After a controversial personnel decision: Academy of the Arts is constantly working with Rheinsberg

The Berlin Academy of the Arts exposes its cooperation with the Kurt Tucholsky Literature Museum after more than 20 years. This is announced by the ADK in an open letter to Mayor Frank-Rudi Schwochow (BVB/Freie Voter).

The ADK justifies the step by “the museum and the collection could not be continued with the same claim” without qualified and scientific management “and that the exhibition and event program is blocked with national artists.

The background to this is the management of the Kurt Tucholsky Literature Museum in January 2025 by Ellen Krukenberg, District Director for Culture, Tourism and Economic Development. Previously, the museum had been led by the Germanist Peter Böthig. The ADK calls on the mayor “to re-include the negotiations with the city councilors of Rheinsberg and the district of Ostprignitz-Ruppin through a scientific direction of the museum.”

The last exhibition in the Kurt Tucholsky Literature Museum with a member of the Academy of the Arts was “Bridget Riley: Circles and Discs”, which ended on July 14, 2024. The Academy of the Arts had constantly spoken out against the personnel decisions in Rheinsberg that have been committed since October 2023, especially with regard to the management in Personal Union with the Office for Culture, Tourism and Economic Development.

An agreement between the city, district and the country is “of great importance for Rheinsberg, for the preservation and work of Kurt Tucholsky’s work in subsequent generations, for all former and future city clerk, for the cultural landscape of Brandenburg and for the exhibitions in the Gallery for Contemporary Art.”