Detail page - Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz

The remembrance project "Art, Looting and Restitution - Forgotten Life Stories" can be continued and further developed. The focus is on the Jewish victims of National Socialist art theft, whose persecution and murder are remembered. The starting point is provenance research that led to the restitution of artefacts. Descendants have their say in short films, describing the significance of the restitution from their personal experience. The results are summarised on a website.

However, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and the Dresden State Art Collections will now transfer the project from the digital to the real world and place a clear focus on education and democracy work. The life stories told on the website will serve as the basis for various formats of historical-political education and democracy work aimed at teenagers and young adults. The focus is on exchange and discussion about Jewish life in Germany and discrimination in its many forms. In participatory and discursive formats, the injustice perpetrated against Jews before everyone's eyes is made tangible and the emergence of anti-Semitism is made clear. In this way, the participating museums also want to counter the current rise in anti-Semitism and racism.

It is a project close to my heart and I am delighted that the project is entering its second round. What will be important now is that we make history more accessible by telling the stories of personal lives and fates and make a contribution against forgetting. The aim is to create programmes for young people in museums that use art and biographies to encourage them to engage with the statement "Never again is now". We would like to thank 'Demokratie leben!' and the Friede Springer Foundation for supporting this important work," says SPK President Marion Ackermann.

The previous perspective will be expanded through cooperation with smaller museums in cities and rural regions in the Free State of Saxony: In addition to works of art, the focus will also shift to more everyday objects. "We are delighted to be a partner in this project, which is art and democracy education rolled into one. The Dresden State Art Collections have been a pioneer in systematic provenance research; the 'Daphne' project has set a precedent throughout Germany. In the project "Museums as active places of democracy", we have already developed cultural and political education programmes for rural areas in Saxony. We would now like to link this with provenance research and expand it further," says SKD Director General Bernd Ebert.

Parallel to the educational and mediation activities, the website will also be expanded to include further life stories. The German Centre for Lost Cultural Assets in Magdeburg will support these diverse activities as a partner. "The Centre has been following 'Art, Looting and Restitution' with great interest since its launch. We are now also involved as a programme partner and will focus primarily on cases in smaller museums throughout Germany, which we know well thanks to our broad-based support for decentralised provenance research. Although the project is supported by large museum associations, it is also open to other institutions," emphasises Gilbert Lupfer, former director of the German Lost Art Foundation.

In addition, a "Provenance Research - Democracy Education" working group is to be set up consisting of actors from political education, art and cultural mediators who can network via training formats and transfer concrete formats to their own fields of activity.

The project is scheduled to run until mid-2027 and is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth as part of the federal "Live Democracy!" programme. The Friede Springer Foundation is funding the educational formats that are being developed and trialled in the museums in Berlin and Saxony.