Open Space, Open Spaces, Lecture, reading, talk

Poland and Germany – Entangled history in Berlin

Name: Poland and Germany – Entangled history in Berlin
Start: 2025-06-26T18:00:00+02:00
End: 2025-06-26T21:00:00+02:00
Location: Berlin Exhibition at the Humboldt Forum

Berlin Exhibition at the Humboldt Forum

BERLIN GLOBAL meets SITE SPECIFICS

Prices
Regular: 5 euros
Reduced: 2,50 euros

Price info

16 years and older

Location
BERLIN GLOBAL exhibition, first floor and Saal 3 at the Humboldt Forum

The event is held in German.

Event

Tickets

Duration
3h

The site where the Humboldt Forum stands today is a central place in Prussian history. This history is always also Polish history, as Prussia was a multi-ethnic state in which Poles and Germans lived together for centuries.

This shared history was characterised by the destruction of the independent Polish state and Prussia’s colonial attitude towards the Polish population. To this day, the neighbouring country of Poland plays an alarmingly small role in German historical consciousness, as a study by the Pilecki Institute in Berlin recently showed.

What does this mean for the Polish community in Berlin, which is one of the largest in the city and has shaped it in many ways over the last few centuries?

Currently, the Open Space “Liberty, Equality, Solidarność. Polish Viewpoints in Berlin” in the BERLIN GLOBAL exhibition of the Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin is dedicated to this question. This SITE SPECIFICS event in cooperation between the Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss and the Stadtmuseum Berlin provides a starting point for an in-depth exploration of the intertwined history of Germany and Poland in the centre of Berlin.

After a look at the Polish aspects of the history of the historic Berlin Palace, Emilia Smechowski will moderate a discussion with the curator and artist Anna Krenz and the director of the Pilecki Institute Berlin Hanna Radziejowska.

Tour with the Curator

At 6:00 p.m., prior to the panel discussion (starting at 7:00 p.m.), you are warmly invited to visit the Open Space ‘Liberty, Equality, Solidarność’ with curator and artist Anna Krenz. The tour is held in German.

Meeting point: Entrance to the BERLIN GLOBAL exhibition on the 1st floor.

Programme

6:00 pm
Guided tour, Open Space “Liberty, Equality, Solidarność”
BERLIN GLOBAL, 1st floor

7:00 pm
Podium discussion, Hall 3, ground floor

Participants

Anna Krenz, born in 1976 in Poznań/Poland, is an artist, architect, author and activist who has lived in Berlin since 2003. She is founder of the collective Dziewuchy Berlin and the association Ambasada Polek e.V. Since 2001 she has worked with the Danish Centre for Renewable Energy (Folkecenter for Renewable Energy) on sustainable development projects. Anna Krenz is part of the women’s project studio Sinus_3, which combines architecture, ecology, visual arts and public space design. From 2003 to 2012 she was co-director of the ZERO gallery in Berlin. Together with Ewa Maria Slaska and Jemek Jemowit, she developed and realised the Open Space “Liberty, Equality, Solidarność” at BERLIN GLOBAL.

Alfred Hagemann is an art historian and head of the History of the Site Department at the Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss. His research focuses on the architectural and cultural history of the Berlin court in the 18th century, historical women’s studies and the state self-representation of the GDR.

Hanna Radziejowska is a historian, cultural manager and exhibition curator – among others on Witold Pilecki, Heinz Reinefarth and the Wola massacre as well as on Warsaw’s modernist settlements. She is co-author of concepts and scripts for films including: ‘4. Juni – System ausschalten’, the festival ‘Unschuldige Zauberer’ and the Museum Wola – Stadtlabor. She has headed the Berlin branch of the Pilecki Institute since 2019.

Emilia Smechowski is the editor-in-chief at German ZEITmagazin, the magazine of the German weekly DIE ZEIT. She was born in 1983 in Wejherowo/Poland and immigrated with her parents in 1988 to Berlin. She was an editor at taz, worked as a freelance reporter for ZEIT, Spiegel and Süddeutsche Zeitung. She has worked at ZEITmagazin since 2020. She has published two books, „Wir Strebermigranten“ (2017, Hanser Berlin) and „Rückkehr nach Polen“ (2019, Hanser Berlin), after living in Gdansk/Poland for a year with her daughter.

Discover the exhibition

Special Exhibition
Liberty, Equality, Solidarność. Polish Viewpoints in Berlin

The Open Space “Liberty, Equality, Solidarność” in the BERLIN GLOBAL exhibition looks at Berlin as a site of Polish struggles for freedom and against discrimination, as well as a place of dialogue and solidarity.

Berlin Exhibition at the Humboldt Forum

Partners

Info & Service

Opening Hours

Mo + Wed – Sun | 10.30 a.m. – 6.30 p.m.
Tue | closed

Last admission is at 5.15 p.m.

Directions

Schlossplatz
10178 Berlin

Google Maps

Bus & Train

Contact

For ticketing and service requests, please contact the Humboldt Forum Visitor Services:
+49 30 9921 189 89
Mo – Fri, 10 a.m.– 6 p.m.

Poland and Germany – Entangled history in Berlin

Tour with the Curator

Programme

Participants

Discover the exhibition

Liberty, Equality, Solidarność. Polish Viewpoints in Berlin

Partners

Info & Service

Opening Hours

Directions

Contact

Media partner

Dates

Poland and Germany – Entangled history in Berlin

Cookie Einstellungen

Poland and Germany – Entangled history in Berlin

Tour with the Curator

Programme

Participants

Discover the exhibition

Liberty, Equality, Solidarność. Polish Viewpoints in Berlin

Partners

Info & Service

Opening Hours

Directions

Contact

Media partner

Dates

Poland and Germany – Entangled history in Berlin

Cookie Einstellungen

Notwendig

Statistik

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