Mischa Kuball identifies a situation in the urban environment of Graf-Adolf-Straße in Düsseldorf that frequently occurs but goes largely unnoticed. Kasernenstraße was once home to Düsseldorf’s central synagogue. In the course of the November Pogroms of 1938, it was set on fire on 10 November and ultimately demolished a few weeks later.

Today, only a discreet memorial installed at the side of the road bears witness to the monumental building. In the area around the memorial stone, buildings such as the neoclassical Walzstahlhaus, the building of the local health insurance fund built in 1905 in the reform architecture style and the building of the health insurance company AOK, built in the 1920s in the Neues Bauen style, characterise the cityscape.

Mischa Kuball rediscovered this ensemble of architectural and socio-historical heterogeneity, which evolved in less than 40 years, along its missing elements, connections and historical witnesses:

“In the context of the re-connotation and the idea of developing Graf-Adolf-Straße in Düsseldorf as a cultural narrative space, I would like to draw attention to the demolished synagogue and the house of the rabbi of the Jewish community in Düsseldorf and the surrounding area, which was also demolished. Currently, only a memorial stone marks this cultural centre of Jewish life - viewed at close quarters, it is almost invisible in Düsseldorf’s cityscape. missing link_ aims to explore this historical significance in 2023 by means of first a temporary and later a permanent installation - and to use the surrounding ensemble with the Walzstahlhaus and local health insurance fund building to keep the memories of this missing element alive.”

Opening speech by Dr. Stephan Keller

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