Thomas Mann, Martin Buber, Josephine Baker – they all spoke in St. Paul's Church in Frankfurt. What they had to say was not necessarily pleasing. They did not simply pay homage to German democracy at the historic site of their speeches. They sparked debates, generated controversy with their speeches. Perhaps, however, this is precisely what has been a service to democracy – the negotiation of conflicts. At least that's the view of the Jewish Museum Frankfurt, whose program during and after the celebrations of the 175th anniversary of the National Assembly focuses on the multitude of events and debates that have taken place in St. Paul's Church over the past 75 years and have shaped the Federal Republic of Germany.
Theresa White
Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.
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What the three speakers mentioned above and ten other personalities had to say in St. Paul's Church can first be experienced in a sound installation on the forecourt of the Jewish Museum on the weekend of the festival. "Reden Bewegen" is the name of the project, which is on display at Bertha-Pappenheim-Platz until May 21, after which it will be on display at Paulsplatz from June 8 to 11 and then at the Haus der Kulturen on the Bockenheim campus, before returning to the square in front of the Jewish Museum until the end of June. The artist collective YRD. For this purpose, Works has designed 13 sound and seating bodies that stage selected speeches from St. Paul's Church as a conversation arrangement. Postcards explain backgrounds, biographies and conflicts.
Since its reconstruction in 1948, St. Paul's Church has been "the place, especially before reunification, where the Federal Republic's culture of remembrance was fought for as a central element of democracy," says Mirjam Wenzel, who heads the Jewish Museum. This is evident in the breadth of the topics that were negotiated there and shaped the culture of remembrance and German identity after 1945. Four complexes emerge in "Reden Bewegen": the social reconstruction from the ruins of the Second World War, the visualization of Auschwitz as a rupture of civilization, the national-conservative attempts to reinterpret German history, and the progressive pluralization of memory.
Thomas Mann, who first returned to Germany from exile in 1949 to receive the Goethe Prize, focuses on the emigration of writers, scientists and artists under the National Socialists. Mann, like Albert Einstein, Fritz von Unruh or Theodor Adorno and many other important Germans of Jewish origin, had fled from the Nazis.
Post-war Germany wanted the artists back
The efforts to absorb the consequences of this flight of human capital – or modern brain drain – to bring writers back from exile or to relocate institutes such as the Social Research Institute in Frankfurt also characterize the reconstruction of Germany. However, many people, especially those of the Jewish faith, did not want to return to the land of the perpetrators. Even Thomas Mann, who was not Jewish himself, never returned to Germany.
The poet Fritz von Unruh, whose speech "To the Germans" can also be heard in the installation, does. In his speech, Unruh warned against carcass obedience and the spirit of subjection. He criticized the "packs of followers, civil servants, professors and generals who were pro-Hitler yesterday and pro-Weimar the day before yesterday and pro-Kaiser the day before yesterday," and called for a political and moral renewal of Germany.
The fact that this did not happen in all circles in the long term is shown, for example, by the conflict over the controversial Wehrmacht exhibition, in which Götz Kubitschek, among others, campaigned in the "Arbeitsgemeinschaft Paulskirche" to continue to show the partly erroneous depictions glorifying the perpetrators.
Of course, the installation does not lack the speeches that accompany the controversy over the "Auschwitz club" between Ignatz Bubis and Martin Walser. But also speeches by the poet Nelly Sachs or the dancer and resistance fighter Josephine Baker provide insights into the Germans' memories of the Nazi regime, the Holocaust and how they dealt with and come to terms with their own history. "The moment of remembrance is inscribed in the architecture of St. Paul's Church," says Mirjam Wenzel. "This is reflected in the outstanding speeches that were given there and were always accompanied by conflicts."
Installation changes location several times
For Wenzel and her team, it's important to bring all of this into the public space – that's why the pop-up sound installation will change locations and be seen in various easily accessible places. "These were public speeches that shaped the country, even if they are no longer accessible to everyone," says Wenzel.
Visitors can listen to the speeches in parts as a collage or one after the other. There is also the opportunity for school classes to listen to individual speeches and analyze them in a workshop. In this way, pupils should gain access to the development of the Federal Republic of Germany's democracy and be encouraged to think about changes in the culture of remembrance.
Teachers can book the workshop for students by e-mail at jonathan.guenther@stadt-frankfurt.de.