By restoring what dictatorships wanted to make us forget

#361

How do we save democracy?

By restoring what dictatorships wanted to make us forget.

Have a look at the photo:

The Jewish painter Max Liebermann, one of the leading representatives of German Impressionism, leaves the polling station in Berlin on 13 March 1932.

A few months later, the Nazis came to power. And when the state academy Prussian Academy of Arts refused to exhibit Jewish artists anymore, Liebermann resigned as honorary president in protest.

Lieberman died on 8 March 1935.

His only daughter emigrated to the USA, while his wife Martha remained in Germany. When she, too, tried to leave, it was too late. Her assets were confiscated, and she was denied emigration. To avoid deportation to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, she took her own life with an overdose of sleeping pills on March 23, 1943, at the age of 86.

How do I know this?

I read it yesterday at the Liebermann Villa on Lake Wannsee, near Berlin. It was Liebermann’s summer house.

29 May 2025

After a turbulent history from 1940 onward, the house and garden were completely renovated at the initiative of the sponsoring association and opened to the public in 2006. The villa now houses an art museum dedicated to Max Liebermann and his era.

So, the Max Liebermann Gesellschaft Berlin e.V. made all this possible. Thank you for reviving!

See you in Democracy!