kreuzberg museum as a mirror of society
TRANSCRIPT
CF.221
Modern Art and Design
Winter, 2011
Vahide Göktaş
2006.13.02.007
Advertising / Communication Design
Kreuzberg Museum as a Mirror of Society
Berlin has a special position with its historical and cultural development
through its migration history. Kreuzberg Museum is a heimat museum, and
located in Berlinʼs most multicultural neighbourhood in Kreuzberg. Heimat
museums concentrate on dealing with local history of a district where the
museum is located. Kreuzberg Museum operates as a migration museum and
documents different “waves” of migration into Kreuzberg (Turkish,
Vietnamese, Bosnian) through time. This context will focus on finding how
Kreuzberg Museum works and represents itself as a mirror of its society and
Diasporas.
Kreuzberg is a district in Berlin, where a multicultural structure provides
rather different aspects on its inhabitants. Before the wall came down,
Kreuzberg was a ghetto district where immigrants lived. Today, Kreuzberg
attracts artists, students, musicians, tourists and young people who enjoy the
areaʼs old, colorful streets, ethnic shops, interesting atmosphere and nightlife
at one side. On the other hand, Kreuzberg is considered by many people as
dangerous and that it is taken by foreigners. Conservative party tries to iniate
propagandas to provoke voters in Kreuzberg to “make Germans feel that they
are in Germany”. However, most of German people left this area because it is
increasingly populated by immigrants. Considerable numbers of German
families refuse to send their children to schools where mostly children of
immigrant families attend.
“Kreuzberg Museum” is located in the middle of Kreuzberg, a three-
minute walk from the subway station “Kottbusser Tor”. Kreuzberg used to
belong to West - Berlin when the city was divided. The district is ethnically
very diverse. By far, the largest and the most visible minority group is Turks,
who are even a majority in some of its neighbourhoods. Kreuzberg Museum is
the third of its kind that concentrates on local history of migration.
Cooperation between Kreuzberg Museum and Kreuzberg e.V is
founded in 1991. Migration and its local and international understanding have
been a focus of the work association for the history of Kreuzberg e.V.
Kreuzberg e.V together with Kreuzberg Museum organized a large exhibition
on the history of migration in today's Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district of
Berlin. Permanent exhibitions in the museum, "Geschichte wird gemacht", on
the urban development after 1945 and "...ein jeder nach seiner Fasson? ", on
300 years of migration to the urban area of Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg.
The entrance of the museum garden has two out-door signboards. First
one is an announcement of a “Saz Bar” which is placed inside the museum.
This is an interesting example on the account of redefining and re-establishing
new borders between traditions and functionality. This might yield to question
conservatism, contemporary solutions and the dynamics between them.
Second signboard, is an announcement of the recent exhibits where it also
states: “entrance is free”. There is a play garden for children and a small
green area. There are little lights from the garden door to the museum door
like an 80ʼs kitschy ballroom entrance. The building of the museum, which
was once a factory, offers an authentic historical background. Kreuzberg
Museum offers a way to understand the historical process of the Kreuzbergʼs
birth and development. The permanent exhibitions of the Kreuzberg Museum
display the history of the neighborhood and its people since the early 18th
century -an extensive archive of regional and district history under the
museumʼs subject, especially on migration and urban development. But there
is a critical error about the museumʼs language. However the largest and most
visible minority group is Turkish people, every single written documents in the
museum is in German. The exhibition uses also visual language but it is
definitely not enough to understand the whole conten. When I talked with one
of the workers in the museum, she was telling me that the director doesnʼt
care of non – German speakers. It was a confusing comment in such a
museum, which is located in the heart of Berlin, in the heart of Kreuzberg, in
the heart of multicultarism.
When I had a look into the guest book of the museum, there were a lot
of impressions from Turkish people but the impression very different from any
kind of museumʼs guest book. Some of them wrote that this museum reminds
them a lot about their past in Kreuzberg. They said, it is very exciting for them
to have something, which belongs to them and which tells about a part from
their life and history in Berlin. They have also wishes from the museum like
“please change the Kreuzbergʼs dangerous appearance”. There were
discussions between Turkish and Kurdish people about the PKK or nationalist
assumptions that they have carried on to the guest book. It seems like this
museum is also a place to discuss the political issues between Turkish and
Kurdish people.
It is a common perception that migration is seen as a threat for a
homogenity of society. Governments in Europe apply several programs to
their immigrants for integration. It is a big question for everybody whether
these programs work. Kreuzberg Museum with its building, garden, curation,
entrée, founding, education programs, special programs for immigrant
children and families, exhibits its local history through migration distinctively
from other local museums. The whole content and context of the museum
also opens up a question, how migration should represent itself from a local
perspective and how Kreuzberg Museum represents itself as a mirror of
society and district.
My one - year stay in Berlin in 2009 - 2010, Kreuzberg district was the
place where I lived, where I had amazing impressions of every street, every
building. Kreuzberg Museum was the most interesting museum I have ever
been and it was the first heimat museum that I have visited. I went 4 – 5 times
to see how the museum works and I had a chance to talk with the workers.
Most of the information in the essay is taken from the interviews, from my
observations and also my experiments during my stay in Kreuzberg. I was
thinking to study museum studies before. Now, I am not interested anymore
but “heimat museums” is a subject that I want to do a research later in my
master studies.
Images from the Museum
Image I: Kreuzberg Museum
Image II: Signboards of Saz Bar and Current Exhibition
Image III: Turkish Power!!!, Guest Book
Image IV: Children works
Bibliography
Kreuzberg Museum, http://www.kreuzbergmuseum.de/
Susan Mc Kinon and Sydel Silverman eds. “Complexities: Beyond Nature and
Nurture.” Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.
Cohen, Erik H. “Components and Symbols of Ethnic Identity: A Case Study in
Informal Education and Identity Formation in Diaspora.” Israel: lan University,
2004.