District decides to promote culture

At its meeting on 20 January 2026, the Oder-Spree district's Education, Culture and Sport Committee decided on the applications submitted for the 2026 project year with a funding requirement of more than 1,500 euros. By October 31, 2025, the cultural office had received 47 applications with a total funding requirement of more than 331,300 euros for the approximately 212,000 euros allocated for this purpose in the current budget. The total costs of the projects submitted amounted to more than one million euros.

The district will ultimately fund 32 cultural projects; the overall funding rate is 64 percent.

Among the projects for which funding has been applied for and now secured are music festivals such as "Jenseits von Millionen" (Friedland), the 25th edition of the Fürstenwalder Jazztage, the "Kymatik Open Air" in Pfaffendorf and the current edition of the Axel Titzki Foundation's competition for up-and-coming bands (Eisenhüttenstadt). In addition to established formats such as the "Film ohne Grenzen" festival in Bad Saarow, the salon concerts at the Scharwenka Kulturforum in Bad Saarow, the interventions by the artists' collective Endmoräne e.V., which will be working in the historic Hangelsberg railroad station in 2026, and the Fürstenwalde "Ermutigung" exhibition of art by people with disabilities, the district is also supporting new applicants such as the Dorfförderverein Leißnitz e.V., which will continue the "Dorf.Fragen" pilot project launched in Briesen to strengthen the village community through creative means.

The CTA-Kulturverein Nord in Fürstenwalde with its "Töpfern mobil plus" and the Kulturfabrik, which is also based in the city on the Spree, the children's and youth festival "You & Me" by the Kunst- und Kulturiniative Schöneiche e.V. (Kulturgießerei) and the Woltersdorfer Kabinett, which is organizing a festival entitled "AFLOAT/ Strömungen" on the topic of water with its Free Radio Woltersdorf in 2026, will also receive financial support. In Eisenhüttenstadt, InterKultur VielFarben e.V., the Städtische Galerie and the Friedrich-Wolf-Theater, among others, can look forward to a grant. The reactivation of the Club am Anger in collaboration with EWG Eisenhüttenstadt and students from the weißensee kunsthochschule Berlin is the aim of a project for which the association Forum Kulturerbe der DDR e.V. is also receiving funding.

The Günter de Bruyn Foundation, which is currently moving into its newly restored home in Beeskow, is celebrating the 100th birthday of author Günter de Bruyn (1926–2020) this year. The district is providing a grant for the foundation's work as well as for a "Museum for Homelands and Futures" planned by the Zukunftsarchiv Heinersdorf e.V. association.

Applications for funding of less than 1,500 euros for the second half of 2026 can still be submitted until the end of May. Funding is available for projects and plans in the field of art and culture in the Oder-Spree district – not only non-profit associations and initiatives are eligible to apply, but also any citizen.