Dekoloniale – what remains?!
Decentralized exhibition at Various Locations in Berlin-Mitte
On November 14, 2024, the model project Dekoloniale Memory Culture in the City and the Stadtmuseum Berlin will open their decentralized exhibition “Dekoloniale – what remains?!”. It explores Berlin’s centuries-long entanglement in the global history of slavery and colonialism and critically examines this violent past.
Location
Museum Nikolaikirche
Nikolaikirchplatz
10178 Berlin
Opening Hours
daily | 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. (also on public holidays)
14.10. to 14.11. closed
Special Closing Hours
see Info & Service
Admission
7 euros (single ticket) | 15 euros (combi-ticket*) | free admission (under 18 years or with reduction)
*Valid on two consecutive days for the Museum Ephraim-Palais, the Museum Nikolaikirche and the Museum Knoblauchhaus.
Free Admission to the Museum Nikolaikirche from 15 to 17 November 2024 for the start of ‘Dekoloniale – what remains?’
Free Admission
at the other exhibition venues in the “Afrikanisches Viertel”, in the “Asiatisch-Pazifische Straßen”, in the underground station “Afrikanische Straße” in Berlin-Wedding and in Wilhelmstr. 92 in Berlin-Mitte
Opening Weekend | Free Admission
Free admission to the Museum Nikolaikirche from 15 to 17 November 2024 for the start of ‘Dekoloniale – what remains?’
The exhibition features three significant sites of coloniality in Berlin-Mitte: the Museum Nikolaikirche, housing the tombs of colonial figures; the (post)colonial memorial that is the Afrikanisches Viertel [“African Quarter”] and the “Asiatisch-Pazifischen Straßen” [“Asian-Pacific Streets”] in Berlin-Wedding and the historical venue of the 1884/85 Berlin Conference on Wilhelmstraße 92. The exhibition goes beyond merely exposing the colonial racism embedded in these public spaces by overwriting it with the stories of resistance from African, Asian, and diasporic communities.
“Dekoloniale – what remains?!” concludes the inaugural phase of Dekoloniale Memory Culture in the City. It poses the question: What does it mean to maintain a lasting, consistent memory?
Exhibition locations
The group exhibition “Colonial Ghosts – Resistant Spirits. Church, Colonialism, and Beyond” features the Dekoloniale Berlin Residents 2024 Tonderai Koschke, Charlotte Ming, Percy Nii Nortey, Yangkun Shi, and Theresa Weber. They are presenting site-specific artworks that explore the church’s entanglement with colonialism, religion, politics and the writing of Berlin’s history by its citizens. Their art uses and re-appropriates Christian iconography and aesthetics.
Please note: The residents also intervene at other venues of “Dekoloniale – what remains?!”: Theresa Weber and Percy Nii Nortey at the historic site of the Berlin Conference at Wilhelmstraße 92 and Tonderai Koschke at the Afrikanische Straße subway station on the U6 line.
The historical exhibition “Inscribed. Colonialism, Museum, and Resistance” at the Museum Nikolaikirche features eight short biographies. They tell the story of how colonialism and the slave trade are interwoven with the Nikolaikirche and the Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin. And they tell the story of those who resisted and who, so far, have not been recognized in this place. The exhibition asks who is granted a perpetual place in European museums and churches and who is not.
Wilhelmstraße 92 is where – 140 years ago – the Berlin Conference in 1884/85 took place in the Reich Chancellery. It was at this conference where the colonial powers negotiated the (further) division and exploitation of Africa and Germany established itself as a colonial power. Today, the historical site of the perpetrators is home to the office of Dekoloniale Memory Culture in the City.
The exhibition “Remembrance. Apology. Reparation.” is dedicated to the history of the conference and African resistance to the implementation of its resolutions. It tells of the long-standing commitment of civil society to a central anti-colonial place of learning and remembrance in Berlin and of the significance that colonialism still has today.
Wilhelmstraße 92 also features site-specific artworks by artists-in-residence Theresa Weber and Percy Nii Nortey.
The inauguration of Maji-Maji-Allee and Anna-Mungunda-Allee in August 2024, marked the change of Germany’s largest colonial quarter, the “Afrikanisches Viertel” [“African Quarter”] in the Wedding district, to the first anti-colonial quarter. No other place in Germany is home to as many tributes to anti-colonial resistance fighters. We owe this transformation of the district to decades of activism by individuals and initiatives. These activists and initiatives are now being honored with a city-wide photo exhibition and at community centers.
Photo exhibition: Community Zentrum EOTO e.V.
Address: Togostraße 76, 13351 Berlin
Opening hours: Tue – Thu 2-6pm
Poster display: AfricAvenir e.V.
Address: Kameruner Str. 1, 13351 Berlin
Additionally, there will be memorial steles installed in the Wedding district. At Cornelius-Fredericks-Straße, Manga-Bell-Platz, Anna-Mungunda-Allee, and Maji-Maji-Allee, the new namesakes of these streets will be made known.
At Pekinger Platz, Kiautschoustraße, and Samoastraße, reference is made to the colonial context of the street names and supplemented by anti-colonial counter-narratives.
The memorial steles bring African, Asian, and diasporic memories into a historical context by means of alternative forms of commemoration. The content and formats of the “Paths of Remembrance” exhibition were developed in a participatory process.
Dekoloniale resident Tonderai Koschke intervenes at the Afrikanische Straße subway station on the U6 line.
Dekoloniale Berlin Residents
Programme
Dekoloniale – what remains?! is a joint project by Berlin Postkolonial e.V., Each One Teach One (EOTO) e.V. and the Initiative Schwarze Menschen in Deutschland (ISD-Bund e.V.), the learning and remembrance space Kolonialismus Erinnern [Remembering Colonialism], and the Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin in the context of the model project Dekoloniale Memory Culture in the City. The project is funded by the Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt [Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion] and the Kulturstiftung des Bundes [German Federal Cultural Foundation].
Find out more
Info & Service
Opening Hours
daily | 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. (also on public holidays)
Extra opening hours/closing times
Tue | 24.12. (Christmas Eve) | closed
Wed | 25.12. (Christmas Day) | 12 noon – 6 p.m.
Thu | 26.12. (2nd Christmas Day) | 12 noon – 6 p.m.
Tue | 31.12. (New Year’s Eve) | closed
Wed | 01.01. (New Year) | 12 noon – 6 p.m.
The visitor rules of the Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin apply.
Directions
Nikolaikirchplatz
10178 Berlin
Contact
Infoline
+49 30 24 002-162
Mo – Fri | 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Write E-Mail
Tickets
Admission
Combi-Ticket
15 euros
Valid for our three museums in the Nikolaiviertel (Museum Nikolaikirche, Museum Ephraim-Palais, Museum Knoblauchhaus) on two consecutive days (please note opening hours)
Single Ticket
7 euros
Day ticket for the Museum Nikolaikirche
Free admission
With proof of reduction
For children & young people under 18, students, trainees, FSJ/FÖJ/BFD volunteers, Berlin-Ticket-S holders, severely disabled persons (with mark B) & accompanying person, refugees (with valid work or residence permit /eAT and Ukrainian passport or valid residence permit from Ukraine), recipients of residence permit /eAT and Ukrainian passport or valid residence permit from Ukraine), recipients of transfer benefits (citizen’s allowance, ALG I), holders of the Berlin-Brandenburg volunteer card, holders of the Super Holiday Pass / Berlin Family Pass, ICOM members, members of the German Museums Association, members of the Verein der Freunde und Förderer des Stadtmuseums Berlin e. V., KulturPass holders, media representatives with a valid press card
Museum Sunday
Free admission for everyone on the first Sunday of every month!