"Narrow-minded culture war reflexes": Minister of State for Culture Weimer criticizes left-wing alarmism

The new Minister of State for Culture is declaring war on self-proclaimed moral guardians from both the left and the right. Weimer calls the removal of a nude Venus statue from a Berlin government office an "act of culturally distant ignorance." He argues that this not only undermines artistic freedom, but also patronizes the viewer.

Minister of State for Culture Wolfram Weimer sharply criticizes encroachments on artistic freedom. "The left's anti-freedom aggression finds its aggressive face in cancel culture," Weimer wrote in an article for the "Süddeutsche Zeitung." The most recent example was the removal of a nude Venus statue from a Berlin government office due to accusations of misogyny.

"It's no exaggeration to speak of an act of culturally alien ignorance," Weimer wrote. The simple equation that female nudity is inherently sexist and has no place in public seems like the credo of a Jacobin iconoclasm. "Its modern counterpart, the shitstorm, has now become a fixture in radical feminist, postcolonial, eco-socialist outrage culture."

"Language guardianship as the last resort"

According to a report in the "Bild" newspaper, the bronze statue of Venus Medici was removed from the Federal Office for Central Services and Unresolved Property Issues (BADV) in Berlin. This was reportedly preceded by a warning from the agency's equal opportunities officer.

"In a social climate driven by left-wing alarmism, preemptive obedience, paternalism, and language policing seem to be the last resort," Weimer wrote. "But even the right-wing and right-wing radical to right-wing extremist culture war reflexes are not lacking in narrow-mindedness." As an example, he cited the dismissal of a teacher in Florida who showed her students Michelangelo's naked David.

"You patronize the addressees"

"Both left-wing and right-wing zealots trust neither the freedom of culture nor the competence of citizens to freely form their own opinions," wrote the Minister of State for Culture. He continued: "When the arts are canonized in the name of a new moral terror, one not only harasses the artists, but above all, one patronizes the audience."

The liberal answer is not to exert political influence, but to defend the freedom of art. "To expand the corridors of what can be said, explored, and represented as much as possible, rather than narrowing them," Weimer said.

The Minister of State for Culture had recently expressed concern about the dangers posed by a "global culture war." He stated that this was not only occurring in neo-nationalist dictatorships like China or Russia, but also in the West.