The Berlin Republic

Panel Discussion as Part of the Exhibition Between the Lines (in German)

On September 10, 2001, the guest list for the ceremonial opening of the Jewish Museum Berlin (JMB) was printed in the Berlin pages of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The headline was The Berlin Republic. How did this come about?

On the 25th anniversary of the JMB, we look back at the years surrounding the founding of the museum, from the post-reunification years of the 1990s to the early 2000s. The fierce and sometimes bitter debates about National Socialism and the Holocaust ranged from Martin Walser's "Moralkeule Auschwitz" to Daniel Goldhagen's "willing executors" and the crimes of the Wehrmacht, from restitution and compensation to remembrance in public spaces. While Steven Spielberg's film Schindler's List (which premiered in Germany in 1994) brought about a change in contemporary testimony, the trial of Holocaust denier David Irving, concluded in April 2000, set new legal standards.

Looking back at these debates, it becomes clear that the culture of remembrance criticized today as hegemonic and ritualized has not long been a matter of course in German society. Since the end of the Second World War, it has been fought for hard and against great political resistance by various groups of victims. In the years of reunification in the 1990s, the way in which National Socialism, the Holocaust and Jewish history were dealt with was finally institutionalized and anchored in federal policy, which we also have to thank for the founding of the JMB.

In a panel discussion with protagonists and observers of the remembrance policy debates of the 1990s and noughties, we look back on the turbulent years surrounding the opening of the Jewish Museum Berlin.

With:

Heinrich Wefing, journalist, head of the politics department at DIE ZEIT

Inka Bertz, former head of the art collection of the JMB

Michael Wolffsohn, historian and publicist

Moderation: Shelly KupferbergTranslated with DeepL

Meeting point: W.m. Blumenthal Academy, Klaus Mangold Auditorium Fromet-und-Moses-Mendelssohn-Platz 1, 10969 Berlin

Next date:

• Date Thursday, 25/June/2026 20:00
• Venue Jüdisches Museum Berlin
• Address Lindenstraße 14, 10969 Berlin-Kreuzberg