The Last Europeans

Jewish Perspectives on the Crises of an Idea

November 23, 2022 – May 29, 2023 | Level 1 & 2

The Last Europeans. Jewish Perspectives on the Crises of an Idea

An exhibition of the Jewish Museum Hohenems in cooperation with the Jewish Museum Munich.

The Exhibition
What was “Project Europe” and what has become of it? And what will become of it? Has the European Union drifted apart even further in times of alarming global challenges instead of moving closer together? Are national interests increasingly pitted against European solutions?

Against the background of these questions we look at Jewish individuals who in the face of Europe’s devastation in the 20th century transcended national…

November 23, 2022 – May 29, 2023 | Level 1 & 2

The Last Europeans. Jewish Perspectives on the Crises of an Idea

An exhibition of the Jewish Museum Hohenems in cooperation with the Jewish Museum Munich.

The Exhibition
What was “Project Europe” and what has become of it? And what will become of it? Has the European Union drifted apart even further in times of alarming global challenges instead of moving closer together? Are national interests increasingly pitted against European solutions?

Against the background of these questions we look at Jewish individuals who in the face of Europe’s devastation in the 20th century transcended national and cultural borders, demanded anew the universal application of human rights, and vigorously pursued a European dream. Based on their commitment to a united and peaceful Europe, the exhibition examines at the same time the renewed threats.

The museum shall become the site of an open debate about the future of Europe, the actual and ideational substance of the European Union, about threats and opportunities, about future-oriented and outdated concepts. Here, it will be possible to argue about European Enlightenment as well as about its offspring: secularization and modernity, emancipation and participation, nationalism and chauvinism, colonialism, and capitalism.

With an art installation by Arnold Dreyblatt consisting of three lenticular prints that he has chosen as an interactive means of representation. Each work contains up to six text layers, which can be seen as text fragments from different viewing positions and which seem to "overwrite" each other as in a deconstructed "palimpsest".

Project Management: Hanno Loewy
Curators: Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek, Michaela Feurstein-Prasser
Project Coordination: Lilian Harlander in collaboration with Sarah Steinborn
Exhibition Architecture: Martin Kohlbauer

Download the exhibition leaflet here

 

Duration of exhibition

November 23, 2022 – May 21, 2023

Where

Level 1 and 2

Collaboration

Lilian Harlander in Zusammenarbeit mit Sarah Steinborn

Assistance

Projektleitung: Hanno Loewy

Architecture

Architect Martin Kohlbauer

What else is going on?

Find out more about our current events and regular guided tours

CALENDAR

Public Guided Tour of the Exhibition

Teachers & Schools

Are you a teacher and would like to visit our museum with your class(es) or colleagues? Find out more about our individual packages for teachers and school classes.

Project Europe?
PACKAGES

 

Exhibition view "European History of Violence in the 20th Century", Photo: Eva Jünger
Exhibition view "European History of Violence in the 20th Century" (Calligraphy Petra Wöhrmann . Design & Lettering), Photo: Eva Jünger
Exhibition view "The Last Europeans", Photo: Eva Jünger
Exhibition view "The Last Europeans", Photo: Eva Jünger
Arnold Dreyblatt, "Letzte Europäer?” / "Last Europeans?" (detail), Berlin 2022

PUBLICATION

Exhibition catalogue

What has become of the European idea? And what Jewish experiences were behind the European project? 75 years after the end of the Second World War, the Jewish Museum Hohenems, together with the Volkskundemuseum Vienna and the Jewish Museum Munich, opened a debate space on the state of Europe - in the sign of a new nationalism growing everywhere, which recently also pits the fantasy of a "Christian-Jewish Occident" against migrants. While populist egoism threatens the "peace project" of Europe, there is at the same time a struggle for European solidarity.

This volume (in German only) revolves around key figures of the European idea, attempts to realise it and its threatening dismantling, experiences of catastrophe and political initiatives, tells of its protagonists and antagonists - and shows a Europe that was and is at least a Jewish space of possibility.

Edited by Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek, Michaela Feurstein-Prasser and Hanno Loewy. With contributions and interviews by:
Aleida Assmann, Ariel Brunner, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Liliana Feierstein, Ulrike Guérot, Brian Klug, Gerald Knaus, Cilly Kugelmann, Michael Miller, Rainer Münz, Andrea Petö und Doron Rabinovici, u.a.

ISBN 978-3-86393-149-0

PUBLIKATION

Die Begleitbroschüre zur Kunstinstallation von Arnold Dreyblatt zum kostenfreien Download

PDF AUSSTELLUNGSBROSCHÜRE

Pioniere einer Utopie

Münchner Merkur, 24. November 2022

Die Geburt einer friedlichen Idee

Abendzeitung, 29. November 2022

Eine große Idee in der Krise

Süddeutsche Zeitung, 6. Januar 2023

Diese Ausstellung, so viel ist klar, wirft mehr Fragen auf als sie beantwortet. Das ist beabsichtigt. Was sie leistet: Sie präsentiert verschiedene, einander auch heftig widersprechende Standpunkte als Diskussionsgrundlage.

Münchner Feuilleton, Januar 2023
Ein Museum der Landeshauptstadt München