![Designed graphic with overlapping photos and red squares, the top photo shows a woman with a child holding her hand, next to her a teenager, in the background the so-called workers' palaces in Stalinallee.](/sites/default/files/styles/media_w1920/public/media/images/ddr-visual-keyvisual.jpg?itok=IrWrRhLM)
GDR on Tuesday
Program Accompanying the Exhibition Another Country. Jewish in the GDR (in German)
Biographies, readings, talks with artists, performances – every Tuesday, in the middle of the exhibition: Our guests give personal insight into their experiences, their families’ stories and their involvement with Jewish life in the GDR. With Renate Aris, Marion Brasch, Alena Fürnberg, Cathy Gelbin, Charlotte Misselwitz and many others.
Past event
![Map with all buildings that belong to the Jewish Museum Berlin. The Old Building is marked in green](/sites/default/files/styles/media_w364/public/media/images/map_altbau_2x.png?itok=N_QN4ECZ)
Where
Old Building, level 1, “Event Space“ in the exhibition
Lindenstraße 9–14, 10969 Berlin
Upcoming events
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Tue 9 Jan 2024, 5.30 pm
Book Club: Stefan Heym’s The King David Report (1972) with Therese Hörnigk
Read more -
Tue 19 Dec 2023, 5.30 pm
Show and Tell: Cathy Gelbin’s German-American-Jewish family in East Berlin
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Tue 12 Dec 2023, 5.30 pm
Film and Conversation: STIELKE, HEINZ, FIFTEEN ... (Michael Kann, 1987) with Lisa Schoß
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UNFORTUNATELY CANCELED: Tue 5 Dec 2023, 5.30 pm
Show and Tell: Albert Wollenberger’s Record Collection, with Judith Wollenberger and Charlotte Misselwitz
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Tue 28 Nov 2023, 5.30 pm
Conversation: Hermann Simon, Historian and Founding Director of the Foundation New Synagogue Berlin – Centrum Judaicum and Hetty Berg, Director of the JMB; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Michael Kerstgens
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Tue 21 Nov 2023, 5.30 pm
Artist Talk with Silvia Dzubas about her photo series Stowaway Holdover
Silvia Dzubas, Stowaway Holdover, photo series, 2013; Jewish Museum Berlin
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Tue 14 Nov 2023, 5.30 pm
Film Presentation with Esther Zimmering: “Come fly with me over the Brandenburg Gate”
Josef and Lizzi Zimmering's travel chest, 1930s-1940s; on loan from the Zimmering family, photo: Roman März
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Tue 7 Nov 2023, 5.30 pm
Film and Conversation: Professor Mamlock (Konrad Wolf, 1961) with Lisa Schoß
Lisa Schoß, photo: privat
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Tue 31 Oct 2023, 5.30 pm
Project Presentation: Jewish [Hi]stories in the GDR – an Interview Portal of the Moses Mendelssohn Center for European–Jewish Studies, Potsdam
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Tue 24 Oct 2023, 5.30 pm
Reading: Being German Five Different Ways, Irene Selle presents the memoirs of her father Rudolf Schottlaender
Irene Selle, photo: privat
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Tue 10 Oct 2023, 5.30 pm
Music and Conversation with Chasan Jalda Rebling
Lin Jaldati, Jalda Rebling, 1984, Copyright: Ulrich Rödiger
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Tue 19 Sep 2023, 5.30 pm
Conversation with Contemporary Witness Renate Aris
Group photo of the Bar/Bat Mitzvah celebration of Renate (center) and Heinz-Joachim Aris, Dresden, 13 June 1948; Jewish Museum Berlin, gift of Renate Aris.
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Tue 12 Sep 2023, 5.30 pm
A reading and conversation with Alena Fürnberg, hosted by Marion Brasch
Alena Fürnberg in 1955, photo: privat.
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![A hand reaches for Stefan Heym's book “The King David Report”, which stands on a shelf between other books.](/sites/default/files/styles/media_lightbox/public/media/images/ddr-dienstag-buecherwand_heym-galleryimage.jpg?itok=d04p7Wfv)
Tue 9 Jan 2024, 5.30 pm
Book Club: Stefan Heym’s The King David Report (1972) with Therese Hörnigk
Read along! The second JMB Book Club will consider Stefan Heym’s The King David Report, a book about the relationship between the spirit and temporal power, which was received very differently in the East and the West . Together with literary scholar Therese Hörnigk, we will investigate the novel’s various strands and, through this, Stefan Heym’s literary engagement as a whole.
“If you read one of my books, I don’t think that you would say it must have been written by a Jew. It could just as well have been written by a non-Jew. On the other hand, the King David Report and other books of this kind can only have been written by Jewish writers, who are able to understand the spirit of a person like David or Ahasver or even Jesus from the history of the Jews, from the history of a constantly oppressed minority.”
(From Koelbl, Herlinde. Stefan Heym. In: Koelbl. Jüdische Portraits. Photographien und Interviews von Herlinde Koelbl. (Jewish Portraits. Photographs and Interviews by Herlinde Koelbl.) Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer, 1989, 115–117.)
![A woman with short gray hair, blouse and jacket in front of a display case with the caption Gelbin and, among other things, a photo of the woman at a young age.](/sites/default/files/styles/media_lightbox/public/media/images/cathy-gelbin-in-ddr-ausstellung-galleryimage.jpg?itok=OE5u8hAe)
Tue 19 Dec 2023, 5.30 pm
Show and Tell: Cathy Gelbin’s German-American-Jewish family in East Berlin
Film and cultural studies scholar Cathy Gelbin tells the story of her childhood and youth in East Berlin through photographs. She talks about her German-American-Jewish family, her grandmother Gertrude Gelbin, who published English-language books in the GDR, and her step-grandfather Stefan Heym.
Cathy Gelbin in front of her display case in the exhibition Another Country. Jewish in the GDR
![Film still: a girl with blond pigtails and a boy in Nazi uniform kiss through a barbed wire fence.](/sites/default/files/styles/media_lightbox/public/media/images/filmstill-stielke_c_defa_stiftung_waltraut_pathenheimer-galleryimage.jpg?itok=Su9JN9wR)
Tue 12 Dec 2023, 5.30 pm
Film and Conversation: STIELKE, HEINZ, FIFTEEN ... (Michael Kann, 1987) with Lisa Schoß
STIELKE, HEINZ, FIFTEEN ... (GDR, 1987) was the debut film of the young director Michael Kann. The protagonist Heinz is a dedicated member of the Hitler Youth who suddenly learns that his father was a Jew. Tall, blond and blue-eyed, Heinz is convinced there must have been some mistake. The film doesn’t shy away from the absurd as it deals with forced otherness and the search for a suitable identity. Selected and presented by literary and film scholar Lisa Schoß.
Film still Stielke, Heinz, Fünfzehn ..., Michael Kann, 1987, Copyright: DEFA, Stiftung Waltraut Pathenheimer
![Overlapping record covers, e.g. of Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera, Eisler, Israel Folk Songs, Concerto for Piano & Orchestra No.9.](/sites/default/files/styles/media_lightbox/public/media/images/plattensammlung-ddr-am-dienstag-galleryimage.jpg?itok=huIMsGP_)
UNFORTUNATELY CANCELED: Tue 5 Dec 2023, 5.30 pm
Show and Tell: Albert Wollenberger’s Record Collection, with Judith Wollenberger and Charlotte Misselwitz
The record collection of Albert Wollenberger, former head of cardiovascular research in Berlin-Buch, reflects many different moments in his life. It includes songs by Ernst Busch and Hanns Eisler, the Moonlight sonata signed by a famous New York pianist, pro-Zionist songs from the 1920s youth movement in Berlin, and even calypso music. Judith Wollenberger is joined by journalist Charlotte Misselwitz as she reviews her grandfather’s collection.
Photo: Albert Wollenberger’s Record Collection, photo: Judith Wollenberger
![Black and white photo of a man with a white shirt and tie.](/sites/default/files/styles/media_lightbox/public/media/images/hermannsimon_galleryimage.jpg?itok=bynJikWV)
Tue 28 Nov 2023, 5.30 pm
Conversation: Hermann Simon, Historian and Founding Director of the Foundation New Synagogue Berlin – Centrum Judaicum and Hetty Berg, Director of the JMB
When his exhibition “Und lehrt sie: Gedächtnis!“ (And teach them to remember!) opened in East Berlin in October 1988 to commemorate the November pogroms, it was a sensation. Thirty-five years later, Hermann Simon – historian, founding director of the Foundation New Synagogue Berlin – Centrum Judaicum, long-time board member of the Synagoge Rykestraße, chair of the friend’s association of the Jewish Cemetery Weißensee, and much more – looks back on his life’s work in conversation with Hetty Berg, director of the JMB.
Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Michael Kerstgens
![Black and white photograph, in the center a man, around him branches and a frozen waterfall.](/sites/default/files/styles/media_lightbox/public/media/images/11_pressebild-ddr-ausstellung-unbehaust-leben-wie-und-wo-dzubas_galleryimage.jpg?itok=mkOhkwB_)
Tue 21 Nov 2023, 5.30 pm
Artist Talk with Silvia Dzubas about her photo series Stowaway Holdover
Silvia Dzubas deals with the fate of her father Kurt Dzubas in her photo series Stowaway Holdover. He survived forced labor and concentration camps and eventually went into hiding. After the end of the war, he saw his life's work as building an anti-fascist society. Silvia Dzubas herself fled to West Berlin via Prague and Vienna in 1968.
Silvia Dzubas, Stowaway Holdover, photo series, 2013; Jewish Museum Berlin
![A brown leather chest.](/sites/default/files/styles/media_lightbox/public/media/images/02_pressebild-ddr-ausstellung-reisetruhe-zimmering_galleryimage.jpg?itok=BKPn1ViA)
Tue 14 Nov 2023, 5.30 pm
Film Presentation with Esther Zimmering
Esther Zimmering presents her short film “Come fly with me over the Brandenburg Gate”, which was commissioned by the JMB. Her documentary film “Swimming Pool in Golan”, released in 2018, engages with her family history in Israel and the GDR. The actress and director was born in Potsdam in 1977. Her grandparents had returned to Germany after exile in Britain.
Josef and Lizzi Zimmering's travel chest, 1930s-1940s; on loan from the Zimmering family, photo: Roman März
![Black and white photo of woman with half-length straight hair looking friendly into camera.](/sites/default/files/styles/media_lightbox/public/media/images/schoss-lisa-galleryimage.jpg?itok=8LxLQh8a)
Tue 7 Nov 2023, 5.30 pm
Film and Conversation: Professor Mamlock (Konrad Wolf, 1961) with Lisa Schoß
Professor Mamlock (GDR, 1961) is Konrad Wolf’s DEFA production of his father Friedrich Wolf's world-famous eponymous play. In 1933, it was one of the first artistic interventions against antisemitic politics and a call for widespread opposition to National Socialism. Selected and presented by literary and film scholar Lisa Schoß.
![Photo of a woman holding a child by the hand, next to it a teenager with the so-called Arbeiterpaläste in Stalinallee in the background.](/sites/default/files/styles/media_lightbox/public/media/images/01_pressebild-ddr-ausstellung-zadek-stalinallee_galleryimage.jpg?itok=qkRB836c)
Tue 31 Oct 2023, 5.30 pm
Project Presentation: Jewish [Hi]stories in the GDR – an Interview Portal of the Moses Mendelssohn Center for European–Jewish Studies, Potsdam
Between 1989 and 2015, several collections of biographical interviews with Jews from the GDR were produced. The Moses Mendelssohn Center for European–Jewish Studies in Potsdam is indexing them and making them available on the portal “Jewish History online”. Here, diverse voices, experiences and perspectives can be explored.
![Black and white portrait of a woman with dark short hair and full lips. She looks friendly into the camera.](/sites/default/files/styles/media_lightbox/public/media/images/ddr-di-irene-seller-galleryimage.jpg?itok=5y7X2F54)
Tue 24 Oct 2023, 5.30 pm
Reading: Being German Five Different Ways Irene Selle presents the memoirs of her father Rudolf Schottlaender
Being German five different ways – literary scholar Irene Selle (b. 1947) presents the memoirs of her father Rudolf Schottlaender (1900–1988), who was known far beyond the borders of the GDR as a philosopher, classicist, translator and journalist. Schottlaender saw himself as a mediator between the systems and remained resistant to political appropriation throughout his entire life.
Irene Selle, photo: privat
![Photo of a woman holding a child by the hand, next to it a teenager with the so-called Arbeiterpaläste in Stalinallee in the background.](/sites/default/files/styles/media_lightbox/public/media/images/01_pressebild-ddr-ausstellung-zadek-stalinallee_galleryimage.jpg?itok=qkRB836c)
Tue 17 Oct 2023, 5.30 pm
Book Club – Anna Seghers’ The Seventh Cross, with Regina Scheer
Read along! The JMB is starting a new series: the JMB Book Club. The first book we will read and discuss is Anna Seghers’ The Seventh Cross. The first edition, published in 1942 while she was in exile in Mexico, is on display in the exhibition. We’ll talk with author Regina Scheer about the book’s historical origins, its significance in East and West Germany, and what it has to say to us today.
![Two women in long black robes stand in front of a black background. One woman raises her index finger, the other brushes her hair behind her ear.](/sites/default/files/styles/media_lightbox/public/media/images/ddr-di_jalda-rebling-lin-jaldati_1984_c_ulrich-roediger_galleryimage.jpg?itok=E59LOSh_)
Tue 10 Oct 2023, 5.30 pm
Music and Conversation with Chasan Jalda Rebling
Jalda Rebling is an actress, a cantor and specialist in Jewish music. Her mother Lin Jaldati, the grand old dame of Yiddish song, first brought her on stage in 1979 for a commemoration of Anne Frank's 50th birthday. Since then, Jalda Rebling has carried Jewish knowledge to the world through songs and legends.
Lin Jaldati, Jalda Rebling, 1984, Copyright: Ulrich Rödiger
![Black and white photograph of a group standing and sitting in front of a building with the inscription Elbe Hotel.](/sites/default/files/styles/media_lightbox/public/media/images/gruppenfoto-bar-bat-mitzwa-renate-und-heinz-joachim-aris_galleryimage.jpg?itok=562F2noT)
Tue 19 Sep 2023, 5.30 pm
Conversation with Contemporary Witness Renate Aris
As a child, Renate Aris (b. 1935) narrowly escaped deportation to Theresienstadt. She has been an active member of the Jewish community in Chemnitz since the 1980s. To this day, she is head of the Jewish Women's Association, which she (re)founded in 1999. The exhibition tells the story of her and her brother’s bat and bar mitzvahs in 1948, while still in the Soviet occupation zone.
![Black and white photograph of a girl.](/sites/default/files/styles/media_lightbox/public/media/images/portrait-alena-fuernberg-1955_galleryimage.jpg?itok=0HwW6d53)
Tue 12 Sep 2023, 5.30 pm
A reading and conversation with Alena Fürnberg, hosted by Marion Brasch
Alena Fürnberg (b. 1947) grew up in Weimar after her parents, Louis and Lotte Fürnberg, fled Czechoslovakia in 1954 for the GDR. In conversation with Marion Brasch, she shares her family’s story and reads poems by her father.
![Designed graphic with overlapping photos and red squares, the top photo shows a woman with a child holding her hand, next to her a teenager, in the background the so-called workers' palaces in Stalinallee.](/sites/default/files/media/images/ddr-visual-infopanel-und-karussell-teaser.jpg)
Exhibition Another Country. Jewish in the GDR: Features & Programs
- Exhibition Webpage
- Another Country. Jewish in the GDR: 8 Sep 2023 to 14 Jan 2024
- Publications
- Another Country. Jewish in the GDR: Catalog accompanying the exhibition, English edition, 2023
- Ein anderes Land. Jüdisch in der DDR: Catalog accompanying the exhibition, German edition, 2023
- Digital Content
- Voices from the GDR: Twelve short film interviews with Jewish perspectives on life and the political system, 2023, in German with English subtitles
- Come Fly With Me Over the Brandenburg Gate: A documentary by Esther Zimmering, in German
- Singled Out and Viewed Suspiciously: Jews in the GDR: Abridged version of Annette Leo’s contribution to the exhibition catalog, 2023
- Jewish in the GDR. A Road Trip with Marion and Lena Brasch: A podcast by Deutschlandfunk Kultur in cooperation with the Jewish Museum Berlin, six episodes, 2023, in German
- Jewish Local History of the GDR: Information about the communities in Dresden, Erfurt, Halle, Leipzig, Magdeburg, Chemnitz and Schwerin on Jewish Places
- City Walk Berlin-East: Tour with Jewish Places from the New Synagogue to the kosher butcher’s shop, school participation project 2022/23
- Soundtrack of the Exhibition: Playlist on Spotify
- See also
- East Germany