From the point of view of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, the resignation of Documenta boss Sabine Schormann was a “long overdue step that comes much too late”. The World Art Exhibition in Kassel, “but even worse, the reputation of the Federal Republic has suffered immense damage through irresponsible action,” said the President of the Central Council, Josef Schuster, on Sunday.
However, the problem with Documenta fifteen is not over, there are still many steps to be taken, according to Schuster. Those responsible should now take a critical look at all cultural institutions supported and funded by the federal government.
Schormann resigned from her position as general director of the art exhibition on Saturday after the anti-Semitism scandal surrounding the presentation of the large banner “People’s Justice” with anti-Jewish motifs
The supervisory board and shareholders had agreed to terminate their employment contract.
After Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth and the Federal Government Commissioner for Anti-Semitism Felix Klein, numerous other politicians and cultural experts welcomed Schormann’s withdrawal.
The culture-political spokesman for the SPD in the Bundestag, Helge Lindh, described the termination of her service contract in the “Welt am Sonntag” as “an overdue liberation from a vicious circle of mismanagement and miscommunication”.
Linda Teuteberg, responsible for Jewish life in the FDP parliamentary group, also reacted positively to the dismissal. “The anti-Semitism scandal at the documenta is one that makes a statement and points beyond the art show: Israel-related anti-Semitism, like any manifestation of anti-Semitism, is unacceptable, as is trivialization with reference to the ‘global South’.”
The Greens member of the Bundestag Marlene Schönberger called for an examination of the works of art at the Documenta. Erhard Grundl, cultural policy spokesman for the Greens in the Bundestag, sees the resignation as paving the way for “finally being able to conduct a constructive debate on how anti-Semitic pictures could be exhibited at Documenta fifteen”. The debate is overdue and crucial, “precisely because we have to preserve the Documenta as one of the most important art exhibitions in the world”.
