Dignifying the ruins: a former Jewish girls’ school in Berlin

This chapter examines the Hannah Arendt Denkraum (2006) exhibition in Berlin that was displayed in former Jewish Girls School, which at the time was an ‘empty’ building located in former East Berlin. Through the exhibition, this building – which was violently made into a ruin under National Socialism – was again reanimated as a historical place of Jewish life and culture in Berlin. While legal restitution by the Jewish Claims Conference prevented the building from being quickly redeveloped following reunification, creative practices and later renovation resulted in ‘dignity restoration’ (Atuahene, 2014). As a form of repair, dignity restoration enhances spatial justice in ways that are often ignored by urban managers who prioritise economic development. The chapter discusses how the exhibition reclaimed a historical place from a ruin of spatial injustice in the wounded city of Berlin by calling attention to the loss of Jewish life and political thought in the city.