Free entry to Berlin's museums one Sunday a month could be on its way back. A coalition of the Linke, the Greens and the SPD is examining whether the city can afford to revive the free museum Sunday, an offer that was cut in 2024 because of budget pressures.

The idea appears in a first exploratory paper drawn up around four weeks after the election to the Berlin Abgeordnetenhaus, and it is expected to form part of the formal coalition negotiations. The move signals that cultural policy is becoming a bargaining point in the talks over the city's next government, with the three parties positioning culture as a visible plank of their joint platform.

The original free Sunday allowed Berliners to visit the capital's state museums without paying once a month, a scheme aimed at lowering the threshold for audiences who rarely set foot in a museum. Its abolition two years ago was presented as a savings measure, but it drew criticism from cultural organisations that argued the savings were small compared with the signal it sent.

A youth culture card for young people is also under discussion in the same paper, suggesting the coalition wants to broaden access across age groups rather than simply restoring the old arrangement. Any reintroduction would depend on the outcome of the negotiations and on whether a funding model can be found that survives the city's tight finances.

Berlin's museums have been under sustained financial pressure, and the debate over free entry is part of a wider national conversation about who pays for culture and how institutions reach beyond their traditional audiences.