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Berlin History

Sep 30, 2020

White Shadows:
The Photograms of Anneliese Hager (1904-1997)
Lynette Roth, Harvard Art Museums

2022-03-06T11:39:32-05:00September 30th, 2020|, , |Comments Off on White Shadows:
The Photograms of Anneliese Hager (1904-1997)
Lynette Roth, Harvard Art Museums

Lecture by Lynette Roth Daimler Curator of the Busch-Reisinger Museum and Head of the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Harvard Art Museums Moderated by Rachel Stern Executive Director of the Fritz Ascher Society in New York Anneliese Hager (1904-1997) is one of a number of modern artists who began their artistic experimentation in Germany after National Socialist cultural policy began to harden against all forms of modern art. Her preferred medium was the photogram, a photographic image made by placing an object directly on (or in close proximity to) a light-sensitive surface and exposing it to light. Hager called the reversal of light and dark in the resulting contact print “white shadows.” [...]

Sep 29, 2020

Twitter Takeover @Ascher_Society
Matthew R. Wilson, PhD
“Commedia dell’Arte and the Clown in Popular Culture”

2020-09-29T20:08:44-04:00September 29th, 2020|, |Comments Off on Twitter Takeover @Ascher_Society
Matthew R. Wilson, PhD
“Commedia dell’Arte and the Clown in Popular Culture”

Twitter @Ascher_Society Actor and theater historian Matthew R. Wilson takes over the FAS Twitter account to discuss the history of the Commedia dell’Arte, key themes in the genre, and how the Commedia dell’Arte has impacted popular culture. Submit your questions in advance by writing to info@fritzaschersociety.org Part of "Send in the Clowns," an interactive two-week digital initiative, which explores the clown as a figure between tragedy and comedy, between self- identification and stage--a character designed to (literally) mask the performer’s true feelings behind a facade of happiness. “Send in the Clowns” uses the prominence of the “clown” figure in Fritz Ascher’s work as a lens through which to explore the duality of the clown both historically and today. Generously sponsored [...]

Sep 29, 2020

“The Clown on Stage”
Roundtable featuring
Matthew R. Wilson, Ori Z. Soltes, Tricia Manuel / “Pricilla Mooseburger”
Moderated by Elizabeth Berkowitz

2020-10-22T00:35:30-04:00September 29th, 2020|, , |Comments Off on “The Clown on Stage”
Roundtable featuring
Matthew R. Wilson, Ori Z. Soltes, Tricia Manuel / “Pricilla Mooseburger”
Moderated by Elizabeth Berkowitz

Watch the recording of this event HERE. Roundtable featuring Matthew R. Wilson Director (SDC), Actor (AEA, SAG-AFTRA), and Fight Director (SAFD, SDC), as well as a scholar and playwright Ori Z. Soltes Teaching Professor at Center for Jewish Civilization, Georgetown University, Washington D.C. Tricia Manuel / "Pricilla Mooseburger" the Clown Tricia Manuel is the unmistakable Pricilla Mooseburger! Moderated by Elizabeth Berkowitz Art Historian and Digital Interpretation Manager, The Fritz Ascher Society in New York How do we define “the clown,” historically, in art, and today, in practice? What is the appeal of the clown in performance, and how has the clown subject impacted popular culture? This roundtable pools the expertise from a diversity of fields to place Fritz Ascher’s interest in “the [...]

Sep 17, 2020

John Heartfield (1891-1968)
His Political Engagement and Private Life in London
Rosa von der Schulenburg, Berlin

2020-11-04T15:01:37-05:00September 17th, 2020|, , |Comments Off on John Heartfield (1891-1968)
His Political Engagement and Private Life in London
Rosa von der Schulenburg, Berlin

WATCH THE RECORDING OF THIS EVENT HERE. Lecture featuring Rosa von der Schulenburg, Head of the Art Collection of the Academy of Arts in Berlin Moderated by Rachel Stern, Executive Director of the Fritz Ascher Society in New York John Heartfield (1891-1968) was a German visual artist who pioneered the use of art as a political weapon. This presentation starts with preliminary remarks about John Heartfield’s bequest in the Akademie der Künste in Berlin and shows how it is accessible nowadays. A short introduction of how all began follows, showing the background of the birth of Heartfield’s political photo-montages (World War I, Dada, Communist Party, Willi Münzenberg’s Die Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung in short AIZ), glances at Heartfield’s first exile stage in Prague and then focuses on [...]

Sep 16, 2020

Painting as an Act of Resistance.
The artist Felix Nussbaum (1904-1944)
Anne Sibylle Schwetter, Osnabrück

2020-10-07T15:08:59-04:00September 16th, 2020||Comments Off on Painting as an Act of Resistance.
The artist Felix Nussbaum (1904-1944)
Anne Sibylle Schwetter, Osnabrück

WATCH THE RECORDING OF THIS EVENT HERE. Lecture featuring Anne Sibylle Schwetter, Curator of the Felix Nussbaum Collection in the Felix Nussbaum House in the Osnabrück Museum Quarter, Osnabrück Moderated by Rachel Stern, Executive Director of the Fritz Ascher Society in New York The German-Jewish artist Felix Nussbaum (1904 Osnabrück - 1944 Auschwitz) started a promising career in Berlin around 1930, which ended abruptly when the National Socialists came to power in 1933. Years in exile in Italy and Belgium followed. In 1942 Nussbaum went into hiding in Brussels. The artist's last paintings were created here from June 1943 until shortly before his arrest in June 1944. A little later he was murdered in Auschwitz. Like hardly any other painter [...]

Sep 16, 2020

Dance under the Swastika:
Mary Wigman and Gyp Schlicht (1917-2015)
Sabine Rollberg, Freiburg

2020-09-16T19:55:58-04:00September 16th, 2020||Comments Off on Dance under the Swastika:
Mary Wigman and Gyp Schlicht (1917-2015)
Sabine Rollberg, Freiburg

View a recording of this event HERE. EXCLUSIVE: Watch Annette von Wangenheim's German language documentary film "Tanz unterm Hakenkreuz" from 2003 HERE. Big thanks to Annette von Wangenheim and Sabine Rollberg for making this possible! Gyp Schlicht speaks at 38:02 min. Lecture featuring Sabine Rollberg, Professor Emeritus of Documentary Film at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne and former ARTE Representative and ARTE Commissioning Editor for WDR Moderated by Rachel Stern, Executive Director of the Fritz Ascher Society in New York In times of Nazi Germany, becoming an artist was not the typical career path for women. The „deutsche Frau“ was supposed to represent the “good housewife”, as a mother of many children, not wearing make-up and fancy dresses. The Nazis were refuting [...]

Aug 31, 2020

Painting as an Act of Resistance.
The artist Felix Nussbaum (1904-1944)
Anne Sibylle Schwetter, Osnabrück

2020-10-07T15:06:33-04:00August 31st, 2020|, |Comments Off on Painting as an Act of Resistance.
The artist Felix Nussbaum (1904-1944)
Anne Sibylle Schwetter, Osnabrück

WATCH THE RECORDING OF THIS EVENT HERE. Lecture featuring Anne Sibylle Schwetter, Curator of the Felix Nussbaum Collection in the Felix Nussbaum House in the Osnabrück Museum Quarter, Osnabrück Moderated by Rachel Stern, Executive Director of the Fritz Ascher Society in New York The German-Jewish artist Felix Nussbaum (1904 Osnabrück - 1944 Auschwitz) started a promising career in Berlin around 1930, which ended abruptly when the National Socialists came to power in 1933. Years in exile in Italy and Belgium followed. In 1942 Nussbaum went into hiding in Brussels. The artist's last paintings were created here from June 1943 until shortly before his arrest in June 1944. A little later he was murdered in Auschwitz. Like hardly any other painter [...]

Aug 19, 2020

Dance under the Swastika:
Mary Wigman and Gyp Schlicht (1917-2015)
Sabine Rollberg, Freiburg

2020-09-25T07:28:27-04:00August 19th, 2020|, , |Comments Off on Dance under the Swastika:
Mary Wigman and Gyp Schlicht (1917-2015)
Sabine Rollberg, Freiburg

View a recording this event HERE EXCLUSIVE: Watch Annette von Wangenheim's German language documentary film "Tanz unterm Hakenkreuz" from 2003 HERE. Big thanks to Annette von Wangenheim and Sabine Rollberg for making this possible! Gyp Schlicht speaks at 38:02 min. Lecture featuring Sabine Rollberg, Professor Emeritus of Documentary Film at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne and former ARTE Representative and ARTE Commissioning Editor for WDR Moderated by Rachel Stern, Executive Director of the Fritz Ascher Society in New York In times of Nazi Germany, becoming an artist was not the typical career path for women. The „deutsche Frau“ was supposed to represent the “good housewife”, as a mother of many children, not wearing make-up and fancy dresses. The Nazis were refuting what [...]

Aug 7, 2020

Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression
The difficult case of painter Emil Nolde (1867-1956)
Aya Soika, Berlin

2020-11-29T20:32:16-05:00August 7th, 2020|, |Comments Off on Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression
The difficult case of painter Emil Nolde (1867-1956)
Aya Soika, Berlin

View a recording of the event HERE. Lecture featuring Aya Soika, Professor of Art History at Bard College Berlin, Germany Moderated by Rachel Stern, Executive Director of the Fritz Ascher Society in New York The German Expressionist Emil Nolde is arguably one of most prominent victims of the Nazis' art politics: No other painter had so many works confiscated, or was presented as prominently in the show „Degenerate Art,“ which opened in Munich in July 1937. Yet, his position differs fundamentally from that of many other artists who will be presented in the Fritz Ascher Society's lecture series "From Flight to Fight": Nolde was not just a victim but also a loyal supporter of the regime whose world views were radicalized by antisemitic propaganda in [...]

Oct 12, 2018

“Umkämpfte Wege der Moderne. Wilhelm Schmid und die Novembergruppe” 


Potsdam Museum – Forum für Kunst und Geschichte, Potsdam (Germany)

2019-02-05T12:43:50-05:00October 12th, 2018|, |Comments Off on “Umkämpfte Wege der Moderne. Wilhelm Schmid und die Novembergruppe” 


Potsdam Museum – Forum für Kunst und Geschichte, Potsdam (Germany)

The exhibition "Umkämpfte Wege der Moderne. Wilhelm Schmid und die Novembergruppe" is dedicated to the controversial epoch of 1918-1933 and the radical changes during the following period. (link) Some of the artistic pioneers took the 1918/1919 revolution as an opportunity to unite as the "November Group", probably the most prominent political artistic group of the Weimar Republic. These self-proclaimed "revolutionaries of the mind" set out on new paths of artistic expression with their motives, colors and forms, rejecting the old imperial conventions in form and content. The members of the group not only caused a sensation with their revolutionary demand to participate in the new state in all art-related issues. For in the exhibitions - primarily at the Great Berlin [...]

Sep 4, 2018

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #22, September 2018

2018-11-26T05:40:08-05:00September 4th, 2018|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #22, September 2018

Dear Friends, I know, this summer I seem obsessed with Fritz Ascher’s I know, this summer I seem obsessed with Fritz Ascher’s Dancers from 1921. But there is one more thought about the drawing that I want to share. Fritz Ascher, Dancers, 1921. Private collection. Photo Malcolm Varon ©2018 Bianca Stock Fritz Ascher, Dancers, 1921. Private collection. Photo Malcolm Varon ©2018 Bianca Stock When the drawing was created,“Freikörperkultur” (FKK) or “free body culture” had become popular in Germany. Founded in 1898 in Essen, Germany, the nudist culture was about celebrating the body unencumbered by clothes, in nature and sunlight. Many of the naturists came from the Wandervogel movement, the pre-eminent German youth movement, founded to escape the repressive and [...]

Mar 23, 2018

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #19, March 2018

2018-12-04T11:47:15-05:00March 23rd, 2018|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter #19, March 2018

Dear Friends, I was touched by how many neighbors and friends from near and far came out into the chilly but sunny winter weather on February 21 to celebrate Fritz Ascher and recognize his persecution by the National Socialists by laying a “Stolperstein” (stumbling stone) at Niklasstraße 21/23 in Berlin-Zehlendorf, where his family lived from 1909. Thank you to the anonymous donor for making this event possible, to Dirk Jordan (AG Stolpersteine), Michael Rohrmann (Projekt Stolpersteine) and Wolfgang Ellerbrock for organizing it, to Cornelie von Bismarck for creating a beautiful context, and to Sabine Witt from Museum Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf in Berlin and Jutta Götzmann from Potsdam Museum for supporting it. A special thank you to the students from Potsdam for reciting [...]

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