Berlin's culture senator, Sarah Wedl-Wilson, resigned on Friday over a funding scandal in which more than €2.6 million in public money earmarked to fight antisemitism was distributed irregularly to 13 organisations, in what a state auditor found to be an "arbitrary" and "clearly unlawful" process. Wedl-Wilson, who holds British and Austrian nationality and took office last May as a political independent nominated by the centre-right CDU, said she was stepping down "above all to prevent harm to the vital fight against rising antisemitism in Berlin." Mayor Kai Wegner accepted her resignation and pledged that the city would not relent in its efforts against antisemitism.
The scandal centres on a special programme created by Berlin's cultural administration to counter growing antisemitism in the German capital — a city of particular historical weight as the place where the Holocaust was planned. Rather than selecting recipient organisations through a jury or formal criteria, CDU parliamentary group leader Dirk Stettner and the party's finance spokesman Christian Goiny drew up their own list of 13 projects and applied intense pressure on the administration to approve the grants. Chat messages presented to an ongoing parliamentary inquiry show Goiny urging Wedl-Wilson to dispatch the funding decisions "by Monday at the latest" just days after she took office. When the culture department's state secretary, Oliver Friederici, insisted on compliance with budget regulations and proper vetting of applicants, CDU legislators overruled his objections. Wedl-Wilson ultimately signed off on the payments, writing in one message that the administration would simply "set aside" the normal rules. When the scandal intensified this week, she dismissed Friederici — widely seen as the official who had raised procedural concerns — a move critics called an attempt to deflect blame.
One of the funded bodies that drew scrutiny was the Zera Institute, an interdisciplinary think tank that received €390,000. Shortly after its founding in 2024, its director compared Jewish philanthropist George Soros — a frequent target of antisemitic conspiracy theories — to a "parasite" on social media, and later apologised. The Berlin state auditor's review focused on the grant-awarding process rather than the merits of individual organisations; it is still to be determined whether recipients will be required to repay any funds.
The political fallout is significant, arriving five months before Berlin's September parliamentary elections. Wedl-Wilson is the third member of Wegner's cabinet to resign during the current legislative term, following former culture senator Joe Chialo, who stepped down over deep cuts to arts subsidies, and transport senator Manja Schreiner, who left after her doctoral degree was revoked in a plagiarism case. Opposition figures across the political spectrum have directed their fire beyond Wedl-Wilson herself. The Green party's candidate Werner Graf said the affair had caused "immeasurable damage" to both the fight against antisemitism and public trust in democratic institutions. The SPD's leading candidate, Steffen Krach, asked why Wegner had not intervened to stop what he called a "self-service mentality" within CDU ranks. With the race to lead Berlin now looking more open, Mayor Wegner faces pressure to explain his own role in allowing the irregularities to continue unchecked.