Autonomy of the culture and responsibility of state

There is a broad consensus that art and culture in general should not be instrumental in supporting political or economic goals. In the case of Germany, this is an essential statement of the constitutional law, as shown in article 5: Science and art are free. But what do we mean when we talk about autonomy of culture, of art and of science? The clarification of this concept will constitute the first part of my talk. The second question is what kind of requirements need to be met in order to speak about autonomy of culture? Should and can this autonomy be guaranteed by state subsidies? And if state subsidies are essential for the autonomy of culture, how can political responsibility be reconciled with cultural autonomy? In the third part of my talk, I will discuss different models of institutionalizing the autonomy of culture in a way that is compatible with state responsibility. I will present some of the institutional arrangements in Germany regarding art and science. Furthermore I will make some proposals of how to develop a good relation between state and culture. I very much hope this has some fruitful implications for the Italian debate.