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Exhibition of the Jewish Museum Berlin in Budapest

12.03.2013

The photo exhibition “‘Russians Jews Germans’ – Photographs by Michael Kerstgens from 1992 to the Present,” with the support of both the German Federal and the Hungarian Foreign Ministries, was opened in the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hungary on 5 March 2013.

After the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989/90, nearly a quarter of a million Jewish immigrants – so-called “quota refugees” – came to Germany from the former Soviet Union. This wave of immigration brought lasting changes in the German Jewish community. Michael Kertgens has documented this over a long period and his photos can be regarded as an initial visual reflection on a process which has not yet reached its conclusion and whose outcome is accordingly still unknown.

At the opening ceremony, organized in the presence of Hungarian Jewish Community representatives and the Diplomatic Corps, German Minister of State Cornelia Pieper, Hungarian Minister of State Zsolt Nemeth, and exhibition curator Theresia Ziehe gave speeches.  The speeches can be downloaded below.

The exposition will be opened to the public when it is transferred to the History Museum of Budapest, between 2 May and 23 June 2013.

Speech Cornelia Pieper EN.pdf

Speech Zsolt Nemeth EN.pdf

Speech Theresia Ziehe EN.pdf