Maria Eichhorn – Käthe Kollwitz Prize 2021

To mark the 2021 Käthe Kollwitz Prize ceremony, Maria Eichhorn devoted herself to the multifaceted history of Ingeborg Hunzinger’s memorial Block of Women (1995), located on Rosenstraße in central Berlin. The monument commemorates the successful protest mounted by a group of German women and their families in Berlin in February/March 1943 against the deportation of their Jewish relatives.

The artist initiated research into the background of the monument’s creation and a study into preserving the sculpture group, beginning in 2021 and 2022 with an assessment of its condition, followed by ongoing restoration work that will continue through several more stages. Maria Eichhorn’s artistic project also includes future conservation and maintenance, overseen by the Akademie der Künste until 2027 and, from 2028, by the owner of the sculpture, the city of Berlin, and the owner of the property, the local housing association in the Berlin-Mitte district.

The accompanying publication contains documentation of Maria Eichhorn’s multi-part work on Block of Women by Ingeborg Hunzinger, an essay by Yilmaz Dziewior introducing Maria Eichhorn’s works, a photo series by Maria Eichhorn, a text by Anke Hervol on the historical background and realisation of the sculpture, Aurelia Badde’s documentation of the conservation work undertaken, and excerpts from the novel Welten auseinander (Worlds Apart) by Julia Franck.