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Artist Karin Sander pays tribute to Johanna and Eduard Arnhold and the residents of the Tiergarten district
Press release from 06/24/2026
Karin Sander, a conceptual artist based in Berlin, will develop an artistic remembrance project that uses original quotations, interviews, music and sound collages to commemorate the outstanding patron couple Johanna and Eduard Arnhold, as well as other residents of the Tiergarten district whose names were erased by the Nazi dictatorship.
An acoustic installation at the Kulturforum is to commemorate the famous patron couple in future. The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and the Association for the Commemoration of Johanna and Eduard Arnhold e.V. have agreed on this and awarded the commission to the artist Karin Sander. The project, which is funded by private donations as well as by the Berlin LOTTO Foundation, the Berliner Sparkasse Foundation and the James Simon Foundation, is due to be completed by the end of 2027.
Together with many residents of the Tiergarten district, the Arnholds shaped cultural life in Germany prior to 1933. They embodied a civil society committed to the common good. Alongside the Arnholds were figures such as James and Eduard Simon, Walther Rathenau, Oscar Huldschinsky, Hedwig Dohm, Else Lasker-Schüler, Paul Cassirer and Alfred Flechtheim, Tilla Durieux, Julie and Julius Elias, and Theodor Wolff and Hugo Preuß. The National Socialists not only persecuted, expelled and murdered many of these people, they also erased their names from collective memory.
Karin Sander now wants to change this and will develop an audio installation in public space that will not only evoke the former Tiergarten district – Berlin’s ‘Atlantis of Modernity’ – but, through historical quotations as well as contemporary voices, conversations, music and sounds across ten stations, will open up a perspective on today’s city and its people.
Karin Sander is one of the most internationally renowned conceptual artists of our time. In her work, she repeatedly explores places, the culture of remembrance and social contexts. Her works are exhibited worldwide and feature in major public collections. Through her often site-specific projects, she develops new forms of artistic engagement with history and the present.
Here, ‘remembering’ means bringing to mind. Karin Sander’s artistic and communicative intervention in public space is also aimed at a younger audience, who can use smartphones and QR codes to rediscover the history and present of Berlin (and Germany) in the vicinity of Arnhold-Platz in an impressive and creative way, in either German or English.
Images can be found at: https://www.preussischer-kulturbesitz.de/newsroom/presse/pressebilder/detailseite/artikel/2026/06/25/karin-sander-erinnert-an-johanna-und-eduard-arnhold.html
