It is with great sadness that we learned of the death of Gertrude Stein. In her gallery in New York City, she was already exhibiting works of critical international art in the early 1960s. It was a particular honor for us to be able to realize a major exhibition in Venice in 2024, together with her, Rafael Vostell, and with the support of the Boris Lurie Art Foundation, to mark the 100th anniversary of Boris Lurie's birth.

From January 27 to March 1, 2026, the Riesa City Museum presented a cabinet exhibition conceived by the Center for Persecuted Arts on comics and graphic novels as a medium of remembrance culture. To mark the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of National Socialism on January 27, the museum hosted a discussion with comic artist Stephanie Brittnacher and comics scholar Markus Streb.

From November 6th to 15th, 2026, Solingen schools from grade 8 and up will once again have the opportunity to present their classroom artwork in an exhibition at the museum. Applications can be submitted until October 9th, 2026. The Christel Fervers Jury Prizes and the Solingen Municipal Utilities Audience Prizes, totaling €2,000, will be awarded to participating classes and groups.

For the second time in 2025, a school competition was organized by the museum's Promotional Society #Wir_erinnern_Wir_gestalten (We_remember_We_create) and the city of Solingen. While the first competition focused on the topic of "Fake News," this year's theme was "Freedom - Being Different Without Fear: What Does That Mean to You?". Two first prizes and two second prizes were awarded.

Witness to history Ruth Weiss passed away in Denmark on September 6, 2025 at the age of 101. The Center for Persecuted Arts and its supporters mourn with her family and friends. Her commitment to democracy and humanity remains our obligation.

The gallerist Anita Beckers has died. Jürgen Kaumkötter met her around twenty years ago when she represented the artist Sigalit Landau. Since then, she has accompanied him on his journey — not in constant proximity, but with consistent reliability. She never wanted to “just accommodate anyone” and was happy when cooperation succeeded.

The painting “Mother with Child (Maria and Georg Pöltl)” by Karoline Wittmann owned by the Civic foundation of the Center for Persecuted Arts is currently on loan in the exhibition “Remembrance is...” at the nsdoku Munich. In a commentary, the painter's son remembers Georg Pöltl, who was murdered in Dachau concentration camp in 1945.

The Boris Lurie Art Foundation and the Center for Persecuted Arts are setting an example for innovative exhibition projects and sustainable action: On the occasion of the 2024 Biennale, the exhibition “Boris Lurie. Life with the Dead” was realized. The exhibition system developed specifically for this exhibition by Venetian architect Michael Klopfer was then handed over to the renowned Liceo Artistico Statale Michelangelo Guggenheim di Venezia art school.

For the second time, the Promotional Society of the Center for Persecuted Arts and the City of Solingen are jointly launching a school competition. It is open to students from all secondary schools in Solingen, both at the lower and upper secondary levels. Children and young people grow up in diverse circumstances, possess multifaceted identities, and are shaped by various affiliations. The competition therefore focuses on the question of how young people experience this heterogeneity in their everyday lives.

Marian Turski passed away on February 18, 2025. Just the day before, on January 27, 2025, he had addressed the guests at the commemoration ceremony in Auschwitz with moving words. He was a historian, journalist, and one of the most important voices in the culture of remembrance. His tireless commitment was also reflected in the exhibition "Marian Ruzamski: The Art of Remembrance," which was created at his initiative and for which he had assumed patronage.

The Center for Persecuted Arts was represented at a memorial event on January 27, 2025, in front of the main gate of Auschwitz-Birkenau, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration and extermination camp. "The legacy of the survivors must not fall silent with them – it is our duty to carry on their voices," emphasized Dr. Jürgen Kaumkötter.

On January 17, the Center for Persecuted Arts celebrated the 10th anniversary of its founding. The history, role and future of the house as a place of remembrance, education and cultural exchange were reflected. Violinist Liv Migdal, together with pianist Fil Liotis, impressed with the premiere of the piece Petite Balade by Israeli composer Paul Ben-Haim.

On December 23, 2024, the accompanying catalog to the exhibition “Solingen Artists in the Rhineland Art Region 1933-1945. Peat-bog soldiers? A search for clues” was published. On 272 pages, there are scientific overview articles, thematic in-depth research, personal insights, biographies and extensive pictorial sections that shed light on the Solingen art landscape during the Nazi era.

On January 29, 2023, as part of a matinee, Ruth Weiss visited the Center for Persecuted Arts as a contemporary witness. Sylvia Löhrmann had invited her in her capacity as chairwoman of the museum's Promotional Society. In the form of an interview between the two women, Weiss spoke to around 160 interested listeners about her eventful life and experience as a Jew during the National Socialist era. On July 26, 2024, the author is celebrating her 100th birthday.

The Vitella Calvert family was surprised to be welcomed as the 50,000th visitor to the exhibition "Life with the Dead" at the Scuola Grande San Giovanni Evangelista. Since April 17, the Center for Persecuted Arts and the Boris Lurie Art Foundation have been presenting the work of the artist and Holocaust survivor, whose message has moved and impressed countless people. The Boris Lurie exhibition will remain on view until November 24, during the Biennale.

On May 4, 2024, the photo exhibition “No freedom without press freedom” was opened in the presence of four of the exhibited photographers, employees of the organization “Reporters Without Borders”, the team from the Center for Persecuted Arts, its sponsors and numerous interested guests. On May 6, photographer Violetta Savchits gave readers of the Solinger Tageblatt an insight into working in her native Belarus, which she since had to leave.

Boris Lurie would have been 100 years old in 2024. A special occasion to draw widespread attention to his work on the occasion of the 60th Venice Biennale. The Boris Lurie Art Foundation New York and the Museum Center for Persecuted Arts were pleased to jointly open the exhibition “Life with the Dead” as part of the preview of the Biennale on April 17, 2024.

Jürgen Serke died on April 13, 2024. His journalistic work focused on the resistance of writers against the two totalitarian regimes of the 20th century. With his book "The Burned Poets" (1977), he initiated the rediscovery in West Germany of those authors whose works were burned by the Nazis in 1933. In 2008, Jürgen Serke's collection of books, pictures, and documents was acquired by the Else Lasker-Schüler Foundation, which, together with the Gerhard Schneider Art Collection, formed the basis of the Center for Persecuted Arts.

The Museum Center for Persecuted Arts is showing the exhibition “Eva's Way” by Iranian-born artist Ahang Nakhaei until April 21, 2024. Her commitment to women's spiritual and sexual freedom is combined with aspects of cultural migration and the associated emotional challenges. On March 17, the SPD Solingen, in cooperation with the Wuppertal/Solingen Caritas Association, invited to the vernissage on International Women's Day.

On February 9, 2024, Gerhard Richter's 92nd birthday, the exhibition house “Gerhard Richter. Birkenau” opened. The director of the Museum Center for Persecuted Arts, Dr. Jürgen Joseph Kaumkötter, took part in the event and presents the history of its creation.

Just weeks after the violent death of Ukrainian photojournalist Maks Levin, the Museum Center for Persecuted Arts presented an exhibition of his work, which documented not only the events since Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, but also pro-European demonstrations on the Maidan and the beginning of the war in eastern Ukraine. Now, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut, is showing a selection of his last photographs in cooperation with our museum.

With a lot of creativity, ninth grade students at Humboldt Gymnasium Solingen have created small audio plays about encounters with artists from our permanent exhibition inspired by the novel character Rolf. The boy from the novel “The Path” by Rüdiger Bertram, like many of our artists, was on the run in southern France during the Nazi era.

The presentation of the acquisition of Karl Schwesig's estate by the Civic Foundation for Persecuted Arts took place on February 1, 2024 in the presence of Prof. Dr. Markus Hilgert, Secretary General of the Cultural Foundation of the States. At the same time, the museum team presented the redesigned permanent exhibition. During the National Socialist era, Karl Schwesig's art was defamed as “degenerate” and removed from German museums. He was arrested by the SA in 1933 and interrogated and tortured in the notorious Schlegelkeller in Düsseldorf.

At the Center for Persecuted Arts, students from the Cologne University of Dance and Music and the Royal College of Music London under the direction of Florence Millet and Norbert Meyn enthralled with works by musicians who composed in exile in London after they had to flee Germany from the Nazi dictatorship.

The team from the Center for Persecuted Arts took part in the conference “IN | OUT — Canonization Processes of Modern Art” in Kassel, which builds on the joint exhibition “1929/1955. The Forgetting of a Generation of Artists” by the museum and the documenta archive, which was shown in Solingen in 2022.

The Museum Center for Persecuted Arts has documented the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the far-right attack on the Genç family on film. Part of the events was the opening of the exhibition “Solingen ’93 – Unutturmayacağız! Never Forget!” The film conveys diverse perspectives and demands regarding the culture of remembrance in an immigrant society, not least from Mevlüde Genç, who died on October 30, 2022, and whose words we consider a mission for our institution.

The poster exhibition “Now You See Me Moria” opened on October 8, 2023 at the Center for Persecuted Arts with a panel discussion on flight, art and empowerment. The event was the prelude to this year's Mental Health Week in Solingen. The exhibition can be seen in the literature department until October 29.

The exhibition “The Attack of the Present on the Rest of Time: Artistic Testimonies of War and Repression” showcases historical and contemporary artworks that address state violence and oppression – including pieces from the center's collection. The museum team attended the opening in Berlin.

The 8th grade course “Practical Philosophy” of the Friedrich-Albert-Lange School received the special prize from the Center for Persecuted Arts for a film contribution about the history of the Genç family.