The spoken word prevails!

Dear Dr. Horowitz! Dear members and friends of the Jewish community Düsseldorf! Dear Mischa Kuball!

My dear ladies and gentlemen!

Every year on the 9th of November, we in Düsseldorf remember the November Pogroms of 1938. So we have gathered here again in Kasernenstraße this morning for a silent commemoration. This evening we will come together here again to switch on the missing link_ light installation. 

This work was created by the Düsseldorf artist Mischa Kuball. Dear Mischa Kuball, my sincere thanks to you for the idea and the realisation. I also wish to thank the Jewish community of Düsseldorf, who have kindly accompanied and supported the project. The Mahn- und Gedenkstätte and the art commission were also involved. As a city, we expressly welcome this work of art in the public domain. 

However, this is by no means a work of art like any other. It is more than that.

The installation seeks to draw attention to an empty space in our city. An empty space that has existed for 85 years. A gap that fills us as an urban community with pain. It is a “link”, a reference to the great synagogue that stood here until 1938 and was set on fire 85 years ago to the hour. At the same time, the light installation is also a reference to the terrible crimes perpetrated against the Jews: the pogroms in November 1938.

To the ostracisation, disenfranchisement, persecution and killing of Jews. 

To that which followed: the Shoa, the mass murder of European Jews. 

The empty space here shows who is missing. - The people who were murdered are missing.

The empty space here shows what is missing. - The old synagogue is missing.

At the time of its construction around 1904, the magnificent building was hailed as an embellishment to Düsseldorf’s skyline and the cityscape. The synagogue was a place of worship, but a large number of events were also hosted here. It was thus a central meeting place for the large and lively Jewish community in Düsseldorf. Until the 9th of November 1938.

After the end of the Nazi period, the synagogue was not rebuilt here. The new Düsseldorf synagogue was built at another location. All that remained here was the empty space.

This work of art here also does not attempt a reconstruction. Not of the old walls, not of the historic façade. It is not a recreation of something lost, not a reconstruction. But perhaps this light installation is nevertheless a sort of attempt to repair.

The Talmud speaks of “Tikkun Olam”. This can be translated as “repairing of the world”. According to this, the Creator has given people the responsibility for this world. It is our duty to take responsibility for what happens on earth. To keep the world in order, to change it, to repair it if need be. A great deal went wrong here. This is a site of destruction. It is our responsibility to repair. To keep on and on reminding ourselves of what was destroyed. And to learn from this. This too is the purpose of the installation.

After the Shoah, we today cannot seamlessly reconnect with the former Jewish community. This is the missing link_, the broken connection that can never be restored.

Though we cannot close the gap, cannot rebuild with stones, we can try to “repair” with light. We use light to signify what once stood here. We recreate it with light. With light, we make what is missing accessible.

We show the dimension of the synagogue with light. And this also helps us to grasp the scale of the destruction and gain a better understanding of the terrible things that happened at that time.

Mischa Kuball makes it comprehensible. He does not construct masonry. He does not make it physically palpable, because light cannot be touched. And yet it becomes comprehensible with the other, perhaps most important human sense: sight. And that requires illumination.

“Let there be light! And there was light.”, it says in Bereshit, in the Book of Genesis.

Light is a source of hope for us humans, especially Jews and Christians. We also use light to repair in a figurative sense. That is something we especially experience now, in the dark season, when we think of our traditions. In the processions around St Martin’s Day in Germany. During Advent and Christmas. At Hanukkah. That is because, since the first day of creation, this light cannot be extinguished. Just as hope cannot be extinguished.

And nor did the Nazis succeed in completely extinguishing Jewish life, as they had planned. Six million people were murdered. That is appalling. That is something we must never forget. But: today we have Jewish life in Düsseldorf again. Today our city is home to the third largest Jewish community in Germany. That is a great good fortune. That should give us hope.

And we are doing all we can, especially in this current situation, in these dark times, to ensure that Jews do not lose hope. At a time when we are faced with the Hamas massacre in Israel. At a time when synagogues and other Jewish institutions are also threatened here in Germany. At a time when Jews are afraid to walk along the street. At this time, it is important to show a public presence. It is important not to leave the public space to the wrong people. It is important to unite and stand together, as we have done today. And there has hardly been another time in the recent past when commemoration, remembrance and caution were so important. But also clarification, information and education.

In these times, “Tikkun Olam” is an ongoing task. Because our world needs repairing in many ways - and so does our society. Let us hope, let us do all we can to ensure that no more is destroyed, that no more needs repairing. Let us do all we can to ensure that nothing like what happened on 9 November 1938 ever happens again. Let us do all we can to ensure that Jews can live their lives without harassment in today’s Düsseldorf.

This light installation is also a landmark on the way to achieving this and will hopefully be seen by many. A beautiful, a very touching, luminous landmark. Many thanks to Mischa Kuball for this work of art, which he has created for his home town of Düsseldorf.

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