Category: Nazi-terror

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Self-publishing as resistance

Self-publishing has been the title of a historical account of the Czech publishing since the Nazi occupation of Czechia since 1939 (mfk-frankfurt.de). Forced into exile or clandestine underground publishing, many publishers and authors had no other option than to go it by themselves. The underground press during the Soviet union dominated communist rule in Czechia had to rely on similar methods, since censorship as well as persecution were a consequence of illegal writing and publishing activities. In the 21st century self-publishing has become much easier, but the persecution even beyond national borders continues to be a threat in many parts of the world.
Platforms that enable a visibility beyond publishing houses and institutional support broaden the scope for authors to reach various audiences as part of  democracy’s vitality and preparedness. Who knows about the grip on publishing of authoritarian and autocratic regimes in advance and their thirst to curb alternative opinions? Historical evidence points to the need to have self-publishing and publishing in exile as an important additional defence mechanism of democracies (Image: Czechia pavilion at Frankfurt book fair 2026)

Czechia pavilion Frankfurt book fair publishing 2026
Czechia pavilion Frankfurt book fair publishing 2026
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Gaps in Mirror

The legendary figure of “Till Eulenspiegel” (name is a composition of “owl” and “mirror”) is still attracting attention, largely because of his way to reach and sometimes expose ordinary anomalies. We have mirrors all around us, as well as explicit historical details, but we tend to overlook or create voluntarily gaps into mirrored images of the past and their reflections into the present. The novel “The Gaps” (Die Lücken) by Shida Bazyar exemplifies, why dealing with history on a local level is of utmost importance for societies to be aware, deal and transmit fundamental human values. Till Eulenspiegel of the 21st century has a migration background and experience of care work, 2 fields at the cutting edge of humanity. Dealing with the gaps in narratives of locals enters visually into the novel as well. We ar caught t “automatic lly” read ov r the g__s before we realize how huge the gaps in narratives and our mirrors of the past can be. The novel is a great reminder to actively deal with our own gaps. Check the mirrors as well, there might be gaps that blur images of the past.

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Modern Cathedral

For a long time we have argued here that museums are the cathedrals of modernity. Maurizio Cattelan has taken this claim literally. In a bit of a cheeky way, he turned the “Neue Nationalgalerie” into a cathedral of German modernity. Who are the Gods then? Our cultural heritage comprises beyond our German language classics, the novel “Die Blechtrommel” by praised and then disgraced Günter Grass. The figure serves as the “campanile” sitting above the entry. Well, the small scale “Brandenburger Tor” serves as the entry portal into a wide open space, with past pieces of adoration in a transfigured sense. This modern cathedral holds pieces of art similar to small chapels in a cathedral dealing or inviting to remember historic events or eminent persons. The modern aspect consists in its temporality. The show must not go on forever. Like surrounding every cathedral, lots of immortalised pigeons accompany our visit, just sitting around. There is no longer just one “holy spirit” or “peace dove” but so many. Welcome to the temporary modern cathedral in Berlin.

Cattelan-Berlin-2026-9-Neue-Nationalgalerie

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VCs shun SA

Venture Capitalists have an eye on long-term safety of investments. Political upheavals, unrest or instability can deter investments as much as risks to the safety of the workforce. The abbreviation “SA” in Germany has at least 2 meanings. (1) Historically, it refers to the “Sturmabteilung”, which was important in the rise of the Fascist movement and Nazi-terror in the 1920s, 1930s. Foreign investors were right to shun away from investments during the rise of the Fascists in Germany as a total loss of the investment was to be expected. (2) In 2026-8 the abbreviation “SA” in Germany stands also for “Saxony-Anhalt”, one of the Federal States of Eastern Germany, formerly the GDR between 1949-1990.
The “Wallstreet Journal”, which is read by many international investors showed on its title page of WSJ 2026-9-7 a report by Bertrand Benoit on the disastrous election in Saxony-Anhalt giving the extreme right-wing party AfD close to an absolute majority of votes. The abandoned investment by Intel into a chip-production near the capital of SA, Magdeburg, has been in retrospect a rather wise investment decision. The internationality of the employees, who build and operate such plants, might have contributed to them feeling rather unsafe in a hostile environment towards foreign workers.

intel processor logo

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Learning and authenticity

For historical, philosophical, social and many other domains, learning in authentic locations moves learners particularly. This can consist in reinforcement learning of an otherwise abstract event or process. The neuroscience of learning has demonstrated that both parts the rational mind and the emotional relatedness contribute to learning success. Memorials are such places where persons get involved with all their brain and senses. Robert Sigel (2015 pp.50-53) described the wealth of pedagogic approaches that has entered memorials. They range from flyers, guided tours to geo-caching, digital apps and continuous involvement in social media related to on-site visits. Memorials are no social-pedagogic institutions either. They cannot guard or even correct more or less likely antisocial social behavior of visitors. Additionally, they have to strike a balance between 360 degrees, engaged learning and decent commemoration. Authentic objects and information, like biographical accounts, original voices, videos or handwriting reinforce the lasting memory in and of  a memorable location ( Koessler, 2025 p. 79). School curricula make far too little use of this well implemented combination of learning and authenticity so far. Great potentials are ahead of us building on the specificity of each memorial. (Image: topography of terror, webpage access on site 2026).

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Totalitarian Totality

In political science we study totalitarian regimes across history in order to better understand how the decline into authoritarian and then totalitarian regimes occurred. But it is not only a matter of historical interest. Authoritarian regimes can get worse, like the Nazi-terror demonstrated and it propagated and applied “total war”. Across the world it is necessary to keep monitoring the war like situations of hybrid war and whether we might have to face again totalitarian regimes entering into all encompassing terror and war. It is the people, no matter from which country, who will suffer the most. The installation by Monia Ben Hamouda in the art gallery ChertLuedde allows us to think beyond or what remains “After totality” (image below from 2026-3-24). Maybe the challenge to make people think beyond the totality is the only way to prevent it from happening or totality being repeated. The experience of the installation is impressive and encourages us to question every attempt of totality especially of totalitarian regimes. 

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Rockets concept

Goddard’s rocket science concept had a hard time to get finally accepted. As early as 1926-3-16 he achieved a 2 seconds lasting propulsion of a rocket with an innovative liquid fuel concept. The combination of liquid fuels like gasoline (later hydrogen) with liquid oxygen allowed rockets to achieve longer distances with equal weight. Eventually, such rocket fuel would allow more control than relying on any other form of a combustion chamber. Rocket science celebrates 100 years of existence with spectacular successes as well as failures. The collection of scientific papers on the subject by the AIAA is a passionate reminder of how tough and lengthy scientific progress in fact is. Beyond rocket science we might ask the question what are we actually looking for up there or wherever the rocket might end up eventually. It is probably fair enough to say that we don’t always know in advance. This is keeping an open mind to technological innovation, but only if such technology is developed for the benefit of humanity rather than with an obsession to dominate others. The end phase of the 2nd world war told us such a lesson. It should be remembered at the same time as remembering 100 years of rocket science. 

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Time horizons

There is an interesting stream of research in psychology that investigates the future time perspective of individuals. There is a considerable variation across the life span (Katana et al. 2020) where older persons report shorter time perspectives in such studies. At the same time we know that older persons think more about and how to transmit to following generations. Additionally, there exists a less well understood link between shifts in future time perspectives and overall societal, demographic and biological life expectancy. Taken together this allows to discuss  time horizons more generally on the level of social development. In political science it is customary to assume the future time perspectives of politicians to be the next election unless there is ineligibility after repeated terms in office. If politicians start talking about a time horizon of 1000 years like the Nazi-regime in Germany than the time horizon is likely to be abused as an excuse for atrocities in the present or near future. Beware! (Image: Exhibit in « Deutscher Dom » Berlin on NS-State, 2026).

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Holocaust commemoration

The commemoration of the Shoa or the Holocaust is part of an international remembrance of atrocities against humanity. It needs to be present in countries beyond Germany, even if Germany under Hitler’s rule caries the sole responsibility for the ruthless execution of a plan and the murder of 4 million of its own people of Jewish decent and additional 2 million Jewish people of neighboring countries. In the speech by Tova Friedman, a Shoa survivor, she pointed to the perceived threat which children posed to the Nazi-regime as witnesses of mass murders. There she is. In front of the whole nation she testifies for what seems like a distant past, but for many this past is still not over. Responsibility of Germany does not stop after a certain number of years, maybe in judicial terms, but a moral obligation to act against denial of these atrocities is primordial. 20 years after the inauguration of the memorial of the holocaust in the center of Berlin and the exhibition center “topography of terror” (image below, 2026-1-27) we should start an initiative to make the International Day of the commemoration of the holocaust a national day, of commemoration, where all daily routines are paused in Germany to give people time to act and reflect on what can be done that such atrocities will never happen again.

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Utopian Antifascists

Next to the exhibition on “Global Fascism” in Berlin in 2025-12 there was a banner on the wall, which stated “Antifascism as Utopia” (see image below). This statement invites the question, whether an antithesis can serve as a positive utopian idea guiding large numbers of people. It is certainly necessary that all people who subscribe to democratic principles and human values should be able to unite under the banner of antifascism, but the ways to pursue this goal are manifold. This makes the claim of an utopian objective a bit more obvious and, at the same time, more plausible as a potentially overarching objective. The statement might well turn out to be the defining statement or key visual of the year 2026 with rising nationalist and in some places also fascist ideas and rhetoric. Thoughts and words might be only precursors of more such actions in the coming months.