Mural about 8 meters long and
2,80 meters high.
With three integrated
books in stands. 2015

For Albert Norden, exhibition view 2015, station urbaner kulturen, Berlin

FOR ALBERT NORDEN

The mural ‘For Albert Norden’ compiles stations, events and writings of communist author and journalist Albert Norden (1904-1982). Son of rabbi Joseph Norden, and a close collaborator of Ernst Thälmann, Albert Norden had to emigrate in 1933 due to his antifascist, communist writings. After the war he returned to (East) Berlin and learned about the murder of his father at the concentration camp Theresienstadt. Becoming a member of the GDR’s Central Committee’s political office, he impressively continued his antifascist fight. In a certain way, Albert Norden was a pioneer when it comes to Germany’s coming to terms with its terrible past, the so-called ‘Vergangenheitsbewältigung’. Against the background of the renaming of the Albert-Norden-Strasse – which in GDR times gave its name to the subway station that is now Kaulsdorf-Nord – into Cecilienstrasse, the mural was part of a group exhibition which Ina Wudtke organized under the title WER WAR ALBERT NORDEN? (WHO WAS ALBERT NORDEN?). The erasure of Albert Norden’s name was countered with an installation in the form of a sign posing the question WER WAR ALBERT NORDEN? (WHO WAS ALBERT NORDEN?) in the subway station that once carried his name.

Opening WER WAR ALBERT NORDEN?, 2015, station urbaner kulturen, Berlin

exhibition space with light box inscription WHO WAS ALBERT NORDEN?, installation view 2015, station urbaner kulturen, Berlin