Vita
Studied history, political and administrative science and economics at the Humboldt University of Berlin, the University of Potsdam and the University of Wrocław, Poland. Doctorate The Church of the Others. Religiöse Vergesellschaftung und Kalter Krieg im geteilten Berlin-Brandenburg, 1945-1990 at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin; funded by a scholarship from the Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst e.V. and a Caroline von Humboldt Graduate Scholarship from the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. 2016 – 2017 Research Associate at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin; since 2021 Scientific Associate at the documenta Institut.
Research project
Nazi pasts of the documenta protagonists
One of the founding figures of documenta was August-Martin Euler, although he was not present on the front stage of the 1955 exhibition.
Euler was born in Kassel in 1908. From the beginning of the war, he was a lawyer at IG Farben, where he was involved in the exploitation of forced laborers and concentration camp prisoners, among other things. In 1944, for example, he ordered the Buna works in Schkopau (Saxony-Anhalt) to “use Hungarian Jews” as workers. Euler was not a member of the NSDAP, nor did he belong to the SA or the SS. After the war, he was denazified as a non-affiliated person and began a stellar political career.
As state chairman of the Hessian FDP, he offered many former NSDAP members a new political home and sought proximity to right-wing extremist organizations. In the so-called Naumann affair, he also defended former National Socialists and war criminals who had attempted to infiltrate the FDP. At the same time, he campaigned in the Bundestag for the passing of several amnesty laws for National Socialist perpetrators.
During these years, Euler was involved in the preparations for the first documenta. He knew many of the people involved privately. The chairman of the first supporting association, Heinz Lemke, even testified on his behalf in Euler's denazification proceedings. Euler's political positions were certainly known. But Arnold Bode, like everyone else, did not seem to be bothered by this. After all, Euler was important for the documenta enterprise: he opened many doors in political Bonn. He was also the one who convinced Federal President Theodor Heuss to take over the patronage of the exhibition.
Main research areas
History of documenta
Art and cultural policy during National Socialism and the Cold War
Anti-Semitism in the art world
Press/Interviews
HNA (2024), Wie die Kasseler mit der documenta leben: „Die Unruhe gehört mit zum Erfolgsrezept“, published 19.03.2024.
Lectures (selection)
03 I 2025 Where we want to go. Conceptual considerations and the case study of Hermann Mattern (documenta Institut)
01 | 2024 As a historian at an exhibition of contemporary art. Kassel and the anti-Semitism controversy surrounding documenta fifteen (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)
11 | 2023 The documenta city - host of a world art exhibition. Or: Kassel and the anti-Semitism controversy surrounding documenta fifteen (Kunstverein Nürnberg - Albrecht Dürer Gesellschaft)
05 I 2022 The Nazi past of the documenta participants. A workshop report (University of Kassel)
Academic conferences and workshops
03 I 2025 The maltreated memory. Which strategies, against which background and with which actors? Kassel (with Prof. Dr. Felix Vogel)
04 I 2024 Book presentation: Rupture and continuity. Art and cultural policy after National Socialism, Kassel.
11 I 2023 Symposium: The documenta fifteen as a caesura? Art, politics, the public, Kassel
06 I 2023 Art and culture between 1945 and 1955. Interdisciplinarity in practice. An experimental workshop, Kassel
06 I 2022 In the series “Vergiftete Verhältnisse”: Art and society in Italy and Germany: anti-fascism or post-fascism, discussion with Claudia C. Gatzka, Kassel
05 I 2022 In the series “Vergiftete Verhältnisse”: The Haftmann case: from perpetration to success, discussion with Vincenza Benedettino and Carlo Gentile, Kassel
05 I 2022 Nazi pasts and continuities of art institutions, Kassel (with Prof. Dr. Felix Vogel)
11 I 2018 Not everything has been said. A workshop on GDR research, Berlin (with Dr. Steffi Brüning)
Publications (selection)
I. Monographs
Neumann, Maria (2023): Die Kirche der Anderen Christliche Religionsgemeinschaften und Kalter Krieg im geteilten Berlin-Brandenburg, 1945–1990: De Gruyter.
II. Editorships
Neumann, Maria; Vogel, Felix (Ed.) (2024): Bruch und Kontinuität. Kunst und Kulturpolitik nach dem Nationalsozialismus. Berlin: Hatje Cantz.
III. Articles
Neumann, Maria (2025): documenta-Stadt Kassel – Gastgeberin einer Weltkunstschau. In: Bude, Heinz/Mendel, Meron (Ed.): Kunst im Streit. Antisemitismus und postkoloniale Debatte auf der documenta fifteen, Frankfurt, p. 221-244.
Neumann, Maria (2024): In zweifelhafter Gesellschaft? Adolf Arndt und August-Martin Euler. Zwei vergangenheitspolitische Akteure der ersten documenta 1955. In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft 72 (2), p. 139–160.
Neumann, Maria (2021): Grenzenlose Möglichkeiten? Die Kirchen im Nachkriegsberlin. In: Michael Höhle (Ed.): Wichmann Jahrbuch des Diözesangeschichtsvereins Berlin. Berlin, p. 42–53.
Neumann, Maria (2018): Der Nächste ist ein Anderer. Grenzübergreifende Gemeindepartnerschaften in Berlin und Brandenburg während des Kalten Kriegs. In: Interdisciplinary Journal for Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society (6), p. 224–253.
Neumann, Maria (2017): „Wir gehören zusammen!“ Christliche Gemeinschaft und kirchliche Zeitungen im geteilten Berlin. In: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (Ed..): Deutschland Archiv (Deutschland Archiv, 10201).
Neumann, Maria (2017): Religion in der geteilten Stadt. Christliche Vergesellschaftung und Kalter Krieg in Berlin. In: Mitteilungen zur Kirchlichen Zeitgeschichte (11), p. 115–124.