Blogerim

Employees of the Jewish Museum Berlin answer the question.

“My sound of the year was the muezzin’s call to prayer from the Et’hem-Bey Mosque in Tirana, that wafted through the night like one of Blixa Bargeld’s sound installations.”
Julia Jürgens, Events

“The music that accompanies my daily trip to work hums along discreetly in my headphones. But at the sound of one track, my hand automatically moves to the volume control. Muzarco’s ‘instinct mostly’ on Lost and Found Records is something to listen to, something to make a person curious. The artist and the label are part of a fresh, lively scene in Tel Aviv, comments the moderator at the end of the track. And in fact, I find further interesting pieces on this label, which is based in Tel Aviv and was just founded in 2012. Hypnotic, spatially structured house, techno, and ambient sounds distinguish the selected releases and stir an appetite for more. Good music doesn’t always have to come from the region that typically dominates – it can come from somewhere unexpected.”
Andreas Harm, Finance

“The lip-smacking and slurping relish during meal scenes in the films of Hong Sang-soo.”
Johannes Rinke, Visitor Services

“For me the sound of the year was the flashing of photographers’ cameras on the red carpet at the conferral of the Prize for Understanding and Tolerance. Most of all at the entrance of German President Joachim Gauck and the prizewinner Richard von Weizsäcker, the tumult around the red carpet could hardly be contained as every photographer tried to lay claim to the best spot for shooting.”
Sylvia Winkler, Press
(editor’s note: Photographs of this evening can be downloaded here.)

“My sound of the year is the chirping of birds – my colleague Karin’s ringtone – that always brings spring back into my office.”
Diana Dressel, Education

Employees of the Jewish Museum Berlin answer the question.

“My word of the year is ‘diversity’. I haven’t heard or read anything so often this year. Most often at panel discussions, and sometimes seen on the street.”
Julia Jürgens, Events
(editor’s note: See the video documentation on the series of events ‘Visions of Belonging’)

“My word: Besucherfroschung (visitor frogging) – a nice typo that … lept out at me several times while I was editing an academic article on the subject of Besucherforschung (visitor research).”
Christiane Birkert, Visitor Research

“The word Augenscheinseinnahme (visual inspection). I came upon this term while I was researching the Auschwitz trial: it referred to the local inspections at Auschwitz with which the court examined the content of witness statements for their veracity.”
Monika Flores Martínez, Exhibitions

“A corrective – that is, a critical observer – is something everyone needs.”
Katrin Möller, Marketing

“My word of the year is ‘bio-clip-boom,’ which came up in a lecture by Geoffrey Hartman at the Preserving Survivors’ Memories Conference, and it captured for me the intensity of audio-visual self-creation in the era of facebook, youtube, blogs, etc.”
Katharina Obens, Visitor Research
(editor’s note: A brief report on the conference can be found here.)

Employees of the Jewish Museum Berlin answer the question.

“Leo Scheuer’s prayer capsule. He prayed with it his entire life, even during the 15 months that he spent buried in a hole in the ground hiding from the German occupiers.”
Monika Flores Martínez, Exhibitions
(editor’s note: In her blog post from 22. November 2012 Monika Flores Martínez described what she felt while she worked on the presentation of this object in a display case.)

“My thing of the year is a sign with “Forbidden Entrance” written on it, seen in a Viennese stairwell.”
Kai Gruzdz, Library

“My thing of the year is Macrolon – a fabulous material that’s not only light and easy to work with but that also inspires unlimited creativity!”
Katrin Strube, Collection Management

“My thing of the year is a medieval ‘Jewish pig’ statue on a church in Bad Wimpfen. It drew attention in the press after the diocese it belongs to produced a replica and placed the original statue in the state museum there, as a cultural heritage piece. It’s an anti-Jewish caricature, and yet, because it’s historical, deserves protection, raising the question: how much public money should be spent on its restoration?
Naomi Lubrich, Media