About SWR Kultur

SWR Kultur

SWR Kultur — "Kultur neu entdecken" ("Rediscover culture") — is the culture radio of Südwestrundfunk (SWR), broadcasting from Baden-Baden for Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. Launched on 30 August 1998 as "SWR2" — succeeding the SDR/SWF joint "S2 Kultur" (1991–1998) — it was renamed SWR Kultur on 15 April 2024. The speech-based programme offers features, radio plays, readings, classical music, and jazz. With 205,000 listeners (Media-Analyse II/2026), it is the southwest's cultural wave — the audience the savings could not cut, the cultural conscience of two states.

Overview

SWR Kultur broadcasts from the SWR-Funkhaus in Baden-Baden across Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate on FM, DAB+, cable, satellite, and livestream — the southwest's cultural wave, the S2 Kultur's heir, on air since January 1991 in its various incarnations. The SWR intendant is Kai Gniffke. The programme is financed through the broadcasting licence fee.

History

SWR Kultur's lineage begins on 1 January 1991: the launch of "S2 Kultur" — the joint SDR/SWF second programme, the two broadcasters' shared cultural wave for Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. The S2 concept — the culture radio as the broadcasters' cooperation — prefigured the 1998 merger: the cultural programme already united, the institutions following.

On 30 August 1998, S2 Kultur became SWR2: the new broadcaster's second programme, the cultural wave under one roof. The Baden-Baden editorial teams merged; only the state culture desks remained in Stuttgart and Mainz. The S2 programme scheme transferred with minor changes: the continuity of the cultural offering, the new broadcaster's name.

The savings era — from 2008, the budget cuts that reduced the programme's resources by 25% by 2020 — reshaped the wave: the end of the state-split broadcasts, the ARD-Nachtkonzert takeover, the merged magazines. On 1 February 2017, Wolfgang Gushurst succeeded Johannes Weiß as programme chief.

On 15 April 2024, SWR2 became SWR Kultur: the renaming justified as bundling all the SWR's cultural content under one brand — the television culture magazines "Kunscht!" (BW) and "Landesart" (RP) already merged into the joint "SWR Kultur" TV programme. The culture brand across the media: the radio wave as the brand's voice.

S2 Kultur: The Pre-Merger Union (1991–1998)

The 1 January 1991 launch of "S2 Kultur" — the SDR's second programme merged with the SWF's SWF2 — was the southwest's cultural unification, seven years before the broadcasters merged. The concept: the two states' cultural offerings combined into one shared wave, the SDR's Stuttgart culture and the SWF's Baden-Baden culture under the S2 roof. The joint programme's success — the cultural audience served across both states — demonstrated the merger's logic: the cooperation working, the institutions following.

The S2 years — 1991 to 29 August 1998 — were the cultural wave's laboratory: the shared programme scheme, the joint productions, the two broadcasters' editors collaborating. The S2's cultural journalism — the features, the radio plays, the classical music — set the standard the SWR2 inherited: the programme scheme transferred "with minor changes", the continuity deliberate. The pre-merger union's lesson: the culture unites what the institutions divide.

The Savings Era: 2008–2020

From 2008, SWR2 — like the ARD's cultural waves generally — faced the savings era: the budget cuts that by 2020 had reduced the programme's resources by 25% compared to 2010. The consequences: the end of the state-split broadcasts (the "Journal aus Baden-Württemberg/Rheinland-Pfalz", the "SWR2 aus dem Land" features), the ARD-Nachtkonzert takeover (the nightly classical concert from midnight to 6 a.m., the SWR2-produced Friday-to-Saturday edition cancelled in 2011), the magazine mergers ("Dschungel" and "Leben" combined into "Tandem" in 2012).

The savings' logic — the cultural wave's small audience justifying the small budget — collided with the cultural mission: the features and radio plays expensive to produce, the audience too small to defend politically. The wave survived by concentrating: the core cultural offering preserved, the regional variations sacrificed. The 205,000 listeners — the cultural core — kept the faith: the audience that the savings could not cut.

The programme chief transition — Wolfgang Gushurst succeeding Johannes Weiß on 1 February 2017 — managed the lean years: the cultural wave's stewardship under constraint, the quality maintained despite the cuts. The 2024 rebrand — SWR Kultur — was the recovery's symbol: the cultural wave reasserted, the brand renewed.

The Orchestras: The Musical Backbone

The SWR's orchestras — the SWR Symphonieorchester (the merged Stuttgart and Baden-Baden/Freiburg orchestras), the SWR Vokalensemble, the SWR Big Band, and the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern (the joint SR/SWR orchestra since 2007) — are SWR Kultur's musical backbone: the radio orchestras' concerts recorded and broadcast, the premieres commissioned, the classical music with the broadcaster's own sound.

The radio orchestra tradition — the publicly funded ensembles, the broadcasts as the democratic concert hall — is the cultural wave's raison d'être: the music the market will not sustain, the licence fee's cultural dividend. The SWR's orchestral mergers — the 2016 combination of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony and the SWF Symphony into the SWR Symphonieorchester — followed the consolidation logic: the resources pooled, the quality preserved. The cultural wave broadcasts the result: the southwest's symphonic sound, the public's orchestra.

The jazz — the SWR Big Band, the jazz festivals — adds the contemporary: the cultural wave's modernity, the "Kultur neu entdecken" in the jazz clubs. The classical and the jazz, the features and the radio plays: the cultural spectrum, the wave's breadth.

"Kultur neu entdecken": The Rebrand Philosophy

The 15 April 2024 renaming — SWR2 to SWR Kultur — was justified as the brand bundling: all the SWR's cultural content under one roof — the radio wave, the television's "SWR Kultur" (the merged "Kunscht!" and "Landesart" magazines), the online cultural journalism. The "Kultur neu entdecken" slogan promises the rediscovery: the culture you thought you knew, seen anew.

The rebrand's logic — the culture brand platform-independent — follows the SR's "SR Kultur" Themenmarke (September 2024) and the audience's cross-media behaviour: the cultural consumers encountering the brand on radio, television, and online. The radio wave as the brand's audio home: the features and concerts, the readings and debates — the culture's voice.

The renaming also retired the numbering's hierarchy: no longer the "second" programme — the also-ran — but "Kultur", the identity. The cultural wave's self-confidence: the 205,000 listeners' station, the southwest's cultural conscience, the brand that says "culture" and means it.

Programming

SWR Kultur's format is speech-based culture: features, radio plays, readings, plus classical music and jazz — the spoken word's home, the concert hall on the dial. The "Kultur neu entdecken" slogan promises the rediscovery: the culture familiar and strange, the canon and the contemporary, the southwest's cultural life heard anew. The SWR's orchestras — the SWR Symphonieorchester, the SWR Vokalensemble, the SWR Big Band, the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern (joint with the SR) — supply the musical backbone: the concerts recorded and broadcast, the premieres commissioned, the classical music and jazz with the broadcaster's own symphonic sound.

Coverage and Audience

SWR Kultur broadcasts on FM, DAB+, cable, satellite, and livestream across Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. Its 205,000 listeners (MA II/2026) are the southwest's cultural audience.

Ownership and Funding

SWR Kultur is operated by Südwestrundfunk, the public-law broadcaster for Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate and an ARD member, headquartered in Stuttgart. The programme is financed through the broadcasting licence fee. The SWR intendant is Kai Gniffke.

Digital Presence

SWR Kultur's online presence is integrated into the SWR's digital platforms, with livestream, programme information, and podcasts. Because the official domain has not been independently load-verified, the website field of this profile is left empty pending verification.