The First World War in Jewish Memory
The First World War provides a central reference point for German-Jewish commemorative culture, caught in conflict between belonging and exclusion. To mark the 2014 centennial of the outbreak of the First World War, we displayed a representative cross-section of the rich holdings on this subject from the Jewish Museum Berlin collections.
Past exhibition
Where
Libeskind Building, lower level
Lindenstraße 9–14, 10969 Berlin
Exhibition Trailer; Jewish Museum Berlin
Of particular importance in this context are the works of Jewish artists such as Hermann Struck, Jacob Steinhardt, and Ernst Oppler, who were soldiers at the front and captured their encounters with Eastern European Jews in their drawings.
Most of the objects on display in the cabinet exhibition, by contrast, showed the daily grind of war: military documents, letters, photographs, diaries, medals, and private sketchbooks. They were given to the museum as private donations and are part of family bequests. The stories of the descendants and benefactors is integral to the history of these objects. Shaped by the subsequent rupture in civilization, they testify to how emigrants and surviving families remembered participation in the First World War.
How can I donate objects, photographs, and documents to the museum?
Do you own materials related to Jewish culture and history in Germany that could be of interest to us? We would be delighted to hear from you!
Objects from the Exhibition
Exhibition Information at a Glance
- When 3 Jul to 16 Nov 2014
- Where Libeskind Building, lower level
Lindenstraße 9-14, 10969 Berlin
See Location on Map
