German culture commissioner halts translations of Palestinian literary works

Germany’s Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Wolfram Weimer, has intervened to halt the translation of works by Palestinian authors, including Mahmoud Darwish and Ghassan Kanafani, into German.

According to a report by Süddeutsche Zeitung, the latest controversy surrounding Weimer concerns the Capital Cultural Fund (HKF), a Berlin-based programme financed by the federal government with an annual budget of €15 million to support arts and culture initiatives.

Literary scholar and translator Miriam Rainer had identified a striking gap: many major works by 20th-century Palestinian authors had never been translated into German. She set out to address this through a workshop-style project designed to initiate translations.

A jury endorsed the proposal, selecting it alongside 75 projects from roughly 400 applications for funding in the autumn round. The project was due to receive €30,000.

The fund’s curator, Leonie Baumann, former rector of the Weißensee Academy of Art, also approved the initiative.

The selected projects were then forwarded to the HKF’s Joint Committee, which includes two representatives each from the Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) and the Berlin Senate’s Department for Culture.

However, when Baumann retrieved the list, Rainer’s project had been removed. She was informed that it had been “suspended.”

Sonja Longolius, a board member of Berlin’s Literaturhaus on Fasanenstrasse and a member of the jury, said: “To my knowledge, such an intervention has never occurred before.”

A spokesperson for Weimer told Süddeutsche Zeitung that the jury’s decisions are merely advisory and are not binding on the Joint Committee.

Until now, however, the committee had consistently followed jury recommendations.

Neither the jury members nor Rainer have been informed of the reasons behind the suspension. Questions have arisen as to whether the project’s focus on Palestinian literature played a role.

Another possible factor raised was Rainer’s signature on a petition opposing a proposed antisemitism clause championed by Berlin’s former culture senator Joe Chialo, which ultimately failed on legal grounds.

A spokesperson for the Berlin Senate’s Department for Culture denied that this was the reason, stating that the project had been suspended to “clarify outstanding questions.”

Rainer emphasised that her initiative was not activist in nature but rather a literary-historical project. The authors named in her proposal—Samira Azzam, Ghassan Kanafani and Mahmoud Darwish—had long since passed away.

At the same time, their identities as Palestinians meant that, to varying degrees, they had been associated with resistance to Israel. Baumann said the jury had addressed this context responsibly.

Following the suspension, Rainer said she had been advised by the curator to revise the project in an effort to salvage it.

One suggestion was to make the concept “less one-sided,” for instance by inviting Jewish-Israeli participants to take part in events.

Rainer rejected this approach, arguing that the project had been specifically designed to address the lack of translations in Palestinian literature. She ultimately withdrew her application.

In a statement, the jury objected to what it described as “political interference,” adding:

“Independent juries are not a symbolic accessory in public cultural funding, but an institutional safeguard of artistic freedom. They ensure that decisions are made on the basis of professional pluralism, collective responsibility, and at a distance from partisan political interests.”

The statement warned that undermining such processes would cause lasting damage to “trust in the integrity of cultural funding.”

For weeks, observers in Berlin had been questioning how long Chancellor Friedrich Merz would continue to tolerate Weimer’s actions.

Merz addressed the issue in the Bundestag on Wednesday, stating: “I have confidence in Wolfram Weimer.”

Weimer has also faced criticism for his role in the suppression of pro-Palestinian voices at the Berlin International Film Festival. He has argued that European colonialism should not be condemned, describing it instead as a “civilisational achievement.”