Berlin Culture Senator Resigns: Report Finds CDU Antisemitism Funding "Clearly Illegal"
The state audit into CDU antisemitism funding finds Senator Wedl-Wilson knew she was breaking the law. On Friday, she resigned her post.
UPDATE
Following the news below, Wedl-Wilson has formally asked Kai Wegner to relieve her of her duties. "The past three years have been a very challenging and at the same time very fulfilling time for me," she said. Wegner appears to have accepted her resignation, stating: "Sarah Wedl-Wilson is taking political and personal responsibility – she deserves respect for that."
She becomes the second Berlin culture senator to step down this term, following Joe Chialo, who was also implicated in the funding scandal but resigned in May 2025, citing the severity of the cuts to Berlin's culture budget.
Friday, April 24
It's been evident for a while that the allegations unfolding against the CDU government over a large batch of mishandled funding – money earmarked for projects focused on combating antisemitism, but instead fast-tracked into handpicked projects – were going to have serious fallout. Now the official government report card is out, and it's not looking good for those involved.
The Berlin State Audit Office has been investigating the funding scandal since mid-December, focusing on the "projects of particular political importance" that key CDU politicians pressured the Senate Department for Culture to funnel money into. Ultimately, these biased projects received roughly €2.6 million in government funding. The audit report, released early on Thursday after it leaked to the media, confirms the severity of the allegations – and put mounting pressure on Kai Wegner to fire those implicated.
It is a scandal that the CDU handles taxpayers' money as if it were its own private funds and illegally distributes them to party members.
According to a draft of the report obtained by rbb, the department violated parliamentary budget obligations and broke laws during the selection process. Applications for funding proposed by CDU politicians, including party affiliate Christian Goiny, were given preferential treatment. The way projects were shortlisted was deemed "arbitrary", and they were only checked by the Senate Department for Culture rather than given a full substantive review, which the Court of Auditors says breached state budget regulations. "The grant allocation process was clearly illegal," the report concludes.
The report also makes a direct allegation: that Culture Minister Sarah Wedl-Wilson, who signed every funding decision, knew her approval violated the law.
Neither Wedl-Wilson nor her predecessor, Joe Chialo, were able to refute the allegations to State Audit Office during questioning. Wedl-Wilson initially declined to resign, instead claiming that she needed to oversee the implementation of the report's recommendations for improving the funding process. But lawmakers across the political spectrum began pressuring the mayor to fire Wedl-Wilson. Elif Erlap, Die Linke's leading candidate in the upcoming state elections, immediately demanded her dismissal. "The CDU and its senators must also abide by the law and have disregarded it here," she said. "It is a scandal that the CDU handles taxpayers' money as if it were its own private funds and illegally distributes them to party members."
The grant allocation process was clearly illegal.
Werner Graf, a leading candidate for the Greens, reminded the mayor that he had promised to take action. "I expect Mr. Wegner to stop shirking his responsibility and now live up to it," said Graf. SPD lead candidate Steffen Krach has also pushed for increased consequences.
