Special exhibition ‘Label: Jewish’ opens at the MARKK

At the MARKK. Museum am Rothenbaum. Cultures and Arts of the World, the special exhibition ‘Label: Jewish. Questioning MARKK'S History” has opened. Curated by Jana Reimer, Juliane de Sousa and Callum Fischer (all from the MARKK), in collaboration with Anna Menny (IGdJ), the exhibition focuses on Jewish ceremonial and everyday objects in the MARKK’s collections, as well as on objects classified as “Jewish” in the museum’s records. It poses questions to the museum and its historical handling of the displayed collections, encourages reflection on the categorisation and attribution of objects, and at the same time takes these seriously by seeking to shed light on their origins, history, use and shifting meanings – as well as the gaps in our knowledge regarding the individual objects. In doing so, it examines the museum’s role during the Nazi era as well as questions and findings arising from ongoing provenance research.

The starting point and focal point of the exhibition is the collection of the Society for Jewish Folklore; this section of the exhibition was co-curated by Jana Reimer (MARKK) and Anna Menny (IGdJ). The collection had been handed over in 1913 on loan to what was then the Museum of Ethnology, where it was on display in the permanent exhibition until 1935. In 1935, it was removed from the exhibition; in 1937, it was returned to the Society’s last chairman, Simon Simcha Bamberger; after that, all trace of the collection – comprising several hundred objects and books – was lost. With the exception of a few objects, the collection is still missing. Ten objects, which were returned to the Rothenbaumchaussee in 1991, are on display in the exhibition. They offer insights into the history of the Society, its collecting and exhibition activities against the backdrop of changing socio-political conditions. Two multimedia stations developed at the IGdJ establish a close link to the online exhibition ‘Object (Hi)stories', also co-curated by Jana Reimer and Anna Menny and technically implemented by Helena Geibel, which has been presenting the history and objects of the Society for Jewish Folklore in a virtual space since February 2025.

The special exhibition at the MARKK runs until 27 June 2027: Attribution: Jewish | 28 August 2026 – 27 June 2027 | MARKK

You can visit the online exhibition “Object (hi)stories” here: Object (hi)stories | Key Hamburg documents on German-Jewish history

Photo above:
Photographic documentation of the ‘Jewish Collection’, 1920s
Object on the left: held by MARKK; other objects formerly in the collection of the Society for Jewish Folklore (current whereabouts unknown)
© MARKK