The Centre for Political Beauty assumes a 21st century in which two genocides occur in Africa and Asia that will dwarf the events of the Holocaust and (once again) catch Western civilisation completely unprepared. The 21st century could become the most genocidal century in world history. In Africa and Asia, the number of victims could far eclipse the 20th century. If the Holocaust is incomparable to anything else, it would fall out of history without being understood and we could take comfort in its non-repeatability and non-recurability.
The prevention of genocide and the military protection of the civilian population are the key issues of the 21st century. The ZPS addresses the unwillingness to actively protect civilians from violence, abuse, displacement and extermination and the monstrosity of renewed genocidal warfare a few decades after the Holocaust in its early works (in: Salvage operations on Lethe, Pillars of Shame and 2099). Sky over Srebrenica shows how the genocide in Srebrenica could have been prevented.
The silence of politicians, intellectuals and the media on the question of what Germany intends to do about genocide means that the prevention of genocide is once again being decided on the side (i.e. alongside tax reduction plans and telecommunications laws) and in a completely haphazard manner. The question of whether and what we as a society are prepared to do against genocide must be discussed in a broad public arena before it is once again too late.
The bombs recovered from the River of Forgetfulness, Lethe, at the 6th Berlin Art Salon: two Allied bombs on Crematoria II and III in Birkenau-Auschwitz (not on the tracks) would have reduced the killing capacity by 75%.
»It might have had the means in 1928 if it had organised itself with others before a development that would then lead to Papen, Schleicher and Hitler. So the question of organisation was in 1928 and the consciousness that went with it was in 1944.«
– Alexander Kluge on a woman who was left destitute by the bombing raids in 1944.
The sky over Srebrenica
The film explores the question: Could the genocide of Srebrenica have been prevented?
Panel discussion on Himmel über Srebrenica at the Heinrich Böll Foundation: The United Nations and the Srebrenica genocide. The background to a broken promise. In discussion: General Manfred Eisele, Dr Axel Hagedorn, Prof Dr Herfried Münkler, Marieluise Beck and Huub Jaspers, moderated by Caroline Fetscher.
One could have known: two pictures from the London Illustrated News of 14 October 1944, which shatter old certainties, because months before the liberation of Auschwitz, detailed instructions on industrial mass extermination are published in the Western press. Measures taken by the Allies to prevent the greatest genocide in the history of mankind: 0.
In April 1944, Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler escape Auschwitz. Their report ends up on the desks of all Western heads of government via the secret services. Not a trace of shock. It is true that there was no longer talk of ‘labour camps’ behind closed doors. Nevertheless, the crematoria in Birkenau and elsewhere remained untouched. Even though the Allied air force bombed strategic targets just six kilometres away (see aerial photo at the top). The railway lines between Hungary and Poland also remained untouched - without them, deportations on this scale could not have taken place.
A CDU/CSU parliamentary group leader from the year 2034 addresses the people of 2009 in his speech in front of the Chancellery.
Germany in the year 2032: When Chancellor Franz-Kevin Wegener took office in 2029, he promised: ‘I will force this time to do something good.’ Three years later, the African continent sinks into an unimaginable catastrophe. On 26 September 2032, following the detonation of a dirty bomb at its headquarters in the Central African Republic, the Chinese parliament decided to withdraw 1.2 million UN soldiers. By the end of 2032, the last Chinese blue helmets will have left the African continent.
A lot has happened anyway: an ayatollah has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, a prosperous Iraq is attacking the United States of America in a Saudi coalition, the Germans provide the UN Secretary General and the NATO Secretary General. And a well-known politician has been elected Federal President with unchecked powers.
Germany 2051: For months, a commission of historians analysed the intellectual situation in 2010 to find out what people knew, suspected and what moved them before the great catastrophes of 2030-2042.
On the occasion of the publication of the final report, co-editor and visual historian Gisa Stern speaks to the German Bundestag. A frightening investigation into human rights organisations, politics and the media.
Prof Dr Gisa Stern, 48, historian and director of the Max Planck Institute for Image Research (research area ‘Image History of Genocidal Warfare’).
Numerous publications, including ‘Die brennende Bibliothek. Das Jahr 1992 in den westlichen Medien’ (2034), ’Der Rückzug von der Wirklichkeit. United Nations Protectorates from 1992 to the Present’ (2035), ’Political Revenge: Stalin, Mohammed Atta and Ajemba. Careers of an emotion in the crosshairs of imperial ‘realpolitik’’ (2039).
The UN Security Council adopts two amendments to Article 59 of the Rome Statute in order to effectively combat genocide in the future. UN Secretary-General Brunner justifies the decision in favour of invisible judges to the General Assembly.
Decline of the sense of resistance? A background discussion between our chief negotiator Philipp Ruch and former Federal Minister Christian Schwarz-Schilling on the defence of humanity, the decline of the sense of resistance and the soul of democracy.
Zu den Europawahlen 2009 – Wahlbeteiligung unter 40 Prozent – schickten wir die politische Melancholie Deutschlands ins Wahllokal der Bundeskanzlerin. In der Hand: eine Tüte mit den verbrannten Hoffnungen des Landes.
Wie immer in der Politik: Verhandlungen gehen den Taten voraus. Die Melancholie rutscht in der Stimmung ab.
Man unterhält sich über »Melancholie und Gesellschaft«, einem Klassiker, in dem es um den verhinderten Zugang zur Macht und vom Handeln abgeschnittene Menschen geht. Der Mensch sei »ein auf Handlung angewiesenes Wesen.« Und weiter: »Melancholie stellt sich [...] als verhinderter Zugang zur Welt und ihrer Bewältigung dar und bedeutet das Zurückwerfen des Menschen auf eine Situation, in welcher ihm Welt entzogen wird.«
Residents of old people's homes in the capital announce what they wish Germany for the future. With ‘Last Wishes’, the centre brought old people out of the shadows of old people's homes in front of the Brandenburg Gate to announce what the grey eminences wish Germany for its future. An act of political beauty to visualise people whose advice is more precious than that of most politicians and experts.
Listener and participant: Gesine Schwan
The historian Timothy Garton Ash
In December 2009, the Centre for Political Beauty digitally staffs the Foundation ‘Flight, Expulsion, Reconciliation’ and announces the addition of three refugees to the foundation board. Too good to be true?
The largest German news agencies, the largest Polish daily newspapers and countless online media (ARD, FAZ, T-Online) print and disseminate the revolutionary announcement that the foundation will in future also deal with the suffering and displacement of the present.
You could have guessed it: The images of current flight and expulsion did not quite fit in with the foundation's concept, nor did the motto ‘operibus anteire’ (leading by deeds). Poland's second-largest daily newspaper printed the reality correction.
T-online »Foundation wants to reduce the influence of displaced persons«
dpa »Foundation wants to diminish the influence of displaced persons«
rp.pl »‘Widoczny znak’ ma być inny«
netzpolitik.org »Media hack: DPA falls for false press release by the Foundation Flight, Expulsion, Reconciliation«
Handelsblatt »False press release causes confusion«
Meedia »Action artist mocks dpa«
Gazeta »Oswiadczenie, ktorego nie bylo«
rp.pl »Muzeum wypedzonych bez zmian«
Metronaut »Interview with the false spokesman of the Foundation Flight, Expulsion and Reconciliation«
Wyborcza »Niemcy. Projekt muzeum wysiedlen ofiara dziennikarskiej«
Press release
Klaus Brähmig, CDU Brähmig: »Criminal energy against foundation for displaced persons«
Polnische Nachrichtenagentur PAP: »Background report by the Polish news agency PAP«
Polish radio after interview »Clarification by Polish Radio following the interview with Dr. Robert Eckhäuser«
Freundeskreis DHM: »Friends of the DHM: German Historical Museum must bring calmness to the discussion about the Foundation Flight, Expulsion, Reconciliation«
Björn Höcke has praised the Center for Political Beauty as a »terrorist group«. Get close to the action and become an accomplice to a terrorist organization so far sadly recognized only by Höcke, Erdogan, and the Free State of Thuringia! As an accomplice you will make an invaluable contribution to inciting public unrest in the service of aggressive humanism. Nowhere else will you receive more unrest and dissent for every donated Euro.
Zur Finanzierung der Aktion »Seerosen für Afrika« (1.000 Rettungsinseln auf dem Mittelmeer) haben wir 2009 versucht, die Kanzlerkandidatin bei einem philippinischen Auktionshaus in der Rubrik »gebraucht« loszuschlagen. In einem Land, in die Freiheit der Kunst nicht nur verfassungsmässig, sondern auch rechtspraktisch garantiert ist.
Spiegel Online Video
Tagesanzeiger Merkel und Steinmeier 'gebraucht' auf Ebay
Der Bund Ebay-Versteigerung Merkels gestoppt
ZDF Merkel und Steinmeier auf eBay zu ersteigern
Süddeutsche Zeitung Kanzlerin gebraucht abzugeben
Justice and retribution: Courtroom of the Berlin District Court III, the scene of a historic international law trial against Soghomon Tehlirian. The Armenian student shoots Talaat Pasha, one of the three main organisers of the Armenian genocide, in Berlin..
Radio play version of a ZPS campaign.