
"German women wanted to show what a cultural force they had become, what they were achieving in all fields, sometimes in a completely new, independently creative way. An unforgettable image. […] We Jewish women could also walk through this exhibition filled with modest pride. Our work was in no way inferior to that of our sisters of other faiths."
This is how Ella Seligmann described the opening of The Exhibition of Women at Home and at Work in Berlin in February 1912. One year later, in 1933, the National Socialist regime began to systematically destroy the careers and lives of many of these women.
The exhibition at the Jewish Museum Berlin is the first to honor the work of German-Jewish craftswomen who, during a time marked by exclusion and upheaval, forged their own paths. It presents the lives and works of more than 60 Jewish female designers and demonstrates how they overcame societal barriers to fight for change and visibility — and how they paved the way for other women in the process.
Defiance | Jewish Museum Berlin
On Jewish Places, we are highlighting some of the important places where German-Jewish craftswomen lived and worked.