Berlin, Germany: Antisemitism in an art exhibition

The deputy chairman of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) faction in the Berlin House of Representatives, Michael Braun, criticized posters and paintings in an art exhibition in the Gallery North (Galerie Nord), which is run by the Tiergarten Art Association (Kunstverein Tiergarten), as being antisemitic.

A poster depicting the logo of Bayer, a German chemical company, proclaimed that their gas was still “Judenfrei” – a National Socialist term meaning free of Jews. Another poster with the Nestlé logo advertised that the company’s food was completely “Judenfrei”. Other posters and collages traded in antisemitic stereotypes and in comparisons between the Warsaw Ghetto and Israel.

The same exhibition was shut down late in February due to Muslim protest against a caricature of Mecca. After a visit from Dr. Erhart Koerting, Berlin’s Senator for the Interior and a member of Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) on March 4, the exhibition was reopened. According to the newspaper Berliner Morgenpost, Koerting saw “no problems” concerning the exhibition.

Source: cdu-fraktion.berlin.de, 03-25-2008 and Berliner Morgenpost, 03-26-2008

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