2nd Wiepersdorf Forum Anti-Semitism in literary exhibitions

On July 2-4, the 2nd Wiepersdorf Forum on Anti-Semitism in Literary Exhibitions took place at Schloss Wiepersdorf.

The Forum on Anti-Semitism in Literary Exhibitions took place for the second time following the successful launch in 2024. It was organized by Dr. Nike Thurn from the German Historical Museum in Berlin, Stella Leder from the Institute for New Social Sculpture and Prof. Dr. Marcel Lepper, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Cultural Foundation Schloss Wiepersdorf, together with the Cultural Foundation. The starting point was the analysis that an intensive examination of literary anti-Semitism in German literary archives, literary exhibitions and literary museums hasn't happened yet. While ethnological, historical and art-historical museums are increasingly taking a critical look at their collections and this debate is also being widely discussed in public, there is a lack of similarly intensive questioning and contextualization of anti-Semitic works in literary institutions. This desideratum is to be tackled through an exchange between curators, institutions, academics and museum education approaches.

First of all, input presentations were used to discuss the possibilities of addressing anti-Semitism, including questions relating to museum education. Subsequently, specific examples of literary exhibitions and literary museums were used to discuss the ways in which anti-Semitism in the history of German-language literature can be addressed within these institutions and where the pitfalls and opportunities lie.

The input lectures were held by Deborah Hartmann, House of the Wannsee Conference, Prof. Dr. Mona Körte, Professor of General and Comparative Literature and European-Jewish Literature at the University of Bielefeld, and Prof. Dr. Ethel Matala de Mazza, Professor of Modern German Literature at the Humboldt University of Berlin. The second block was made up of insights into practice. Here the contributions came from Ute Lilly Mohnberg (GRIMMWELT Kassel), Dr. Milena Rolka (Kleist-Museum Frankfurt/Oder), Anke Büttner (Monacensia im Hildebrandhaus, Munich), Michael Hehl (Literaturarchiv Sulzbach-Rosenberg), Dr. Wolfgang Straub (Wienbibliothek) and Marie Limbourg.