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13 Objects – 13 Stories

A Torah shield, a sculpture, a cushion: 13 unusual objects tell 13 stories of Jewish life. What would a museum be without its many objects, each rich in meaning? You can get a sneak peek of the objects here on our website.

  • Female statue with traces of rust, missing the head

    L’amitié au coeur (Friendship of the Heart) by Étienne-Maurice Falconet (1716–1791), Paris, 1765, marble
    Read the object’s story

  • Various crumpled documents with Hebrew letters, a shoe and a bag

    Finds from the Memmels­dorf Genizah, Memmelsdorf (find site), ca. 1725–1830, paper, ink, fabric, leather, porcelain
    Read the object’s story

  • Silver Torah shield with gilded columns and lions holding law tablets

    Torah shield donated by Isaak Jakob Gans (1723–1798), Hamburg, 1760–1765, silver
    Read the object’s story

  • Sculpture of a library made of lead with inserted glass fragments

    Shevirat ha-Kelim (Breaking of the Vessels) by Anselm Kiefer (born 1945), 1990–2019, lead, iron, glass, copper wire, charcoal, Aquatec
    Read the object’s story

  • Oil painting with a family scene

    Manheimer family portrait, by Julius Moser (1805–1879), Berlin, 1850, oil on canvas
    Read the object’s story

  • Puppet with a crown and moving parts, which are connected with rivets

    Puppet Show King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, Käte Baer-Freyer (1885–1988), Berlin, ca. 1924, plywood, metals
    Read the object’s story

  • White pillow with blue script

    “ISRAELI, JEW, and now SEVERELY DISABLED—there’s got to be a way to capitalize on that in GERMANY,” Daniel Josefsohn (1961–2016), Berlin, 2014/15, textile
    Read the object’s story

  • Glass showcase full of tableware, cutlery and other silver objects

    Silver formerly owned by Jews, provenance: up to 1939 unknown Jewish owners, 1939 Hamburg Tax Authority, 1960 allotted to the Hamburg Museum of Arts and Crafts (MKG) by the City of Hamburg
    Read the object’s story

  • Opened album with pictures of the Chicago skyline, a skyscraper, a painting, and handwritten text

    Going-away present by Bruno Heidenheim, Album to bid farewell to Margot (1913–2010) and Ernst (1898–1971) Rosenthal, Chemnitz
    Read the object’s story

  • Silver washbasin with flowers and ornaments, in the middle a Hebrew inscription

    Hand washbasin, manufacturer: S. & D. Loewenthal, Frankfurt am Main, 1895/96, silver
    Read the object’s story

  • Membership card with a heart-formed photo

    No longer in the country: unclaimed membership cards for the Jewish community Frankfurt am Main, 1949
    Read the object’s story

  • Abstract painting in blue, black and yellow tones

    Composition, Otto Freundlich (1878–1943), 1938, tempera on cardboard
    Read the object’s story

  • Yellow star with the word Jude (Jew) on it

    Yellow star of the Lehmann family, Berlin, 1941–1945
    Read the object’s story

Colorful glittering curtain in motion

Exhibition Jewish Life in Germany: Past & Present: Features & Programs

Exhibition Webpage
Jewish Life in Germany: Past & Present: Core exhibition of the Jewish Museum Berlin, since Aug 2020
Guided Tours
JMB App: Audio guide, available in English, German, German plain language, German Sign Language, French, Italian, Spanish, Hebrew and Russian, available for download
Guided Tours for Adults as Individual Visitors or in Groups: Fixed dates or by appointment, on site or digitally, in several languages
Guided Tours and Workshops for School Groups: Appointment, on site or digitally, in several languages
Publications
The JMB Book: History, architecture and core exhibition of the museum, available in English, German, French, Spanish and Italian
Open: JMB Journal #21, with interviews and background information on the exhibition
Digital Content
Thematic Space Torah: Audios and objects on words, writing and language
Musicroom: Playlists with religious and secular music from the core exhibition
Topography of Violence. Antisemitic violence in Germany 1930–1938: Media application from the exhibition’s historical chapter Catastrophe
Current page: 13 Objects – 13 Stories: Unusual objects from our core exhibition
New Accents: Interview with Cilly Kugelmann, chief curator of the core exhibition
See also
The Libeskind building
History of the museum

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