German citizens to be offered €200 to experience culture as 18th birthday gift

Germans turning 18 in 2023 will be offered a voucher worth €200 (£175) to spend on their choice of cultural experience. The ‘Kulturpass’ has been put in place to encourage the 750,000 people who will celebrate their 18th birthday next year to experience live culture. The scheme is anticipated to provide a financial boost to the arts scene, following the hit caused by several pandemic lockdowns.Germany’s culture minister Claudia Roth described the cultural passport as the ‘equivalent of a birthday present’. Other EU countries such as France, Italy and Spain already have similar schemes in place for young adults.According to finance minister Christian Lindner, the Kulturpass is a form of ‘cultural start-up capital’ that is valid up to two years after its issue.Recipients can use the voucher on a wide range of cultural products, including theatre and concert tickets to books and music. A stipulation of the pass, however, is that it cannot be used with online platforms such as Amazon or Spotify, in order to prioritise spending with smaller businesses. The Kulturpass scheme is estimated to cost Germany €100m (£87.4m), in addition to the country’s annual €2.3bn (£2bn) cultural budget. If successful, ministers have claimed that the scheme will be extended, with the view of offering it to people from the age of 15.In Spain, a similar scheme was announced last year with the view of offering nearly half a million new 18-year-olds a €400 (£350) voucher to use on cultural activities. Recipients could spend it on pursuits such as film, theatre and concert tickets, although bullfighting was excluded. Italy’s ‘culture bonus’ of €500 for new adults was introduced in 2016 and has been maintained throughout the country’s changes of government. France’s ‘Pass Culture’ was promised by Emmanuel Macron during his presidential campaign in 2017 and eventually rolled out to the country’s young people in 2021.