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.