Jewish Museum Berlin

The Jewish Museum Berlin (Jüdisches Museum Berlin) was opened in 2001 and is the largest Jewish museum in Europe. On of floor space, the museum presents the history of the Jews in Germany from the Middle Ages to the present day, with new focuses and new scenography. It consists of three buildings, two of which are new additions specifically built for the museum by architect Daniel Libeskind. German-Jewish history is documented in the collections, the library and the archive, and is reflected in the museum's program of events.

From its opening in 2001 to December 2017, the museum had over eleven million visitors and is one of the most visited museums in Germany.

Opposite the building ensemble, the W. Michael Blumenthal Academy of the Jewish Museum Berlin was builtalso after a design by Libeskindin 2011/2012 in the former flower market hall. The archives, library, museum education department, a lecture hall and the Diaspora Garden can all be found in the academy.

History

The first Jewish Museum in Berlin was founded on 24 January 1933, under the leadership of Karl Schwartz, six days before the Nazis officially gained power. The museum was built next to the Neue Synagoge on Oranienburger Straße and, in addition to curating Jewish history, also featured collections of modern Jewish art. Schwartz intended the museum as a means to revitalise Jewish creativity, and to demonstrate that Jewish history was living history. The museum's art collection was also seen as a contribution to German art history and one of the last exhibitions to be held was a retrospective of the German impressionist, Ernst Oppler in 1937. To reflect this focus on living history, the entrance hall of the museum both contained busts of prominent German Jews, such as Moses Mendelssohn and Abraham Geiger, and also a number of works by contemporary Jewish artists such as Arnold Zadikow and Lesser Ury. but already, discussions about constructing a new museum dedicated to Jewish history in Berlin were being held.

In 1988, the Berlin government announced an anonymous competition for the new museum's design, with a jury chaired by Josef Paul Kleihues. A year later, Daniel Libeskind's design was chosen from among 189 submissions by the committee for what was then planned as a "Jewish Department" for the Berlin Museum. While other entrants proposed cool, neutral spaces, Libeskind offered a radical, zigzag design, which earned the nickname "Blitz" ("Lightning").

In 1991, Berlin's government temporarily canceled the project to finance its bid for the 2000 Summer Olympics. Six months later the decision was reversed and construction on the $65 million Essentially, it consists of two buildingsa baroque old building, the "Kollegienhaus" (that formerly housed the Berlin Museum) and a new, deconstructivist-style building by Libeskind. The two buildings have no visible connection above ground. The Libeskind building, consisting of about , is a twisted zig-zag and is accessible only via an underground passage from the old building.</blockquote> A line of "Voids", empty spaces about tall, slices linearly through the entire building. Such voids represent "That which can never be exhibited when it comes to Jewish Berlin history: Humanity reduced to ashes."

In the basement, visitors first encounter three intersecting, slanting corridors named the "Axes." Here a similarity to Libeskind's first buildingthe Felix Nussbaum Hausis apparent, which is also divided into three areas with different meanings. In Berlin, the three axes symbolize three paths of Jewish life in Germanycontinuity in German history, emigration from Germany, and the Holocaust. and the W. Michael Blumenthal Academy of the Jewish Museum in a rectangular, 1960s flower market hall on the opposite side of the street (2012).

thumb|The diaspora garden at the W. Michael Blumenthal Academy

In 2016, a jury appointed by the Jewish Museum Berlin awarded the first prize in an architectural competition for a new €3.44 million children's museum for 3 to 12 year-olds to Olson Kundig Architects; the second prize was awarded to the Berlin firm Staab Architekten and third prize to Michael Wallraff of Vienna. The children's museum opened on June 27, 2021, and is housed in the W. Michael Blumenthal Academy.

Exhibitions

Permanent exhibition

The new core exhibition entitled "Jewish Life in Germany: Past and Present" opened on 23 August 2020. Covering more than 3,500 square meters, it tells the story of Jews in Germany from their beginnings to the present day from a Jewish perspective.

The exhibition is divided into five historical chapters spanning from the beginnings of Jewish life in Ashkenaz, through the emancipation movement, the Enlightenment, and its failure, to the present. The largest space is dedicated to National Socialism and the chapter After 1945, where topics such as restitution and reparation, the relationship to Israel and Russian-speaking immigration from 1990 onwards are the central themes. As a "final chorus," the video installation "Mesubin" (The Gathered) brings the polyphony of contemporary Jewish together. Eight thematic rooms deal with religious aspects of Judaism and its lived practice, with the museum's family collections, and with art and music. What is sacred in Judaism? How is Shabbat celebrated? What is the sound of Judaism? In addition to original objects, the exhibition presents a wide variety of audio-visual media, virtual reality, art and interactive games.

The previous permanent exhibition

The previous permanent exhibition "Two Millennia of German Jewish History" was on display from September 2001 to December 2017. It presented Germany through the eyes of the Jewish minority. The exhibition began with displays of medieval settlements along the Rhine, in particular in Speyer, Worms and Mayence. The Baroque period was regarded through the lens of Glikl bas Judah Leib (1646–1724, also known as Glückel von Hameln), who left a diary detailing her life as a Jewish business woman in Hamburg. The intellectual and personal legacies of philosopher Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786) were next; both figures were flanked by depictions of Jews in court and country. The Age of Emancipation in the nineteenth century was presented as a time of optimism, achievement and prosperity, though setbacks and disappointments were displayed as well. German-Jewish soldiers fighting for their country in World War I stood at the beginning of the twentieth century. One focus of the exhibition was Berlin and its development into a European metropolis. The Jews living here as merchants and entrepreneurs, scientists and artists, were pioneers of the modern age.

Special exhibitions

Changing exhibitions present a broad range of themes, eras and genres. Notable exhibitions are: Welcome to Jerusalem (2017–2019); Cherchez la femme (2017); Golem (2016–2017); Snip it! Stances on Ritual Circumcision (2014–2015); A Time for Everything. Rituals Against Forgetting (2013–2014); The Whole Truth … everything you always wanted to know about Jews (2013); Obsessions (2012–2013); How German is it? 30 Artists' Notion of Home (2011–2012); Kosher & Co: On Food and Religion (2009–2010); Looting and Restitution: Jewish-Owned Cultural Artifacts from 1933 to the Present (2008–2009); Typical!: Clichés about Jews and Others (2008); Home and Exile: Jewish Emigration from Germany since 1933 (2006–2007); Chrismukkah: Stories of Christmas and Hanukkah (2005–2006); 10+5=God (2004); and Counterpoint: The Architecture of Daniel Libeskind (2003). at the Jewish Museum. The LBI has its principal office in New York and holds the most comprehensive collection of materials on the history of Jews in Germany, Austria, and other German-speaking areas in Central Europe of the last 300 yearsincluding about one million documents such as local authority records, personal documents, correspondence, a photo archive as well as numerous testimonies from religious, social, cultural, intellectual, political, and economic life. The collection of more than 1,200 memoirs of German-speaking Jews (also and especially from the post-Nazi era) is unique.

Directors

1997–2014: W. Michael Blumenthal
2014–2019: Peter Schäfer
from 2020: Hetty Berg

Prize for Understanding and Tolerance

Since 2002, the Jewish Museum Berlin and the Friends and Patrons of the Jewish Museum Berlin have presented the annual Prize for Understanding and Tolerance. Past recipients included:

2002 – Berthold Beitz, Heinrich von Pierer
2003 – Otto Schily, Friede Springer
2004 – Michael Otto, Johannes Rau
2005 – Heinz Berggruen, Otto Graf Lambsdorff
2006 – Daniel Barenboim, Helmut Panke
2007 – Helmut Kohl, Fritz Stern
2008 – Roland Berger, Imre Kertész
2009 – Franz Fehrenbach and Christof Bosch (representing Bosch), Michael Verhoeven
2010 – Jan Philipp Reemtsma, Hubertus Erlen
2011 – Angela Merkel
2012 – Klaus Mangold, Richard von Weizsäcker
2013 – Berthold Leibinger, Iris Berben
2014 – Wolfgang Schäuble, Hubert Burda
2015 – W. Michael Blumenthal
2016 – Anita Lasker-Wallfisch and Renate Lasker-Harpprecht, Hasso Plattner
2017 – Joachim Gauck, Joe Kaeser
2018 – David Grossman, Susanne Klatten
2019 – Heiko Maas, Anselm Kiefer
2020 – Madeleine Albright, Igor Levit
2022 – Barrie Kosky, Herta Müller
2023 – Corinne Michaela Flick, Wolfgang Ischinger
2024 – Margot Friedländer, Delphine Horvilleur
2025 – Amy Gutmann, Daniel Zajfman

Controversy

By 2019, the museum was dubbed the "Anti-Jewish Museum" due to hosting a series of speakers favorable to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. In February 2019, the German government indicated that it would take steps to prevent the museum becoming a platform for BDS. In May 2019 the German Bundestag passed a resolution calling the BDS anti-Semitic. In June 2019, then-director Schäfer used the museum's official Twitter account to retweet a call by 240 Jewish and Israeli academics for the German government to not equate BDS with anti-Semitism, to protect freedom of expression and assembly, and to fight anti-Semitism. Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said, "Under these circumstances, one has to think about whether the term 'Jewish' is still appropriate." Schäfer resigned a week later "to avoid further damage". After his resignation he wrote a book on the history of anti-Semitism.

Sources

Van Uffelen, Chris. Contemporary Museums – Architecture, History, Collections, Braun Publishing, 2010; , pp. 214–17.
Simon, H. (2000). Das Berliner Jüdische Museum in der Oranienburger Strasse: Geschichte einer zerstörten Kulturstätte. Hentrich & Hentrich.
Brenner, M. (1999). Jewish Culture in Contemporary America and Weimar Germany: Parallels and Differences. Central European University Jewish Studies Yearbook, 2(2).

References

External links

detailed November 2001 review for Virtual Library Museums by Susannah Reid, University of Newcastle
A Short Photographic Essay on the Museum
Interview with Daniel Libeskind from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Website of Studio Daniel Libeskind – with descriptions of the Jewish Museum, the glass courtyard, and the academy