Exhibitions

Although the Jewish Museum in Berlin was open for only five years, it amassed a substantial collection of sculptures, paintings, prints and Judaica. Following the November pogrom in Germany, known as ‘Kristallnacht’, the institution was closed down and its extensive collections were scattered across the world or lost entirely.

However, the so-called iconographic archive survived from the collection – over four thousand cardboard boards featuring photographs, engravings and drawings that broadly illustrate pre-war Jewish art and culture. After the Second World War, the collection was found in a former German warehouse in Lower Silesia. Following a restitution process, it came into the possession of the State Treasury and was subsequently transferred to the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, where it remains to this day.

The exhibition Images of Identity. The Collection of Berlin’s Pre-War Jewish Museum presents, for the first time 75 years after the collection was handed over, the iconographic archive of this institution. The exhibition is an attempt to restore the memory of an institution whose activities were brutally interrupted, and of a project to document Jewish culture, which was taking shape on the eve of its destruction. The exhibition raises questions about the role of images – photographs, prints and reproductions – in constructing and transmitting knowledge about the history and identity of the Jewish community.

The exhibition’s narrative begins with the history of the establishment of the Jewish Museum in Berlin, its founders, and the social and political context in which the institution operated. The museum opened on 24 January 1933 – just a week before the National Socialists seized power – and served as a venue for presenting Jewish art and cultural heritage in Germany. It recounts the fate of the collection during the war: the evacuation of the holdings to Lower Silesia by the RSHA, their post-war discovery by the Polish side, and their subsequent transfer to the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw.

The central part of the exhibition consists of a presentation of the iconographic archive as a tool for organising knowledge about Jewish history and culture. The juxtaposition of images, figures and events creates a unique visual narrative about the Jewish community. The collection comprises materials documenting Jewish history from ancient times up to the 1930s.

The aim of the collection was to create a visual compendium of knowledge about Jewish history and culture, and about their contribution to the development of European culture, particularly German culture. Each of the panels can be regarded as a visual testimony to the pre-war life of the community that existed before the Holocaust.

The archive’s uniqueness lies in the vast scope and diversity of the collected materials. The panels feature photographs of works of art, reproductions of prints and drawings, as well as press cuttings, invitations and materials sent to the museum by private individuals and institutions. Some of these document the museum’s own activities, whilst others originate from a wide variety of contexts and locations. The materials compiled on the sheets form a broad visual map of Jewish history and culture. Thanks to the archive project, unique images of works and places that no longer exist today have also been preserved.

The exhibition will feature original plates from the iconographic archive, negatives and slides, as well as documents relating to the activities of the Jewish Museum in Berlin. The exhibition is complemented by selected works of art linked to the institution’s history and archival materials documenting the fate of the collection following its closure in 1938. The exhibition is also accompanied by a contemporary video art piece, "Wege Zur Kunst Erziehung / Drogi Edukacji Artystowej / A Guide for Art Education," directed by Yael Vishnizki Levi, as well as a catalogue containing scholarly articles, interpretive essays, and reproductions of materials from the collection.

The exhibition Images of Identity allows us to view pre-war Jewish culture not only as a lost heritage, but also as an important part of history that continues to shape our understanding of the past.

Exhibition curator: Marta Kapełuś, Art Department, Jewish Historical Institute

Design: Aneta Faner

Video-art:Yael Vishnizki Levi