3 May 2024

UTOPIA. Keep on Moving
The Utopia of Peace

Lea Wohl von Haselberg talks with Moshe Zimmermann
Tuesday, 7 May 2024, 7 pm
Akademie der Künste, Pariser Platz 4, 10117 Berlin
Press passes at presse@adk.de; tel.: 030 200 57-1514

Historian Moshe Zimmermann discusses the conflict in the Middle East and the utopia of peace with film and media scholar Lea Wohl von Haselberg. In his latest book, Niemals Frieden? Israel am Scheideweg (2024), he looks back at the past – to the origins of the Zionist movement and the 75-year history of the state of Israel – in order to focus on possible ways out of the vicious circle of violence. In the preface, he writes, “What has been happening for the last thirty years – and what has occurred since 7 October 2023 in particular – has contributed to a further hardening of the fronts on both sides and a mushrooming of mutual hatred. When I take stock of the situation, I’m very sceptical in my analysis, but despite my pessimism, I try to think constructively.”
Back in 2018, at the opening of Akademie member Micha Ullman’s exhibition Grain of Sand at the Akademie der Künste, Zimmermann spoke about the peace process in the Middle East and stressed the importance of volition as the starting point for change (Journal der Künste 7, July 2018).

Moshe Zimmermann is Professor emeritus of modern history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; his research is focused, among other things, on antisemitism and nationalism. He was director of the Koebner Centre for German History at the Hebrew University until 2012. He has written numerous books, including Wende in Israel (1996) and Die Angst vor dem Frieden (2010), in which he makes a passionate case for the two-state solution.

Lea Wohl von Haselberg is a researcher and lecturer at the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF. Her work centres on the representation of Jewish issues in German discourses, Jewish film history and (audiovisual) cultures of remembrance. She is also programme director for the Jewish Film Festival Berlin | Brandenburg (JFBB).

The discussion between Jeanine Meerapfel and Erdmut Wizisla on Walter Benjamin and Paul Klee, which was scheduled to open the event, had to be cancelled.

The Utopia of Peace is part of the event and exhibition programme UTOPIA. Keep on Moving, which runs until 26 May – it examines the nature of political, social and artistic utopias.
For more information, visit: adk.de/utopia

Event details
UTOPIA. Keep on Moving
The Utopia of Peace
Tuesday, 7 May 2024, 7 pm
Akademie der Künste, Pariser Platz 4, 10117 Berlin
In German
Admission: € 7.50/5