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A Journey through German Jewish History

The First Permanent Exhibition of the JMB 2001–2017

Since August 2020, the Jewish Museum Berlin has a new core exhibition. Our historical permanent exhibition from 2001 to 2017 examined Jewish culture in Germany, relations among Jews, and relations between Jews and Christians, or, in a more secular age, between Jews and non-Jewish Germans, featuring images, texts, artworks, everyday objects, media stations, and interactive elements.

The exhibition was arranged chronologically with a different thematic focus in each period. On a tour of the exhibition, visitors learned about Jewish religious traditions and the lives of selected Jewish men and women. Many aspects were surprisingly familiar.

Past exhibition

Map with all buildings that belong to the Jewish Museum Berlin. The Libeskind building is marked in green

Where

Libeskind Building, permanent exhibition
Lindenstraße 9–14, 10969 Berlin

Incidentally, our permanent exhibition was less permanent than the name suggests, as it was updated on a regular basis. We incorporated new objects from our collection, revised and expanded our uses of media, and rethought and redesigned thematic areas. When updating the exhibition, we took our visitors’ suggestions and criticism into account. Our goal was to create a lively and engaging museum with something new and special for everyone. However, after 16 years, the time for a new core exhibition had finally come.

The Collaborators on Our Permanent Exhibition

The Jewish Museum Berlin’s permanent exhibition Two Millennia of German Jewish History was supervised and further developed in matters of science, organization, and restoration by Barbara Decker, Gelia Eisert, Daniel Ihde, Maren Krüger, Cilly Kugelmann, Stephan Lohrengel, Androniki Paliompei and Katrin Strube.

Exhibition technology: Support and further development by Leitwerk, Berlin

Design and media
Permanent Exhibition Würth & Winderoll, Seefeld (design)
"A Thousand Years Ago" The multimedia presentation "A Thousand Years Ago" in the "World of Ashkenaz" exhibition segment was developed in cooperation with the Department for CAD in Architecture at the Technical University Darmstadt and Musion,
In 2010, Architectura Virtualis and the Information and Communication Technology Department of the TU Darmstadt revised the 3D modelling and film
Whitevoid, Berlin undertook the programming and installation of the media technology
The digital Talmud The digital Talmud in the "World of Ashkenaz" exhibition segment was created in cooperation with School of Arts in Berlin, and ART + COM.
"Matters of Faith" The design of "Matters of Faith" was undertaken by gewerk, Berlin
buchstabenschubser, Potsdam (films).
"Court Jews" Duncan McCauley, Berlin (design)
"Both Germans and Jews" Bertron Schwarz Frey, Berlin (design)
cooperation with the Berlin University of the Arts, and Whitevoid, Berlin (multimedia picture book)
Whitevoid, Berlin (listening table and interactive photo album)
"Berlin, Berlin" The display cases that feature Leo Arons, Magnus Hirschfeld, Fritz Haber and Albert Einstein were designed by eckedesign, Berlin.
Children’s Island gewerk, Berlin (design)
"On Trial: Auschwitz / Majdanek" Holzer Kobler Architecturen (design)
in cooperation with TheGreenEyl, Berlin (film installation on the Auschwitz trial)
"Simple as That" s t e c h e r zeichen und räume, Götzis/Österreich (design)

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