On the occasion of this year’s commemoration of the end of the Second World War, we are showing exhibitions and interventions at the Citadel that address the traces of that time in our present.
What do the Second World War and National Socialism have to do with us today?
The entire area of the citadel is still interspersed with the remains of the Army Gas Protection Laboratory, which was set up here in 1935 to research combat gas – contrary to international law – and bring it to operational readiness. Even in the ground there are probably still traces of the war despite various ordnance clearance.
Invisible – but anything but without influence – are the memories of the Spandau residents of the war. Decades of individual remembrance or silence, of pronounced trauma or all too quiet suffering, of denial or accusation leave their mark on families, those born afterwards, but also in society as a whole – and clearly shape today’s behavior patterns and ways of thinking.
A special phenomenon here are the – mostly visible – attempts to make National Socialist symbols and signs of the Wehrmacht invisible.
In this context we show from 11.5. until 20.12.2020 the interventions in the exhibition “Enthüllt. Berlin und seine Denkmäler” (“Unveiled. Berlin and its monuments”). From August 14, 2020 to February 14, 2021, the exhibition “Haut, Stein” (“skin, stone”) will run in the Kronprinz bastion, which addresses the exit of former neo-Nazis and the use of historical Nazi symbols in the architecture of public spaces. We deal with traces of Jewish life in Spandau in the exhibitions “UNVERGESSEN – Die Pogromnacht 1938 in Spandau” (“UNFORGETTABLE – The Pogrom Night 1938 in Spandau”) and “Über jüdisches Leben in Spandau” (“About Jewish Life in Spandau”) at the Spandau youth history workshop. These are supplemented by the exhibition “Sie waren Nachbarn” “They were neighbors” from the Evangelical Church District Spandau. All exhibitions are from 2.9. Until December 13, 2020 on the 2nd floor of the ZAK – Center for Contemporary Art.
#KriegsendeSpandau
