Talk: Heinz Bude and Marion Ackermann on the Memory of Art

November 19, 2026, 6–8 pm
Palais Bellevue, Schöne Aussicht 2, 34117 Kassel
Free admission, no registration required
In German

To kick off the first series of events organized by the research network Das Gedächtnis der Kunst (engl. The Memory of Art), Heinz Bude discusses with Marion Ackermann the decontamination of the Nazi legacy in the art institutions of the three successor states to the “Third Reich”: How did the Federal Republic of Germany, the GDR, and Austria deal with cultural assets tainted by Nazism? What differences and similarities can be identified? From what future perspective do we view this past today?

Marion Ackermann exemplifies a unique combination of experience in academic research, institutional leadership, and political communication on this topic. As president of the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, she represents one of the world’s most important cultural institutions. In her previous roles as director of the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart and the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, she dealt with West German cultural heritage, and later, as Director General of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, with East German cultural heritage.

The research network Das Gedächtnis der Kunst consists of the documenta Institut, the Leibniz-Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung Potsdam, the Georg Kolbe Museum in Berlin, the Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf, and the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, and is supported by the association Kunst+Geschichte.