Memory is ... Intervention

Intervention with objects and their stories

May 8, 2025 to May 10, 2026

About the intervention

A hat, a puppet, a tablet tube, a beer mug. What memories are associated with these things, what stories do they tell? What do we want to learn from them? For one year, 22 objects will complement the permanent exhibition Munich and National Socialism. Large and small, everyday and more unusual objects will add a new dimension to the content of the permanent exhibition, serving as commentaries and supplementing the information there. They will allow us to access history through our senses, providing starting points for individual and collective memories. 

Each object is accompanied by a commentary, written and spoken by contemporary witnesses, heirs, activists, artists, and scholars. They approach the object in question from their own personal perspective, providing background and placing it in a broader context. With contributions by Laura Altmann, Frank Bajohr, Sandra Chatterjee, Edmund de Waal, Hamado Dipama, Ayala Drori, Miriam Gebhardt, Lena Gorelik, Ernst Grube, Lydia Grün, Almut Jöde, Constanze Köpl, Olga Mannheimer, Heike Catherina Mertens, München OEZ erinnern!, Sikko Neupert, Thomas Schuhbauer, Theresa Seraphin, Katrina Recker, Monika Sommer, Eric Otieno Sumba, and Paul Maria Wittmann.

On nsdoku‘s tenth anniversary Memory is … invites visitors to reflect collectively on our relationship to the past: How do we remember? What do we remember? And how can painful and distressing experiences be portrayed and communicated today?

Information

Duration
May 8, 2025 to May 10, 2026

Venue
Munich Documentation Center, all floors 

Curators Karolina Kühn, Ulla-Britta Vollhardt
Assistant curator Chris Reitz

Lenders DOMiD-Archiv, Cologne, the Voorn-Bueninck family, Forum Queeres Archiv München e.V., Ernst Grube, Almut Jöde, Olga Mannheimer, KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau, Barbara Murken, Münchner Stadtmuseum, Museum and Memorial Site Fort IX, Kaunas, Lithuania, Thomas Schuhbauer, Stadtarchiv München, TOFT Studio, Rugby, UK, Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e.V., Bürgerstiftung für verfolgte Künste im Zentrum für verfolgte Künste, Solingen

Booklet
The accompanying booklet contains brief information about each of the 22 objects on display followed by a commentary. 

The intervention is part of our anniversary program.

View into the exhibition

All photos © NS-Dokumentationszentrum München, photo: Connolly Weber Photography