The swarming anti-Semitism art detectives are making more and more finds at Documenta 15, and there can no longer be any question of a single slip.
In addition to the unspeakable anti-Israeli comparisons between the Basque city of Guernica, which was wiped out by the National Socialists in April 1937, and the Gaza Strip, which was allegedly annihilated by the state of Israel, and its inhabitants in several pictures by the Palestinian Mohammed Al Hawajiri, explicit anti-Semitic stereotypes also appeared in Kassel.
Stefan Trinks
Editor in the Feuilleton.
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In the crowd of figures of a protest banner of the Indonesian collective Taring Padi, which is several meters high and stretched out on the central Friedrichplatz, a life-size and hard to miss anti-Jewish caricature appears on the side of evil directly behind a horned Satan, as is also the case in National Socialist propaganda publications such as the "Stürmer" in the Had no different for thirties and 1930s: there is protected behind a bar from police officers with a smoking businessman with hook nose, pointed animal ears, wolves tear teeth as well as with bloodshot eyes, glasses and temporal curls as if his bright yellow sakko-reverses- the signal color Jews had to wear in the Middle Ages was not enough.
But the double rune symbol of the SS is unmistakably emblazoned on his hat.
Similar to the cycle "Guernica Gaza" by Mohammed Al Hawajiri in Documenta location WH 22, Taring Padi's protest banner equates a Jew with the National Socialist SS and also assigns him the role of the "international Finanzjuden”, an age-old stereotype from the catalog of images of anti-Semitism.
In addition, the Jew shown is dehumanized with the animal facial features.
An even worse caricature of dehumanization can be seen on the same banner in the police ranks: a pig with a trunk and a helmet inscribed with "Mossad," Israel's intelligence agency.
As if that wasn't clear enough, a Star of David is also emblazoned in black on his blood-red neckerchief.
The collective thus joins the shameful history of iconography of the Judensau, which in Wittenberg, Worms, Regensburg, Cologne and many other German cities is a constant reminder of the visual preparation of pogroms.
So now also in Kassel.
Rapid change of heart in politics
The Hessian Minister of Art and Culture Angela Dorn, who in her opening speech for the press last Wednesday had scolded the press for allegedly unsubstantiated accusations and complaints that had been expressed, suddenly also had the "personal impression that anti-Semitic imagery was used here".
She therefore immediately contacted the general director of the Documenta, Sabine Schormann, "with the aim of clarifying things as quickly as possible, possibly also with the help of experts on anti-Semitism from academia".
In this case, no scientists are needed - the stereotypes are unfortunately more than present in Germany.
It has not yet been heard from Kassel how Documenta General Director Schormann intends to take action.
There can only be one consequence: