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Composition

Unusual Objects From Our Permanent Exhibition Tell Stories of Jewish Life

For Otto Freundlich, art was closely intertwined with the utopian vision of a new society::

“I fight for the liberation of people and things from the habits of ownership, and against everything that confines them and doesn’t reflect their true nature.”

Abstract painting in blue, black and yellow tones

Composition, Otto Freundlich (1878–1943), 1938, tempera on cardboard; Jewish Museum Berlin, accession 1999/179/0, photo: Jens Ziehe

Otto Freundlich’s works rouse viewers from their torpor. An active gaze is needed to set the “composition” in motion: to make it rise and fall as it emerges from triangular forms and contrasting colors. As our gaze shifts, the light and dark colors—white, yellow, brown, and black—illustrate the forces that are meant to shape the thoughts and actions of free people.

During the Nazi era, Freundlich’s art was branded “degenerate” and removed from German museums. The artist was deported to the Sobibor concentration camp, where he was murdered.

Find out more about this object in showcase.

Core Exhibition: 13 Objects – 13 Stories (13)

  • 13 Objects – 13 Stories

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

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

    Shevirat ha-Kelim (Breaking of the Vessels) by Anselm Kiefer

    This installation can be found in our core exhibition in the Libeskind Building, on level 2

  • 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

  • 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

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

    Torah Shield

    donated by Isaak Jakob Gans (1723–1798), Hamburg, 1760–1765, silver

  • Oil painting with a family scene

    Manheimer Family Portrait

    by Julius Moser (1805–1879), Berlin, 1850, oil on canvas

  • 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

  • White pillow with blue script

    Decorated Cushion

    “ISRAELI, JEW, and now SEVERELY DISABLED ...,” Daniel Josefsohn (1961–2016), Berlin, 2014/15, textile

  • 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

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

    Going-away Present

    Bruno Heidenheim, Album to bid farewell to Margot (1913–2010) and Ernst (1898–1971) Rosenthal, Chemnitz, 1936

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

    Hand Washbasin

    Manufacturer: S. & D. Loewenthal, Frankfurt am Main, 1895/96, silver

  • Membership card with a heart-formed photo

    No Longer in the Country

    Unclaimed membership cards for the Jewish community Frankfurt am Main, 1949

  • Abstract painting in blue, black and yellow tones

    Composition

    by Otto Freundlich (1878–1943), 1938, tempera on cardboard

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

    Yellow Star

    of the Lehmann family, Berlin, 1941–1945

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