After years of advocacy by students and alumni and intensive research by historians, thus far unknown details of the history of the Hertie department store company during the Third Reich are finally about to be revealed. How do we – as the Hertie School community – want to remember Hertie’s history under the Nazi regime and the antisemitic expropriation of the Tietz family? And what does this mean for the future?
Commemoration is a question of values, belonging and power. It contributes to how we shape and define our community. Join the Her.Tietz Initiative for a discussion on how we, the faculty, employees, students and alumni of the Hertie School, want to jointly engage with the past, especially in the context of rising group-focussed enmity.
Panellists:
• Derviş Hızarcı (Chairman of Kreuzberger Initiative gegen Antisemitismus, Moderation)
• Prof. Dr. Cornelia Woll (President, Hertie School)
• Prof. Dr. Jacob Eder (Barenboim-Said Akademie)
• Marlene Schönberger (Member of the German Parliament, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
• Lars Mehwald (Her.Tietz Initiative)
About the Tietz Lecture: The annual lecture series is named after the Jewish merchant Oscar Tietz, founder of the department store chain “Hermann Tietz” (which was later renamed “Hertie”). In the 1930s, the Nazis forced the Tietz family out of the company, then named Herrmann Tietz, through a series of antisemitic repressions. The Her.Tietz Initiative wants to keep this memory alive.
About the Her.Tietz Initiative: The organiser of the Tietz Lecture is the Her.Tietz Initiative, a volunteer group of students and alumni of the Hertie School – supported by more than 150 active and former members of institutions funded by the non-profit Hertie Foundation.
The Hertie School is funded by the Hertie Foundation. The assets of the Hertie Foundation emerged from the Hertie department store chain. During the Nazi era, the Tietz family was forced out of their business by antisemitic repression (“Aryanisation”). The Her.Tietz Initiative advocates for an open and responsible approach to Hertie’s history. Past and present supporters of Her.Tietz include the Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” and “Humanity in Action”.
