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Artist Tania Bruguera: Hannah Arendt reading in the Berlin Museum Hamburger Bahnhof
Photo: Christoph Soeder/dpa
After a reading at the Berlin Hamburger Bahnhof museum was canceled due to pro-Palestinian disturbances and hate speech, the police are now investigating the alleged perpetrators - although they were not alerted that evening. At the same time, Interior Senator Iris Spranger (SPD) appealed on Monday to cultural institutions to inform the police in advance of such critical events and to alert them and let them in if incidents occur.
The 100-hour performance with the reading of a comprehensive analysis of totalitarian structures by the journalist Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) on February 11th was canceled because a group of anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian activists caused massive disruption twice.
The Jewish woman Hannah Arendt had to emigrate from Nazi Germany in 1933. She wrote her analysis of the origins and development of National Socialism shortly after the end of World War II and the liberation of Germany. A few years later she supplemented the work with the peculiarities of Stalinism.
Spranger told the Interior Committee of the House of Representatives that the police were evaluating numerous videos of the disturbances that were circulating on the Internet. The state security agency responsible for political acts also questioned witnesses; around a hundred people observed everything. A director of the museum was spat on and insulted.
“The police were not alerted,” said Spranger. It wasn't until the next day that a report was made. She emphasized that it is important to inform the police about events in advance in order to enable protective measures. “And then she has to be allowed in.” There have also been situations when the police were not allowed in by the organizer and there were later complaints. “Then it’s a very, very difficult situation. I can only urge that people then act differently.«
wit/dpa