Composition
Unusual Objects from Our Core 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.”
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 the digital view into our holdings.
Core Exhibition: 13 Objects – 13 Stories (13)
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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.
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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
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L’amitié au coeur (Friendship of the Heart)
by Étienne-Maurice Falconet (1716–1791), Paris, 1765, marble
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Finds from the Memmelsdorf Genizah
Memmelsdorf (find site), ca. 1725–1830, paper, ink, fabric, leather, porcelain
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Torah Shield
donated by Isaak Jakob Gans (1723–1798), Hamburg, 1760–1765, silver
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Manheimer Family Portrait
by Julius Moser (1805–1879), Berlin, 1850, oil on canvas
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Puppet Show
King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, Käte Baer-Freyer (1885–1988), Berlin, ca. 1924, plywood, metals
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Decorated Cushion
“ISRAELI, JEW, and now SEVERELY DISABLED ...,” Daniel Josefsohn (1961–2016), Berlin, 2014/15, textile
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Silver Formerly Owned by Jews
Provenance: up to 1939 unknown Jewish owners, 1939 Hamburg Tax Authority
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Going-away Present
Bruno Heidenheim, Album to bid farewell to Margot (1913–2010) and Ernst (1898–1971) Rosenthal, Chemnitz, 1936
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Hand Washbasin
Manufacturer: S. & D. Loewenthal, Frankfurt am Main, 1895/96, silver
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No Longer in the Country
Unclaimed membership cards for the Jewish community Frankfurt am Main, 1949
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Composition
by Otto Freundlich (1878–1943), 1938, tempera on cardboard
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Yellow Star
of the Lehmann family, Berlin, 1941–1945
