Julia Voss

Lars Bang Larsen

Raphael Gross

Dorothee Wierling

Alexia Pooth

Dorlis Blume

From 1955 onwards, the makers of each documenta sought to offer insights into current trends in art and to document the spirit of their particular time. This publication sets the history of documenta in the context of the political, cultural and socio-historical development of the Federal Republic of Germany in the second half of the twentieth century. It thereby illuminates a relationship of mutual dependence between art and history. Time and time again, this major international exhibition was a place where West Germany's perception of itself was negotiated. From the very beginning, progressive and regressive political currents were active there side to side--Page 4 of cover.

Politics and Art : Deutsches Historisches Museum, [Berlin, 18. 6. 2021-9. 1. 2022]

Documenta

Dan Diner

Fritz Backhaus

Julia Franke

Stefan Paul-Jacobs

Lili Reyels

“It could have turned out differently” – from this perspective, the volume looks at fourteen caesuras in German history between 1848 and 1989. Here the real and crucial historical events are considered against the backdrop of other historical developments that were always possible – developments inherently present in decisive, often dramatic turning points. In this way new light is shed on what is already known, the essential openness of history made evident. What would have happened if the East German security services had violently turned on the demonstrators in 1989? If the USA had dropped atomic bombs on Germany in 1945? How would Germany have turned out if the effort to establish a constitutional monarchy had succeeded in 1848? This book accompanies the exhibition “Roads not Taken” in the Deutsches Historisches Museum, whose titel has a programmatic dimension: following a concept of the historian Dan Diner, he and the other authors focus on possible historical alternatives. What unexpected coincidences might have altered the real historical events? What role did the personalities involved play in their unfolding? Themes such as Germany’s Ostpolitik, the Berlin Wall, the Cold War, the Nazi rise to power, revolution and democratization in Germany are newly evaluated in this way.

Or: Things Could Have Turned Out Differently

Roads not Taken

Das Jahrbuch 2016 des Simon-Dubnow-Instituts widmet sich in zwei Schwerpunkten aus unterschiedlichen Blickwinkeln Stationen jüdischer beziehungsweise israelischer Diplomatiegeschichte. Der erste Schwerpunkt befasst sich mit Problemfeldern bei der Ausgestaltung des modernen Staatensystems seit dem 19. Jahrhundert, die für die europäischen Judenheiten von zentraler Bedeutung waren. Gezeigt wird, wie und in welcher Form Fragen von Staatsbürgerschaft, Emanzipation, Minderheitenschutz und humanitärer Intervention in den modernen Debatten zur internationalen Politik hervortraten und welche Lösungsansätze jüdische Protagonisten entwickelten. Der zweite Schwerpunkt untersucht mit dem deutsch-israelischen Wissenschaftsaustausch seit 1959 einen besonders belasteten Fall internationaler Beziehungen. Anlässlich des fünfzigsten Jahrestages der diplomatischen Kontaktaufnahme zwischen beiden Ländern werden vor allem die Widersprüche und Ungleichzeitigkeiten der wissenschaftlichen Zusammenarbeit in den Blick genommen. Inwiefern wurde an Traditionen deutsch-jüdischen Geisteslebens angeknüpft und wie bildete sich der Zivilisationsbruch des Holocaust in ihnen nach. Im Allgemeinen Teil und in den Rubriken des Jahrbuchs finden sich Beiträge zur politischen Ideengeschichte, zur Nationalismusforschung, Staatsbildung und Minderheitenfrage, zur Buber-Scholem-Kontroverse und zur deutsch-jüdischen Nachkriegsgeschichte.

Jahrbuch des Simon-Dubnow-Instituts / Simon Dubnow Institute Yearbook XV/2016

Doris Blume

Every few years since 1955, the creators of documenta set themselves the task of providing an insight into current trends in art and of capturing the zeitgeist of recent art production. Despite its name, documenta's primary concerns are neither with the simple documentation of individual artists and their work nor with developments in art history, but instead with providing a historical space where art reflects and comments on social constellations and political or social change, or demands it through art interventions. documenta is not only a historical testimony and event, but also a show at which - through the medium of art-- self-interpretation becomes the catalyst for debate and historical change. For the first time, this book places the history of documenta in the context of the political, cultural and societal development of Germany during the second half of the twentieth century, illustrating how art and history can be explored in terms of a mutually dependent relationship.

Politics and Art

Zwei Schwerpunkte stehen im Zentrum des Jahrbuchs 2015 des Simon-Dubnow-Instituts. Im Nachgang zum 100. Jahrestag seit Ausbruch des Ersten Weltkriegs widmet sich ein thematischer Fokus Leben und Werk des Universalhistorikers, Soziologen und Sprachphilosophen Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy (1888–1973), für den der Erste Weltkrieg zu einem epistemologischen Schlüsselerlebnis wurde. Die in dem Schwerpunkt versammelten Beiträge behandeln unter anderem die geistesgeschichtliche Bedeutung des „Leipziger Nachtgesprächs“ im Jahr 1913, an dem neben Rosenstock-Huessy auch Franz Rosenzweig und Rudolf Ehrenberg teilnahmen. Der andere thematische Schwerpunkt befasst sich mit der dokumentarischen und fiktionalen Darstellung von Geschichte nach dem Holocaust. Von der Verschiedenartigkeit der Abbildung und des Diskurses historischer und politischer Ereignisse in den darstellenden Künsten ausgehend, wird in einem weiter gefassten Rahmen nach deren Einfluss im Kontext der Erforschung der Nachkriegsgeschichte gefragt. Wie und in welchem Umfang haben Theater und Film die gesellschaftlichen Diskussionen um jüdische Geschichte und Kultur und damit die Wahrnehmungsgeschichte des Holocaust mitgestaltet. Im Allgemeinen Teil und in den Rubriken des Jahrbuchs finden sich Beiträge zur Gedächtnisgeschichte, zur Wissenschafts-und Rechtsgeschichte in Palästina/Israel, zur Religionsgeschichte sowie zur russisch-jüdischen Literatur- und Verlagsgeschichte des 19. Jahrhunderts.

Jahrbuch des Simon-Dubnow-Instituts / Simon Dubnow Institute Yearbook XIV/2015

Sabine Kößling

Mirjam Wenzel

The Judengasse in Frankfurt, which was established in 1462, was the first ghetto in Europe and one of the most important centers of European Jewry until it was dissolved in 1796. This book accompanies the new permanent exhibition in the Judengasse Museum. It presents Jewish history and culture from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century. Featuring paintings, ritual objects, books and documents – and examining these in conjunction with archeological finds – it paints a rich portrait of everyday life in the Judengasse.

Catalog of the permanent exhibition of the Jewish Museum Frankfurt

The Judengasse in Frankfurt

German jurist and legal theorist Carl Schmitt (1888–1985) significantly influenced Western political and legal thinking in the last century, yet his life and work have also stirred considerable controversy. While his ideas have been used and diffused by prominent philosophers on both the left and the right, such as Jürgen Habermas and Leo Strauss, his Nazi-era past, especially his active efforts to remove Jewish influence from German law, has cast a cloud over his life and oeuvre. Still, his many supporters have generally been successful in claiming that Schmitt's was an "antisemitism of opportunity," a temporary affectation to gain favor with the Nazis. In Carl Schmitt and the Jews, available in English for the first time, historian Raphael Gross vigorously repudiates this "opportunism thesis." Through a reading of Schmitt's corpus, some of which became available only after his death, Gross highlights the importance of the "Jewish Question" on the breadth of Schmitt's work. According to Gross, Schmitt's antisemitism was at the core of his work—before, during, and after the Nazi era. His influential polarities of "friend and foe," "law and nomos," "behemoth and Leviathan," and "ketechon and Antichrist" emerge from a conceptual template in which "the Jew" is defined as adversary, undermining the Christian order with secularization. The presence of this template at the heart of Schmitt's work, Gross contends, calls for a major reassessment of Schmitt's role within contemporary cultural and legal theory.

Raphael Gross

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