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Press conference at the Museum of Photography: The estate of Leni Riefenstahl - an interim balance of research
Press release from 01/22/2026
Leni Riefenstahl's estate - donated to the SPK in 2018 in disorganised boxes containing photos, films, notes, letters, manuscripts and other documents - has since been successively processed and made accessible for use. The holdings harbour enormous research potential. At the same time, the collection is a considerable challenge - both in terms of the scope and diversity of its contents and in terms of ethical, legal and ideological aspects.
The collection of photographs and films that Riefenstahl took of the Nuba in Sudan is exemplary of all these challenges. It has now been processed as part of an exemplary project by the Art Library, the Ethnological Museum and Nuba representatives, realised under the conditions of the devastating war in Sudan. The stages and key findings of the research project will be published on a new multilingual website.
The State Library, in whose manuscript department the written material from the estate is kept, is presenting two further projects for the academic indexing and digitisation of the collection.In addition to the specific use case, the focus will also be on the framework conditions for making content from archives, libraries and museums that is still protected digitally accessible.
We cordially invite you to a press conference to present the results of the project activities to date
at the Museum of Photography
on Friday, 30 January 2026 at 10:00 am
Jebensstraße 2, 10623 Berlin
Speakers will be:
- Marion Ackermann, SPK President
- Moritz Wullen, Director of the Art Library
- Ludger Derenthal, Head of the Photography Collection of the Art Library
- Paola Ivanov, Curator of the East / Northeast / Central / South Africa Collections, Ethnological Museum
- Katrin Peters-Klaphake, Head of the Photographic Collection, German Historical Museum
- Christian Mathieu, Research Officer, Berlin State Library
Please register by 28 January 2026 at the latest
at pressestelle@spk-berlin.de
