The Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany (abbr.: Standing Conference) unites the ministers and senators of the Länder responsible for education, higher education and research, as well as cultural affairs.

The Standing Conference was founded in 1948, i.e. even before the Federal Republic of Germany was constituted. It arose from the Conference of German Ministers of Education which took place in Stuttgart on 19 and 20 February 1948 and was attended by representatives of all the zones of occupation set up after the end of the Second World War.

After the ministers from the Soviet zone had been forbidden from further attendance of the conference by their occupying power, the ministers of education and cultural affairs of the three western zones of occupation agreed in the same year that their conference should become a permanent institution. They constituted themselves as the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder and set up a permanent secretariat for their cooperation.

Following the restoration of Germany's unity as a state on 3 October 1990 and the re-establishment of the Länder in the territory of the former GDR, the Länder of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia joined the Standing Conference on 7 December 1990. Berlin in its entirety also joined the Standing Conference once the western and eastern sectors of the city had been united.

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