Berlin, July 07, 2026.The arts festival "48 Stunden Neukölln" sees itself as a grassroots platform for the independent art scene, reflecting the entire breadth of the Berlin art scene and federal German society with around 600 contributions at 370 locations in 2026. According to our self-image, the arts possess the potential to make social fault lines and discourses visible. In nervous times around the world, ideological conflicts are increasingly being carried into art as well. Against the backdrop of the past festival weekend and current media reports, the management of the sponsoring association Kulturnetzwerk Neukölln e.V. and the festival directorate jointly issue a statement regarding the short-term removal of a project from the program and present the organizational processes transparently.
Structurally, the concept of "48 Stunden Neukölln" as a low-budget festival has always been based on a deep mutual trust and the great commitment of all participating artists and venues, without whom such a decentralized major event would be entirely inconceivable. On this foundation, responsibility for individual contributions traditionally rests with the cultural workers as co-organizers, who plan, finance, and execute their projects themselves. The festival team accompanies this process in two stages: First, a selection is made during the application phase, in which the thematic objective is judged and obvious, visible violations of our democratic, non-discriminatory self-image are consistently excluded. In this context, we would like to point out the conditions that apply to all projects within the festival:
"...no one may be discriminated against, insulted, or harmed in any other way. Incitement, discrimination, and prejudgment have no place with us." In the original application text of the project in question, which at no point received financial funding from the festival, the subsequent final direction was not recognizable. In the subsequent editorial phase, which serves to concrete the plans, the idea of the project was independently expanded by the artists to include the intention of staging biographical scenes from Gaza at sites of historical commemoration for the victims of the Shoah.
We openly admit: This contribution went unnoticed during the editorial phase. The explosive nature of this historically inadmissible and deeply problematic equation of the holocaust of the Jews during the National Socialist era with the current Middle East conflict was not recognized by us in advance. After receiving pointers from third parties on Saturday morning, the festival reacted immediately, removed the contribution from the program without delay, and informed the authorities and the artist about the prohibition.
As a festival, we fundamentally value and protect the artistic and political freedom of expression of our participants as a valuable asset. However, we make it unmistakably clear: The instrumentalization of sites of historical commemoration for current political conflicts, as well as any form of antisemitism or relativization, have no place in our festival.
Therefore, this step explicitly did not take place due to political pressure or the direct threat of a funding cut. Rather, the reaction corresponds to the firm self-image of the festival and Kulturnetzwerk Neukölln e.V. not to contribute to the aggravation of social conflicts, but to strengthen the reconciling potentials of art.
With very limited financial and human resources, the festival offers a stage to hundreds of cultural workers and enables countless people free access to art. The administration of this program (over 1,400 artists in 600 projects) is essentially managed by a small team (two part-time positions). In the run-up, this team managed an enormous review workload within a tightly scheduled timeframe: In addition to nearly 100 applications for the "Perspectives" format, close to 700 applications for general participation had to be screened. Due to the very high participation this year, the subsequent editorial phase dragged on into April, which shifted all timelines. A seamless, detailed editorial review of every single project was impossible to achieve under these conditions.
In the reporting, the discussion about financial implications was highly highlighted. Since "48 Stunden Neukölln" is currently applying for further funding within the framework of the Berlin Festival Fund, maintaining the existing structures is a priority for us. Accordingly, concern for the future of the festival may have predominated in an initial statement. However, Kulturnetzwerk Neukölln e.V. and the festival directorate emphasize with urgency: We stand unreservedly by the Neukölln tradition of transcultural dialogue, which has been pushing back racist and antisemitic statements for decades. We are deeply committed to promoting art through appreciative means and rejecting discriminatory projects. In order to actively cultivate this dialogue and process the incident, a direct meeting with Elio Adler, the chairman of the Werteinitiative – Jewish-German Positions, is already taking place tomorrow, Wednesday.
The incident has clearly shown that the review process needs to be adjusted. To secure the protection of the entire platform in the long term, the festival has decided to firmly involve an external expert for the coming year. Following the completion of the independent editorial phase by the artists, this expert will specifically review the content once more for discriminatory and sensitive material, as well as critical venue choices. Although this step will noticeably reduce the festival's already tight budget, it is urgently necessary to effectively prevent incidents of this kind in the future.