He was a passionate museum director and meticulous researcher, a humorous and, when necessary, controversial spirit. The Jewish Museum Munich owes its founding director many internationally acclaimed exhibitions on the past and present of Jewish life in Munich, often with an unusual perspective. Bernhard Purin has now died unexpectedly in Munich at the age of 60.
A history teacher had sparked the Austrian’s interest in Jewish history. Born in Bregenz in 1963 as the son of the architect Hans Purin, he roamed the former Jewish quarter of the nearby town of Hohenems with his camera as a schoolboy. This interest never left him. He studied cultural studies and history in Tübingen and then worked on setting up the Jewish Museum Hohenems involved.
Even back then, say his companions, he defended himself “with verve” against the often naive treatment of objects from Jewish tradition and always insisted on precise object research. As a curator on Jewish Museum Vienna He developed one of the first exhibitions in the early 1990s Looted art.
Then he moved to Bavaria. His time as head of the Jewish Museum Franconia was accompanied by disputes over the freedom of art. In an exhibition of works by the Jewish artist Anna Adam, representatives of Jewish organizations were unable to recognize the satirical approach. They called for the exhibition to be closed and Purin to be recalled. But he persevered through these challenges, enjoyed a high reputation among experts and was ultimately appointed founding director of the Jewish Museum in Munich in 2002.
Purin wanted to move away from the pure victim perspective; he focused his attention on everyday Jewish life, in history and in the present. “We want to show that there are many ways to have Jewish identity. Religion is a very important aspect, but not the only one,” he explained at the opening in 2007. And so one encounters voices in the permanent exhibition “Voices-Places-Times”. of contemporary witnesses, ritual objects, photographs, videos and comic strips.
The glass facade of the Jewish Museum on St. Jakobsplatz in Munich.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
One of Purin’s most original exhibitions was certainly “Beer is the wine of this country. Jewish brewing stories” in 2016. He also offered unusual perspectives with “Judn ohne Wiesn. Encounters with Munich residents in traditional costume”, “Never Walk Alone. Jewish identities in sport ” or “Seven boxes with Jewish material. From robbery and rediscovery in 1938 to today” and in the current show “Munich Displaced. The rest of those rescued“.
Purin was valued worldwide as an expert on Judaica and was also well connected in the international professional community: he was a member of the Association of European Jewish Museums and sat on various scientific advisory boards. In Munich he played a leading role in the development of the memorial site for the victims of the Olympic attack, which opened in 2017.
“The sudden death of Bernhard Purin is not just a painful loss of an extraordinary and politically committed person,” writes Jim Tobias from the Nuremberg Institute for Nazi Research and 20th Century Jewish History on the Jewish online platform Hagalil. “With Bernhard Purin we are losing a committed and competent colleague who has set new standards with his research and his museum education work.”
Just a few days ago Purin had the South German newspaper explains why it is important to demonstrate for freedom and democracy. “I’m going to the demonstration because I’ve been working in a cultural institution for more than twenty years and have seen how in many nations, mostly (right-wing) populist political forces tried to rewrite the history of their society,” he said. An obituary from friends and colleagues said about the death of the popular museum director: “We will miss his incorruptible judgment and humor, his loyalty and friendship, his integrity, his deep knowledge and his unusual and surprising approaches to the world of Jewish object history.”