROMOS Academic Courses and Language Classes

Doctoral researchers at Freie Universität Berlin can participate in the mobility program for students at German universities (PROMOS) and apply for funding to participate in individually organized academic courses (summer & winter schools) and language classes. Please note that conference travel can not be funded!

• ESMT Berlin
• Faculty & Research
• PhD Program

PhD program

Do you have questions or need more information about our program?

Take your research and career to the next level with a PhD. ESMT Berlin's structured PhD studies provide an intellectually stimulating and academically rigorous environment for you to make the most of your research. With our vibrant international community and focus on real-world impact, it's the ideal environment to progress your career. 

• Rigorous training in state-of-the-art methodology in preparation for your independent research.
• Access to ESMT’s world-class faculty and the Berlin science community.
• Close collaboration and supervision by ESMT professors.
• Successful applicants must have obtained a Master’s in Economics or Business Studies and have performed exceptionally well in their studies.
• Applicants from related fields (such as industrial engineering, statistics, or quantitative social sciences) may also fulfill the admission requirements if they have an interest in economics or business studies.
• ESMT’s PhD program addresses outstanding candidates with a strong desire to conduct their own research projects. Participation is free of charge.
• PhD positions will be offered alongside part-time Research Assistant employment. View current vacancies .
• ESMT offers support to cover the costs related to research, including conferences and overseas visits.
• Awarded degree: PhD or Dr. rer. oec.

PhD curriculum (180 ECTS)

• Methodological and research-oriented training in mandatory course work. 
• Selection of research area and supervisory support. 

60 ECTS from qualification courses, soft skill courses, and presentation of a scientific article.

• Own research, electives, and further development of soft skills and teaching. 
• Participation in seminars and conferences, presentation of dissertations.

120 ECTS for the dissertation and the defense colloquium.

An individual study plan, which determines the selection of courses to be taken, must be agreed upon in writing with the supervisor within two months after enrollment in the PhD Program and approved by the PhD Council.

The content of the required coursework should guarantee that ESMT PhD candidates obtain the necessary training to conduct research independently and at the highest levels. This typically requires the mastering of a broad set of research methods commonly applied in the area of management.

Integration into Berlin's scientific community

You can choose from a variety of PhD courses typically (but not only) offered by the  Berlin School of Economics (BSoE) . The courses are not limited to management science, allowing candidates to choose from topics in economics, machine learning, analytics, and data science.

ESMT is a founding member of the Berlin-wide structured doctoral BSoE PhD program which candidates can choose to enroll in as an alternative to the ESMT PhD program.

For candidates enrolled in the BSoE program, ESMT offers financial support through stipends and travel allowances. Applications for the BSoE program must be made directly via the Online Portal .

Stefan Wagner

Earn your phd at esmt berlin.

To learn more about our exciting PhD program, please use the below link to download our brochure.

Develop your research skills, mostly in the quantitative areas, currently offering a series of seminars on using generative AI for various research tasks.

PhD students & graduates

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Schedule for summer semester 24 now available

The new schedule for the upcoming summer term is now available for download.

Obituary Prof. Luise King

We grieve for Prof. Luise King (1939-2024). As head of the Department of Urban Planning and Housing, she shaped urban design education at the Institute between 1987 and 2005.

Congratulations on being appointed, Professor Dr. Lech Suwala

We are delighted to announce that Prof. Dr. Lech Suwala has been appointed Professor of Urban and Regional Economics at the Institute of Urban and Regional Planning at TU Berlin in November 2023.

Welcome, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Swantje Grotheer

We are pleased to welcome Prof. Dr.-Ing. Swantje Grotheer as a visiting professor for "Urban and Regional Development" at ISR since October 2023

Welcome Prof. Heike Hanhörster

With Jun. Professor Heike Hanhörster, we welcome another addition to ISR and are pleased to welcome the new chair "Social Cohesion, Diversity and Migration in Spatial Planning".

Welcome, Prof. Dr. Jan Polívka

We are pleased to welcome Prof. Dr. Jan Polívka as the new head of the Department of Urban Planning and Urban Renewal at the Institute for Urban and Regional Planning of TU Berlin.

Upcoming events at ISR

Teaching conference srp.

Institutssekretariat

Institute secretariat

[email protected]

+49 30 314 28092

+49 30 314 28151

Studienfachberatung ISR

student advisory service

[email protected]

+49 30 314 28155

Universität der Künste Berlin

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Doctoral studies at the faculty of Fine Arts

For more information click here  to reach the german webpage. 

You have questions about your studies? Ask us!

Open StudyGuide

• You can contact us via phone: +49 30 3185 1480
• Information on opening hours (telephone and InfoPoint) can be found on the StudyGuide website https://www.udk-berlin.de/en/service/studyguide/

More about our PhD Program and our Research Associates Program

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• Soft skills training and key qualifications
• Good scientific practice

INSIGHTS aims to build a bridge between academia, policy makers and the wider public.

• Policy Fellowships
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• INSIGHTS PhD course: Economics and Transfer to the Public
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General information

• PhD Program

The Berlin School of Economics PhD Program provides outstanding doctoral students with a vibrant, intensively networked research community. The program develops the students’ talents in a unique combination of a high-level, academic research environment together with applied, policy-oriented research opportunities. Students receive state-of-the-art coursework training and can select from a wide array of specializations. For each specialization, a professional research environment is provided by Berlin’s universities and economic research institutes.

How to apply

Course catalog

Program structure and curriculum

All PhD tracks offered in the PhD Program share the same structure and general curriculum. The program’s curriculum is divided into a qualification and a dissertation phase:

Qualification Phase

During the qualification phase (about three semesters), students acquire methodological and research-oriented training in mandatory course work in economic theory, applied economics, business studies, econometrics, and economic policy. Students define their research area and find supervisory support from two supervisors. They write research proposals that are discussed with faculty members individually and in seminars in order to provide early feedback on the scientific potential of research ideas. This is a central part of the PhD Program, in which the students have full flexibility in the choice of their research topics and of the supervisors. During this phase, students are funded through stipends that allow for this flexibility. In total, students have to complete a  minimum of 90 ECTS credits  in order to finish the qualification phase of the program.

Dissertation Phase

During the subsequent dissertation phase (about three years), students write a doctoral thesis while having the opportunity to apply their knowledge in the professional research environment that is provided at the Berlin universities and research institutes participating in the Berlin School of Economics. In this phase, students are typically employed at their supervisor’s chair or in research groups at research institutes.

The PhD will be awarded by one of the institutions in the Berlin School of Economics with the right to award doctoral degrees. In most cases, the PhD is awarded by the institution the student’s first supervisor is affiliated with.

The following chart gives an overview of the general structure of the PhD Program:

Researchers Guide

This guide includes academic advices from the researchers of the Berlin School of Economics.

Special thanks to the INSIGHTS Team, researchers of Berlin School of Economics, Agne Kajackaite, Aleks Zaklan, Alexander Kriwoluzky, Ally Xin Lin, Annekatrin Schrenker, C. Katharina Spieß, Christian Basteck, Ciril Bosch-Rosa, Dorothea Kübler, Francis de Véricourt, Georg Weizsäcker, Gyula Seres, Hande Erkut, Hannes Ullrich, Jana Hamdan, Levent Neyse, Lisa Bruttel, Lutz Weinke, Mira Fischer, Müge Süer, Nikolaus Wolf, Peter Haan, Robert Stüber, Sebastian Schweighofer-Kodritsch, Simone Maxand, Vincent Meisner, and Pablo Brañas-Garza.

You can download the web version

or print the printable version

Also note the compiled information on our website about support and resources, for example Mental Health.

Social Design & Sustainable Innovation

• Master of Arts (M.A.)
• 4 Semesters

Do you want to create what the world really needs? With the Master in Social Design you can become a designer for eco-social change and learn to develop innovative design ideas for the social challenges of our time.

• summer and winter semester

Your course content

The Master's degree in Social Design & Sustainable Innovation challenges the current system and thinks design from the perspective of the social and planetary state of emergency. The goal: the education of a new, radical, revolutionary generation of designers. You will work with practices such as artistic research, cooperation, co-creation and other methods of qualitative research. The overall goals are fairness, transparency and sustainability.

Social design, social campaigning, corporate design in a social context, socially engaged art, digital innovation, social design theory and design practice in the context of visual communication, editorial design, photography, film and web development and design thinking form the cornerstones of the programme. Within these key themes, you will work with collaborative partners from the (creative) industries and other organisations on social innovations, campaigns and design solutions for a sustainable future. In projects with real-world partners, you will design effective solutions and concrete visions for a better world.

Your career prospects

Social Design & Sustainable Innovation can mean a significant difference in cultural and business organisation, leading to more real and digital innovation. The professional skills are derived from mastering the respective design disciplines paired with methodologies of social change that are combined.

Graduates take up traditional and new design professions with an extended and scientifically sound design, thinking and action approach. They work as art directors, designers, consultants, project managers, web developers, change managers, curators for companies and institutions. The Master of Arts degree prepares students for a doctoral or PhD degree programme, which opens the way in particular to academic careers in teaching and research.

M.A. students design nationwide campaign to draw attention to the poor working conditions and lack of appreciation in nursing and healthcare. If not now, when ...

Study programme brochure and more ...

Design Thinking as Method of Social Innovation

Students design community space in a refugee camp in Lebanon. They use design thinking processes to design the space in such a way that it has an activating effect and that creative and positive impulses can arise.

Foreign and Foreigness | "This is (not) my story."

German and Lebanese students deal with the topic of " Foreign and Foreignness " in interdisciplinary workshops and create essays, films, photo series, graphics and installations that reflect the realities of life for refugees in Germany and Lebanon.

Heaven above Beirut

Students from the Berlin School of Design and Communication and the ALBA Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts capture Beirut in pictures. The photographs were taken before the devastating explosion in August 2020 and show the struggle of a city for its existence and identity , but also as a place of longing .

Learn more about funding options for EU and non-EU students. 3 pm CET

Meet our study advisors and learn how our application system works and which documents and proofs you need to provide. 3 pm CET

Video Project: Social Spots for UN Sustainable Development Goals

The Master Class Social Design and Sustainable Innovation creatively explored the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and designed and produced Social Spots. Under the direction of professor Gilbert Beronneau, films were created by students that humorously and seriously portray the challenges facing humanity in connection with the preservation of the planet.

Social Spots for SDG 10 & 14

Workshop: Urban Design

Your curriculum

First semester.

Social Design Science + Practices A

Design Research

Social Campaigning

Art, Society + Change

Marketing and Branding

Profession and Best Practice I

Second Semester

Social Design Science + Practices B

Sustainable Innovation I

Sustainable Innovation II

Social Design Internship

Sociology and Branding

Profession and Best Practice II

Third Semester

Design Thinking / Research

Design Thinking / Synthesis and Creation

Design Thinking / Realisation and Prototyping

Social Design Manifesto + Portfolio

Design Practices

Profession and Best Practice III

Fourth Semester

Master's Thesis + Colloquium

Do you want firsthand information? Our students are happy to share their experiences with you, tell you about their courses, their projects and student life in Berlin, Hamburg and Dresden.

We help you achieve your goals

• Study Programme Director

Our requirements

The Master's in Social Design & Sustainable Innovation is aimed at university graduates of all disciplines.

Checklist for your online application:

• Bachelor's degree - please submit your degree certificate and your transcript of records. If you do not have the degree certificate yet, you can also submit it before you start your studies.
• Letter of motivation
• Proof of English language proficiency
• Secondary School Certificate
• Curriculum vitae
• Two to three creative works on the topic of "Why change?", in the form of film, text, photo, illustration or in another creative form of expression

Here are the English requirements you should bring along:

• TOEFL 87 ibt (direct entry)
• TOEFL 79 - 86 ibt (with additional agreement)
• TOEIC 785 (Listening/Reading 785, Speaking 160, Writing 150)
• IELTS/ IELTS ONLINE (academic) 6.5 on average - please see Language Centre guidelines if results differ
• CAE (grade A, B, or C)
• CPE (grade A, B or C)
• Pearson English Test Academic (PTE-A) 59 points
• Linguaskill: 176 - 184 (CES) - all four skills required
• Duolingo 110 points

Your tuition fees

As a state-recognised, private university, SRH Berlin University of Applied Sciences is financed by tuition fees. This revenue goes towards equipping our campus, providing services for our students, and quality assurance. In this way we ensure that you receive the best possible education under optimal study conditions.

Tuition fees

• citizenship | EU/EEA (incl. Switzerland, Western Balkans and Ukraine): EUR 790 / month
• citizenship | Non-EU/EEA: EUR 5700 / semester

The monthly/semester tuition fees remain the same for the entire duration of the study programme. 

An additional enrolment fee of EUR 750 (EU/EEA) / EUR 1000 (non-EU/EEA) is to be paid once. More information about our fees .

Financing Please find more information about funding options on our page " Financing your studies ". Our Student Advisory Service  will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Application process and deadlines

Please find the Application and Late Arrival deadlines here .

We are happy to welcome you to our university. This is our application process:

• You submit your online application via the SRH Application Portal
• If you meet the admission requirements, we will invite you to a personal/phone interview
• If the interview is successful, you will receive an acceptance letter and the study contract
• You sign the study contract and send it back to us
• You pay the enrolment fee
• You will receive your letter of admission
• You take part in our Welcome Week and then you are good to go!

• You will take part in a step-by-step learning experience
• You will study in small teams through practice-oriented tasks
• You can concentrate on what is important in 5-week blocks
• You will receive individual support from your lecturers

If you have any questions, our team is happy to help you

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• premium program

• Open Campus

The Hasso Plattner Institute offers a practically-oriented computer science study program at an internationally recognized institute. This study includes the Germany-wide unique IT-Systems Engineering program and the five master programs Cybersecurity, Data Engineering, Digital Health, IT-Systems Engineering and Software Systems Engineering.

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Our researchers at HPI benefit from an inspiring scientific environment as well as a collaborative and inclusive atmosphere. In this environment, they obtain insights and findings that achieve societal impact. Our scientific work is structured within research clusters. In addition, we work together with scientific institutions, companies, and public institutions in numerous research programs worldwide.

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The Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam is unique on the German academic landscape. The institute's program continues to grow with the support of its founder Hasso Plattner and through international cooperation. Find out more about the founder, events and studies at HPI.

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The Hasso Plattner Institute has educational programs for both high school students and working professionals. It operates its own IT learning platform - openHPI - which provides free online courses. The Youth Academy organizes computer science camps and events for high school students. Professionals can take advantage of educational opportunities in the field of Design Thinking at the HPI Academy.

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•  >  Before your Studies
•  >  Degree Programs
•  > PhD Program

At the Hasso Plattner Institute already more than 140 doctoral candidates successfully gained their PhDs. In order acquire a doctorate at the HPI, doctoral students are required to be registered at the University of Potsdam for the duration of their studies. The language of instruction can be either German or English depending on the student's own preference.

The terms of graduation at the Hasso Plattner Institute are subject to the Doctoral Regulations ( promotion regulation ) outlined by the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the University of Potsdam.

• English version of the Doctoral Regulations (only German version is legally binding)
• Information for Foreign Doctoral Students

Benefits for HPI Doctoral Students

The HPI represents excellent research. You will benefit from numerous advantages in your PhD:

PhD with vision

A PhD at HPI offers you more than just an institutional environment for your research. Take advantage of the numerous continuing education opportunities and learn the essential tools for your successful future in research and business.

• Professional-Skills-Kolloquium
• English Conversation Circle
• German courses for foreign PhD students
• Design Thinking events
• Teaching opportunities
• Wide range of further research topics in the field of IT systems engineering

Opportunities for Scientific Exchange and Networking

• Participation in science conferences held by HPI
• Use of the institute’s own top research lab: Future SOC Lab
• Regularly-scheduled research colloquia (dependent on department organization)
• Interaction and workshops with PhD students from the HPI Research School external branches (Cape Town, Haifa, Nanjing)
• Travel financing provided for presentation of personal research work at international conferences
• Advancement of women : Travel scholarships for the "Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing" or "European Women in Technology" fairs
• Offer of the Potsdam Graduate School (PoGS)

Contact to Partners in the Industry

• Access to the institute's own career platform - HPI Connect
• Contact to the local Berlin start-up scene

Campus and Work Place

• Work-friendly campus
• Generously equipped offices (PC, work materials)
• Use of the campus sports facilities

Financial Matters

• Generous scholarships offered through HPI Research School
• Student status that includes all the benefits of the student ID card (e.g. Semester Ticket for use of public transportation)

All you need to know for your application at HPI

• Further Information

Contact Doctoral Committee Office

For questions concerning doctoral studies please contact the  

Doctoral Committee Office

Sabine Wagner

• Tel.: +49 (0)331 5509 220
• Fax: +49 (0)331 5509 229
• E-mail:  office-promotionsausschuss(at)hpi.de

Degree Programs at HPI

You want to study at HPI? We offer the following degree programs:

• Bachelor of Science: IT-Systems Engineering
• Master of Science: Computer Science Digital Health IT-Systems Engineering Cybersecurity (phased out) Data Engineering (phased out) Software Systems Engineering (phased out)

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Ph.D.-Programm

Promotionsstudiengang Kunst und Design mit dem Abschluss Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in den Schwerpunkten Kunst oder Design

Promotion Dr. phil.

Die Bauhaus-Universität Weimar verleiht durch die Fakultät Kunst und Gestaltung den akademischen Grad Doctor philosophiae (Dr. phil.)

Ph.D. programme and Dr. phil.

Working titles - journal for practice based research.

Working Titles is an online journal for practice-based and led research initiated by students enrolled in the Ph.D. program Art and Design. By ‘working titles’ we hint at the journal’s main objectives: To serve as a platform for the presentation of research carried out through any practice – from oil painting to anarchist urban plumbing – and to facilitate self-publishing. Contributors submit their papers to a non-blind peer review by those they deem suitable, regardless of their academic affiliation, and based on friendship and trust.

https://www.uni-weimar.de/projekte/workingtitles

Offene Sprechstunde für Bewerber*innen

Doktorhut | Infoveranstaltungen zur Promotion

Workshop / veranstaltungskalender der bauhaus research school.

Disputation im Ph.D.-Programm am 18. März 2024

Disputation im ph.d.-programm am 28. februar 2024, accessibility panel, simple language.

Information about the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar in German.

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Critic’s Notebook

Berlin Was a Beacon of Artistic Freedom. Gaza Changed Everything.

The home of boundary-pushing artists from around the world has been upended by debates about what can and can’t be said about Israel and the war.

A mural calling for the return of Israeli hostages in Berlin. Credit... Andrew White for The New York Times; Mural by Benzi Brofman

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By Jason Farago

Reporting from Berlin

• Published April 6, 2024 Updated April 8, 2024

When the musician Laurie Anderson was beginning her career in the early 1970s, an avant-garde artist who wanted to work at scale had to go abroad — to one place in particular.

Listen to this article with reporter commentary

“I got my start in Germany, because of state-supported art,” recalled Anderson, who exhibited at its national museums and performed with its symphony orchestras when she was still an emerging talent. She lived for a time in West Berlin. She met Lou Reed, her future husband and a sometime Berliner himself, in Germany in 1992.

Fitting, then, that she would accept a prestigious guest professorship this year at a German art school. Then, in late January, a local blogger fulminated after finding her signature among 16,000 names on a two-year-old open letter that denounced “apartheid” in Israel and the Palestinian territories. The university then called, seeking explanations. Rather than distill her thoughts about “this unbelievably tragic war” into the kind of public statement they seemed to want, she withdrew. “It did teach me that I didn’t really want to have that kind of sponsorship,” she concluded. “If I’d known they were going to ask things like that, I never would have accepted that job in the first place.”

She’s far from the only artist who finds herself unsure of her welcome here these days. The arts scene in Germany — and especially Berlin — has been turned upside down by Hamas’s attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, and the siege and bombardment of Gaza.

Prizes have been rescinded. Conferences called off. Plays taken off the boards. Government cultural officials have suggested tying funding to what artists and institutions say about the conflict, and media — both traditional and social — bubble with public denunciations of this writer, that artist, this D.J., that dancer. The disinvitations have brought counter-boycotts. And a climate of fear and recrimination has put Berlin’s status as an international cultural capital in greater hazard than at any time since 1989.

Berlin had once been the artistic beacon of all Europe, but what’s happening here today is a very German story. The country’s responsibility for the Holocaust still defines a cultural sector whose institutions are committed to a national process of reckoning and atonement. That culture of remembrance also undergirds Germany’s staunch support for Israel, and the strict limits it places on criticisms of its ally. (Only recently has the rising toll in Gaza prompted some German leaders to question their unwavering support. ) So while artists around the world — from the stage of the Oscars to the Whitney Biennial — have been vocal about the war, in Germany such statements can have a major cost: canceled performances, lost funding, and accusations of antisemitism in a society where no charge is more serious.

“Berlin was broke, but a community was there,” said the electroclash star Peaches, who has lived here since 2000, when we met up for breakfast in Prenzlauer Berg. I asked her what’s changed lately, and she noted how risk-taking institutions were already running scared amid threats to funding. “What was going on here was openness to all these intersections. And since the last few months, there’s been a lot of that taken away.”

That sense of new limitations, new controls, new anxieties, is already exacting a price on culture in a city that had made a welcome of artists into its post-Wall calling card.

“ This angst makes it harder for us to work internationally, attract the best talent on the highest level and bring diverse audiences together,” said Klaus Biesenbach, the director of the Neue Nationalgalerie, who previously led museums in New York and Los Angeles. “If the artists leave, one of the last real bonuses that Berlin has would be gone.”

The cancellations, postponements and uproars have hit every cultural sector, with anger and accusations coming from as high as the chancellery. The Berlin International Film Festival saw withdrawals and protests this year — and after its closing ceremony, at which several laureates called for a cease-fire in Gaza, federal and state officials issued threats to withhold future support.

D.J.s have been dropped from lineups at Berghain and other clubs, sometimes after posting anti-Israeli statements, but often for much milder support for Palestinian lives.

The Maxim Gorki Theater, one of the city’s most acclaimed playhouses, canceled a prizewinning play about Israelis and Palestinians in Berlin — leading several intellectuals and artists to cancel appearances there in turn.

In the galleries of the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, a hub for the city’s art scene, recently shipped sculptures are sitting in unpacked crates. Their creators now refuse to exhibit in Germany to protest what they describe as restrictions of speech supporting Palestinians.

Some cultural leaders are raising alarms. In January, the Berlin state government proposed a new funding clause that would require grantees to sign a document opposing “any form of antisemitism” — and used a definition that listed certain criticisms of Israeli policy as antisemitic. Artists protested, and the proposal was withdrawn, but the outgoing director of the Goethe-Institut, which promotes German language and literature abroad, fretted in Der Spiegel that “longstanding partners in the international cultural world are losing confidence in the liberalism of German democracy.”

For many artists, especially foreigners who settled in Berlin as a place of freedom and cultural abundance, the very survival of the city as an artistic capital is in doubt, or perhaps already gone.

“Berlin, in my view, is not a place where artists can create freely,” said Ai Weiwei, the Chinese artist and dissident, who keeps a studio in Berlin but no longer lives here. “Whenever I hear about German government officials imposing restrictions on artists’ freedom of speech, or expression, it fills me with despair.”

It’s of course not just in the capital. The Frankfurt Book Fair “indefinitely postponed” a prize ceremony for Adania Shibli, an acclaimed Palestinian writer and Berlin resident. The city of Bremen reneged on its own prize ceremony for the Jewish writer Masha Gessen over an essay comparing Gaza to the ghettos of Nazi-occupied cities. The Berlin-based artists Jumana Manna, who is Palestinian, and Candice Breitz, who is Jewish, both had exhibitions at regional museums canceled on the grounds of (as usual) controversial social media posts. Even Greta Thunberg, the climate Cassandra, has been canceled in Germany after wearing a kaffiyeh and calling for a cease-fire at a recent protest.

But it is Berlin that stands to lose the most from all these disinvitations and denunciations, and from the larger malaise in German democracy from which they spring. The success of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, and the broader advance of the populist right in Europe, have shaken postwar and post-Wall norms of historical responsibility. The arrival of a million refugees from Syria and elsewhere in 2015 continues to shape ongoing debates about who is a German. New spending freezes and austerity budgets , triggered by restrictions on government debt, spell trouble for a capital that still has three major opera houses.

All this while indisputably antisemitic rhetoric, and even violence, have been rising in Germany. In October, masked assailants chucked Molotov cocktails at a synagogue (they missed; no one was hurt). Anti-Jewish slurs and stars of David were painted on government buildings and residences.

When pro-Palestinian activists came to the Hamburger Bahnhof, one of Berlin’s leading institutions for contemporary art, and shouted down the director of one of the country’s Jewish museums with slogans such as “Zionism is a crime,” they affirmed the belief of many here that anti-Israeli rhetoric is just a step away from antisemitism.

Against that backdrop, some Jewish Berliners see criticism of Israel as much more than a foreign policy dispute. “I’m an aggressive Zionist for only one reason: because I want to survive,” Maxim Biller, the author of the novel “Mama Odessa” and one of the country’s leading columnists, told me over coffee. “And I can be a German writer with a Jewish project here only because there is a state of Israel.”

Naturally there is a German compound noun for that interdependence, endlessly slung around and debated in the last few months. The word is Staatsräson , or “reason of state”: a national interest that is not just nonnegotiable but existential, defining the state as such. Angela Merkel, the former chancellor, described Israel’s security as Germany’s Staatsräson in a historic address to the Knesset in 2008. Her successor, Olaf Scholz, has repeatedly invoked Staatsräson in his defenses of Israeli policy since Oct. 7.

“ Staatsräson means: The existence of Israel is a condition of possibility for the existence of Germany,” explained Johannes von Moltke, a professor of German cultural history at the University of Michigan, who’s currently in Berlin. “Because if there is no Israel, then Germany’s guilt is all-consuming again. And you can’t countenance that possibility.”

In other words, the cultural crackup of the last few months only appears to be part of an international conflict. It is, in fact, resolutely German. What is really being fought over here is a hazy, transcendent national concept that, since Oct. 7, has overtaken more firmly constitutional principles of free expression and free association.

The tensions have been building since at least 2019, when the federal Parliament adopted a resolution designating the movement calling for a boycott of Israel as antisemitic , and urging local governments and “public stakeholders” not to fund organizations or individuals that support it. That makes a big difference here, since so many artists, writers and musicians receive generous government aid. The resolution, though nonbinding, led some cultural institutions to rescind invitations to critics of Israeli policy, and many more to take a hesitant approach.

“People in cultural institutions are risk-averse,” said Tobias Haberkorn, who edits the Berlin Review , a new literary publication. “So if they have to decide, ‘Am I going to invite this or that artist with a Middle Eastern background, or not?’ I can very well see them not inviting them. Just to avoid the potential hassle.”

Since Oct. 7, accusations of antisemitism have flown much more broadly. Some are merited. Many others are dubious. Quite a number of those accused of antisemitism have been Jewish, such as Gessen.

“There are many Jewish perspectives, and that is not being honored here in a country where the history cannot be excused,” said Peaches, who is also Jewish. “For any progressive Jewish person who is thinking about what is going on, and understanding the history of what is going on, to be called antisemitic — by Germans — is ridiculous. Never did I think in 2024 that I would be thinking about that.”

Yet it’s worth pointing out how few of these accusations revolve around cultural production. It is rare for Berlin’s theaters or festivals to cancel someone for what they actually sing or paint or film. What gets you now are statements, posts, likes, signatures: the imperatives of social media, which are swallowing culture wholesale. Once debates like this would have played out in Germany’s elite press, where intellectuals clashed over the country’s moral responsibility to the past. Today the national papers, and the institutions too, are playing catch-up to Ruhrbarone, a small website from the provincial city of Bochum that took down Anderson and many others.

Perhaps the lowest point yet came at the end of this year’s film festival, when numerous prizewinners called for a cease-fire in Gaza; two went further, using the words “genocide” and “apartheid” to describe Israel’s actions. That prompted Germany’s culture minister, Claudia Roth, to announce an inquiry into the film festival’s governance. In a subsequent interview with Der Spiegel , Roth said that “the freedom of the arts includes curatorial responsibility,” and suggested that the festival’s organizers had to ask themselves: “Which films are being selected? How are the juries appointed?”

The festival’s outgoing artistic director, Carlo Chatrian, hit back at that government interference in an open letter , accusing German officials and news organizations of rhetoric that “weaponizes and instrumentalizes antisemitism for political means.”

Surely this city ought to have learned by now that directing culture toward political ends rarely ends well. Those who have forgotten might take a walk over to the Gendarmenmarkt, a grand central square now gashed by construction barriers, and its monumental statue of a German playwright and philosopher with a rather subtler understanding of how culture and government inform each other. His name was Friedrich Schiller, and what he saw was that the arts were not aristocratic luxuries, not decorations; they were the very motor of human freedom. The arts, Schiller taught his fellow Germans in 1795 , “enjoy an absolute immunity from human capriciousness. The political legislator can bar the way to its domain, but he cannot rule within it.”

This freedom of the arts still defines Berlin, which knows better than most cities what dangers lurk when they are overregulated. It defined the Weimar period, when Otto Dix caricatured the powerful and August Sander photographed society without embellishment. And the postwar era, when novelists forged a new German literature in a register that definitively broke from the Nazi past. And also the Cold War, when punk bands on either side of the Wall made music in defiance of national aims. And especially the heady years after reunification, when a global generation of designers and D.J.s reestablished the unlovely city as Europe’s beating heart.

Lose that cultural freedom and you lose much more than a “scene.” You lose the very ground — the ground of sympathetic imagination — upon which you combat antisemitism and all other forms of bigotry. “The opportunity to experiment for creatives and artists from all over the world is one of the most important things Berlin still has going for it,” said Biesenbach. “We need to protect it.”

Read by Jason Farago

Audio produced by Parin Behrooz .

Jason Farago , a critic at large for The Times, writes about art and culture in the U.S. and abroad. More about Jason Farago

Our Coverage of the Israel-Hamas War

News and Analysis

Many Israelis were in a somber mood as they prepared to usher in Passover , the Jewish festival of freedom, saying they would mark the holiday rather than celebrate it, with more than 130 hostages remaining in Gaza.

The United States is considering imposing sanctions on one or more Israeli battalions accused of human rights violations during operations in the occupied West Bank , according to a person familiar with the deliberations.

Palestinians in the West Bank went on a general strike  to protest an Israeli military raid  at a refugee camp a day earlier in which at least 10 people were killed, in an episode that illustrated the continuing unrest in the territory.

Israeli airstrikes on the southern Gaza city of Rafah killed several civilians , including women and children, according to Palestinian state media, sending more fear through an area where over one million displaced Palestinians are crowded into tents and temporary quarters.

Fears Over Iran Buoy Netanyahu: The Israeli prime minister lost considerable support after the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. Tensions with Iran have helped him claw  some of it back.

A Surprising Rift: The Israel-Hamas war, which has roiled cultural and political institutions far beyond the Middle East, is causing divisions in a prominent Japanese American group .

Mobilizing the American Left: As the death toll in Gaza climbed, the pro-Palestinian movement grew into a powerful, if disjointed, political force in the United States . Democrats are feeling the pressure.

Riding Rage Over Israel: Jackson Hinkle’s incendiary commentary  has generated over two million new followers on X since October — a surge that some researchers say is aided by inauthentic accounts by the online celebrity.

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