Our Cultural Program in October 2017

10.10., 7 pm

Volk, Volksgemeinschaft, AfD (People, National Community, AfD)

Book Presentation and Discussion

The “Alternative for Germany” (AfD) is the first right-wing party to move into the Bundestag in over fifty years. What is the AfD’s vision of the people, nation, and society? And how should democratic forces handle this party’s antipluralistic ideas?

In his current book Volk, Volksgemeinschaft, AfD (People, National Community, AfD), the historian Michael Wildt examines these questions and illuminates the change of key concepts of our political order such as democracy (demos) and the people’s community (ethnos) from antiquity to today.

Following the book presentation, author Michael Wildt and expert on right-wing extremism Alexander Häusler will discuss the challenges associated with the current rightward shift in Germany and Europe.

12.10., 7 pm

IN/EXclusion and Self-empowerment in the Cultural Business

Discussion

Actions against Antisemitism on the stage, debates on “blackfacing” and “yellowfacing” in theaters and exhibition rooms – representatives of minority communities have repeatedly protested against discriminatory practices in the cultural sphere in recent years.

We will discuss personal experiences and key moments as well as perspectives and strategies in the empowerment process of the Jewish, Black, and Vietnamese communities with the creative artists Max Czollek, Dan Thy Nguyen, and Sandrine Micossé-Aikins.

Writer and social scientist Mutlu Ergün-Hamaz will chair the evening.

A cooperation with Bahareh Sharifi.

19.10., 7 pm

Germanija. How I Became an Adult and a Jew in Germany

Reading and Discussion

December 1993, Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine. Aged 22, Dmitrij Belkin gets into a bus with three bags and six books and embarks upon a journey into the unknown, to Germany – like a quarter of a million other Jews from the ex-USSR.

As an immigrant, he enters a country that is undergoing radical changes – his post-Soviet outlook meets the old and new Federal Republic, where Jewish self-discovery becomes possible for him and his family. Germanija is a German chronicle wrapped in a deeply personal narrative that also throws light on immigration today.

Alina Gromova, Jewish Museum Berlin, will lead the ensuing discussion with the author.

The event is part of the New German Stories series.

23.10., 7 pm

Henry Wuga: A Nuremberger from Glasgow

Eyewitness Talk

Henry Wuga was born to a Jewish mother and a Catholic father in Nuremberg in 1924. In 1938, his parents were able to send him to Scotland with a children’s transport and later in 1947, he could bring his mother, who had survived in hiding, to his home in Glasgow.

In the new series of talks, witnesses of that time who have been closely connected to the Jewish Museum Berlin for years, share their experiences and memories. They represent universal experiences of survival with their unique biographies.

Organized with the support of the Berliner Sparkasse.