3. Funding

Federal State DistributionCo-FinacingOverview of Funding Programs

In total, 283 projects in six grant programs were supported in 2025 – on the basis of 800 formally correctly submitted grant applications. For a cross-program application volume of around 22.2 million EUR, the real funding amount in 2025 was around 7.7 million EUR. 
The prognosticated co-financing shares from federal states, municipalities and third parties were reached and were thus, in the regular grant programs, approximately 57% of the total costs of the realized projects. In 2025, the Fonds thus provided an average of approximately 43% of the funding for individual projects and served as an incentive for additional funding from the federal states and municipalities. 
In one sentence: With almost 7.7 million euros in federal funding, 283 projects in the independent performing arts were made possible in 2025 – from all disciplines and genres of the diverse art forms and all 16 federal states!

The Fonds awarded grants for projects in the independent performing arts in all 16 federal states in 2025. Premieres, openings and project launches were made possible in 90 different cities and municipalities – often followed up by guest performance tours throughout the federal republic and internationally. This year, project proposals submitted by stakeholders from the states of Saxony-Anhalt, Saarland, and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania were particularly likely, on average, to be recommended for funding. Furthermore, the trend has been highly dynamic from one funding year to the next.

In addition to the Fonds’ regular funding (accounting for approximately 43%), further funds amounting to 57% of the total project volume are provided – primarily from public funds of the states and municipalities, and to a lesser extent from other third-party sources. The Fonds' regular funding –allocated in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity – is thus more than doubled, particularly by the municipalities and states.

Since 2016, the Fonds has received its funding for fulfilling its statutory tasks of promoting art and culture primarily from the budget of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM). In 2025, various funding lines under the regular funding program were opened for applications, thereby enabling numerous projects for artists, artist groups and organizations across all disciplines and genres of the independent performing arts. With two new funding measures – the special program XZLLNZ and the pilot program Rural Areas Revival Funding – the scope of the Fonds’ funding was further expanded to include both new productions for large stages as well as rural and structurally-disadvantaged areas.
However, due to fluctuations in grant amounts, the multi-year concept funding could not be opened for applications in 2025.
Funding from the Federal Ministry of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMBFSFJ) under the Kultur macht stark program. Bündnisse für Bildung have been enabling the GLOBAL VILLAGE KIDS funding program since 2023, which supports projects at the intersection of independent performing arts and cultural education – and thus supports the important work with structurally disadvantaged children and young people, particularly in rural areas.

With production funding, the Fonds Darstellende Künste enabled long-term professional and independently producing artists and groups to find and further develop new aesthetics and expressive formal languages to artistically explore social developments, realize production projects and present these productions for the first time to the public.

After the concept funding was suspended for the 2023 business year, the first time since the program’s inception in 2009 following the NEUSTART KULTUR years, the 2025 funding program had to be suspended once again due to a lack of planning certainty. The funds earmarked for 2025 and the unclear budgetary outlook for subsequent years did not allow for the launch of multi-year funding.
To date, the three-year concept funding has supported independent groups, ensembles and artistic collaborations that have been working successfully for many years both nationally and internationally in the further development of conceptual strategies over extended periods and outside of regular production processes.
The reintroduction of the program had only been initiated in 2025: A call for proposals with a deadline of February 2, 2026, for the funding years 2026–2028 was published in December 2025. The second year of concept funding for projects approved in 2024 was disbursed in 2025.

With the XZLLNZ special program, the Fonds Darstellende Künste enables professional independent producing artists/groups who have developed outstanding artistic signatures and pioneering aesthetic formal languages in the nationally and internationally renowned independent performing arts in recent years to stage a major new production or production in co-production with or at a German city or state theater.

XZLLNZ is realized with the involvement of the expertise of the Deutsche Bühnenverein.

Funding federal networks for production and performance venues, associations working successfully long-term as well as festivals strengthens supra-regional and interdisciplinary dialog. Through its network funding, the Fonds Darstellende Künste facilitated collaborative projects among the diverse structures and actors in the independent performing arts. The program’s goal was to establish and expand nationwide exchange on socially and artistically relevant events and topics, to facilitate the transfer of specialized knowledge, and to foster debate and guidance on issues of transformation. Symposia, (international) congresses, topic-specific conferences, and residency networks were supported through collaborative funding initiatives.

Artistic works need a perspective beyond their premieres. Supporting revivals ensures that productions have a lifespan that limits wasting resources by renewed performances, adaptations as well as guest performances throughout the federal states. With revival funding, the Fonds Darstellende Künste thus enabled artists and groups to have the time and space for the revival as well as  the further development or reworking of productions that had previously been funded by the Fonds and whose premiere had already taken place.

The Rural Areas Revival Funding enables targeted revivals, adaptations, and guest performances in rural and structurally weak areas and offers remarkable productions in all disciplines and genres of the independent performing arts nationwide a perspective beyond their premiere.
The funding ensures resource-efficient management, sustainable impact, and visibility across federal states for productions previously supported by the Fonds, while also promoting open artistic and cultural exchange of aesthetics and discourse between urban and rural populations. 

Creating synergies and fostering partnerships: By facilitating residencies at production venues affiliated with the Bündnis internationaler Produktionshäuser, the flausen+bundesnetzwerk, or the Netzwerk Freier Theater (NFT), the Fonds strengthened collaboration between artistic collectives and independent production venues – in both urban and rural areas. The focus was on artistic experimentation and the practical exploration of concepts.
Accompanying the funding to the artists/groups, the network and its member venues were given the opportunity to facilitate the nationwide residencies, provide spatial, professional, and technical support, offer dramaturgical guidance, and, through public presentations, offer insights into the diversity of artistic works and approaches (see also Network Funding).

The GLOBAL VILLAGE KIDS program made projects possible on the interface between the independent performing arts and cultural education in two funding emphases: artistic projects in rural areas and artistic projects in digital spaces. 
The artistic projects were aimed at children and young people between the ages of 3 and 18, particularly those in social, financial or educational risk situations, children and young adults with disabilities and children and young adults who have refugee experience. For both program focuses, approaches in the various genres and fields of the independent performing arts as well as new and age-appropriate approaches to art and culture were promoted that dealt with both local and global issues. For the digital program focus, the projects opened up digital and hybrid spaces as well as techniques in the various genres and disciplines and enabled artistic-empowering, conscious and critical approaches to digital media.

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