Christoph Möllers: Why Freedom of the Arts?

"Freedom of the Arts" (or "Artistic Freedom") is a concept under which many different claims are formulated: Freedom from political influence, freedom from social pressure, freedom to public support, an autonomous sphere of aesthetic criteria or a claim to political relevance. It is also a concept with quite a fragile justification. Why should an artistic practice enjoy more freedom than any other one? By using historical and contemporary examples the talk will try to disentangle these claims, ask for their legitimacy and reconstruct their rather aporetic relationship. In this light, any promise of a mutual reinforcement between free artistic practices and political freedom seems dubious. 

Christoph Möllers is a Professor of Public Law and Jurisprudence, Faculty of Law, Humboldt-University Berlin and a Permanent Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. His main interests include German, European and comparative constitu­tional law, especially academic and artistic freedom, democratic theory and the theory of norms. Selected Books: The Three Branches (2013), The Possibility of Norms (2019), Demokratie und Gewaltengliederung (2025), Öffentliche Kunstfreiheit (2026) with N. Weinberg.