Sarah Wedl-Wilson (57), elected (senator) without label, submitted her resignation to Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU), after the Court of Auditors of the Land of Berlin judged illegal the allocation of 2.6 million euros in public subsidies to projects to combat anti-Semitism. To succeed him on an interim basis until the elections to the Berlin Parliament, scheduled for next September, Finance Senator Stefan Evers (46, CDU) has been appointed to combine the two portfolios.
Holder of dual British and Austrian nationality, Sarah Wedl-Wilson built her career between Germany and Austria. She headed the office of the Kölner Philharmonie (1996-1997), then the artistic direction of Elmau Castle (1997-2000), before taking the helm of the Innsbruck Early Music Festival for more than ten years, alongside conductor René Jacobs. Her roots in Berlin were consolidated in 2019 when she became rector of the Hanns Eisler School of Music, one of the most prestigious music schools in Germany.
It was under the “black-red” coalition of Mayor Kai Wegner that she entered politics. Appointed Secretary of State for Culture in April 2023, the equivalent of chief of staff, she then worked for Senator Joe Chialo (CDU). When the latter resigned in May 2025, due to harsh criticism of budget cuts in culture, Sarah Wedl-Wilson became a senator. But she only held this position for eleven months.
The controversy broke out with the publication of a report from the Court of Auditors of the Land of Berlin. Auditors found that millions of euros of public funds had been allocated to 13 projects to combat anti-Semitism, without prior regulatory verification, in violation of budgetary law and grant allocation rules. Auditors described this process as structurally flawed and arbitrary.
Exchanges of messages, examined within the framework of a parliamentary commission of inquiry opened in December, highlighted the extent of the pressure exerted on the senator by CDU elected officials. Christian Goiny, financial spokesperson for the CDU in the Berlin Parliament, and Dirk Stettner, president of the CDU group, had put together a list of 18 projects, partly selected in coordination with the Israeli embassy, and insisted that the subsidies be paid immediately, without control.
The Secretary of State for Culture, Oliver Friederici, had alerted Sarah Wedl-Wilson to the legal risks of the procedure, but she maintained the subsidies under pressure from the CDU, dismissing Olivier Frierici a few days before his own resignation.
In the wake of this resignation, the Berlin CDU quickly agreed on an interim successor, Stefan Evers. Elected for the first time to the Berlin Parliament in September 2011, he successively served as vice-president of the CDU group (2011-2018), then as parliamentary director of the CDU group (2018-2023). The mayor justified his choice with a practical argument: Stefan Evers is already negotiating the capital’s budget, which specifically includes Berlin’s culture component. In addition to his financial expertise, he is described as “culturally sensitive.”
