Eleventh International Conference on The Inclusive Museum

Abstract

This focused discussion engages in critical discussions of the challenges to inclusion that arose during my empirical doctoral research with young Berlin-based visitors at the Jewish Museum Berlin. The work is an intimate exploration of how young Berliners experience the Museum. The participants in this ethnographic study come from a variety of different backgrounds, ranging from upper-middle to lower class students of West German background, to those in similar catchment areas of East German background, to participants from an area of Berlin with a majority population of Turkish background. The work accompanies these students over time in the museum and in the classroom. It examines how they relate to the museum, the history it displays, and their own positioning in relation to the topic. Further, the participant observations are fundamentally interactive in nature. I introduce and discuss this material, not only relating visitor experience at this very popular museum, but also to reflecting and exchanging ideas on the broader implications of how memorialization and difference are managed more generally within the cultural and educational spheres in Germany and beyond. The up-close fieldwork shows how seemingly small acts of practice expose much broader issues of participation, the power to interpret, and belonging.