Jewish Museum Berlin Part 1: An Introduction and Kafka

For “My Berlin Day,” we visited the Jewish Museum in Berlin. We arrived at the museum around 11:30 a.m. and waited to go through airport-level security, metal detectors, and an X-ray scanner for our stuff. This was the first time we had to do this since arriving in Europe. While we appreciated the security infrastructure in place, it also heightened our awareness of how unsafe the world seems to be right now. Once we could enter, we purchased our tickets and proceeded inside the museum. There was plenty of infrastructure within the building including paths, halls, stairs, elevators, and the social infrastructure of the museum as a whole. Bus stations, roads, and other transportation infrastructure were close by to get to the museum. We expected to be there for about 90 minutes give or take, but we ended up spending four-plus hours in total. Even that time was not enough since we had to rush at the end. To cover all the bases of this museum, we split this blog post into two parts. Part one covers this intro as well as the Kafka exhibit and part two focuses on the main exhibition. 

Kafka:

In the museum, we visited the special exhibition titled “Access Kafka” along with the core exhibition. The Access Kafka exhibition featured six sub-exhibits: Access Denied, Access Word, Access Judaism, Access Law, Access Space, and Access Body. The Access Denied section highlighted Kafka’s refusal and denial of access to various aspects of life, including economic, political, and personal. What a relatable topic, especially in today’s age of technology! This exhibit revealed Kafka’s Last Will and Testament, where he requested his friend Max Brod to destroy all of his work and belongings upon his death—a request that his best friend ignored, thus allowing the exhibit to exist today. As a society, we would have faced a tremendous loss if Kafka’s work had been destroyed, and learning that it almost was, came as a shock. While his friend did not honor his request to destroy his life’s work, we are grateful for Max Brod’s decision to disregard Kafka’s wish and preserve his valuable documents and creations.

Translation: “Dearest Max, my last request: Everything I leave behind me (in my bookcase, linen cupboard, my desk both at home and in the office, or anywhere else where anything may have got to and meets your eye) in the way of diaries, manuscripts, letters (my own and others’), sketches and so on, is to be burned unread and to the last page, as well as all writings of mine or sketches which either you may have or other people, from whom you are to beg them in my name. Letters which are not handed over to you should at least be faithfully burned by those who have them. Yours Franz Kafka”

We then made our way over to Access Word, highlighting Kafka’s work and imaginative writing style, showing some of his manuscripts, riddles, and other works. Like some sections we will mention shortly, we found this exhibit quite confusing. Kafka’s main goal with his writing was to engage the viewer’s imagination, and he succeeded in sparking ours. Access Judaism highlighted Kafka’s Jewish roots and showcased some of his notebooks from his time in Hebrew school. These pieces resonated deeply for both of us. Looking at Kafka’s notebook brought back memories of our days in Hebrew school and Jewish day school. Observing this collection of written words and vowels, with their definitions next to the Hebrew words, ignited a passion and pride in us. The Jewish people are diverse, but the language and rituals have bound us together throughout history and we were experiencing that connection. After seeing the notebook, Zach immediately re-downloaded a language learning app, eager to reconnect with his former Hebrew fluency.

  Access Law features Kafka’s history with the law as well as his refusal of said law and other societal rules. Being the law-abiding citizens that we are, we know that you are super surprised to hear that, we did not have personal experience on this front. However, that being said, we have seen enough television shows and read enough books on this topic to get a feel for what Kafka must have felt like working as a lawyer and dealing with difficult cases. Kafka’s way of summarizing how he felt can be seen in the image below. The image depicts the law as a monster preying on the public, showing what it means to be entangled with the law.

  Access Space was very unusual as it mostly highlighted the work of other artists, all with the common theme of utilizing spaces in different ways. We found this exhibit to be rather strange. One of the art pieces was a very odd half-hour-long video depicting a man trapped in the space under his child’s crib, where the bars of the crib trap him like a prison cell. The video then continues with some gruesome moments, as the man dismembers his body to survive like this. Despite the gruesome nature of the video, it completely engrossed us. We watched it until we were too horrified to continue, which happened minutes later. While experiencing this at the museum, we were both confused as to why this video even existed. However, now that I have pondered it a bit more, I have some ideas. Maybe it’s about slowing down and looking around or using what you have to survive and not taking things for granted. And maybe that’s the point of the art, to make you stop and think, a very Kafka thing to do.

Lastly, Access Body describes Kafka’s fascination with the relationship between bodies and art. He writes about how his characters are physical, describing art as performances like an acrobat on a trapeze. Walking through this exhibit we noticed Kafka’s fascination with animals like dogs, cats, and monkeys. He enjoyed writing about animals, often comparing them to different walks of life that somehow relate to the animal’s physical features. For example, he showed an image of a jackal titled “We camped in the oasis.” While the connection might not be obvious, it got our mind and imagination flowing, which was exactly what Kafka wanted his art to do.

To Be Continued…

– Zach R and Melissa B