About Us
Our project analyses a collection of images related to disability and impairment acquired in Berlin during a critical period in European history that saw the rise of National Socialism
Project Objectives
Our research project proposes to analyse and disseminate knowledge around a seminal body of disability and impairment-related images and artworks collected and curated by the German disability pedagogue Hans Würtz between 1910-1933; a critical period in European history that saw the rise of National Socialism and its extreme attendant ableist and disablist thought and action (Poore 2010).
The material we are studying was collected in Berlin and is predominantly European in its reach. It is stored in the State-owned collections of the Jedlička Institute for Disabled People and the Medical Museum of the Czech National Medical Library, both in Prague (CZ), and in the Special Education Archive at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (DE). Most of the material has been exhibited only twice (1932, 2013) and has never been studied in depth.
As equality, diversity and inclusion-related cultural strategies (EDI) such as Decolonisation become increasingly important in many discussions, the Würtz Collection holds immense cultural value and offers a wealth of unexplored material for the analysis of historical images and ‘imagination’ of impairment and disability.
Würtz addressed this concern in his lifetime, arguing that, “My collection […] should mainly serve as an impulse for […] literary and religion historians, art researchers, philosophers, psychologists, educators, poets, playwrights and novelists” (Würtz 1932, 73). Progressive sections of the Berlin press commented that the collection was “unique” and demanded the attention of a museum.
Meet the Team
Professor Simon Mckeown
Teesside University
Middlesbrough, UK
Simon Mckeown undertakes research and teaches at the School of Arts and Creative Industries at Teesside University, Middlesbrough, UK in the fields of fine art, digital creativity and disability. He is a practicing aritst as well as heritage specialist.
Professor Oliver Musenberg
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, DE
Karolina Hyży
Teesside University
Middlesbrough, UK
Karolina Hyży is the team’s art historian. She is also a widely experienced international provenance researcher. Her task is to analyse the objects in the Würtz Collection within their original and appropriated contexts prior to the Collection’s publication and first exhibition in Germany before Hitler was elected Chancellor.
Dr Sebastian Pampuch
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, DE
Šimon Krýsl
National Medical Library
Prague, CZ
Šimon Krýsl is the Head of the NML Medical Museum and expert in the Würtz Collection, Prague (CZ). Besides the Würtz Collection, his research concerns Jewish medicine in the Czech lands and the history of health education and medical technology.
Petr Kolář
Jedlička Institute and Schools, Prague, CZ
Petr Kolář is a conservator and expert in the Würtz Collection, Prague (CZ).
Veronika Löblová
National Medical Library Prague, CZ
Dr Paul Darke
Videographer Wolverhampton, UK
Ondřej Horsák
National Medical Library Prague, CZ
Aaron Wardle
Swipe and Tap
Leicester, UK
Andrew Breckill
3D Photogrammetry Darlington, UK
Alice Schirmer
Student Assistant
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, DE
Anna Küntzle
Research Trainee
Humboldt-Universität
zu Berlin, DE
Anna is doing a research internship in our project while studying Rehabilitation Science in Berlin. She works on gender representation in the Würtz Collection and assists with MAXQDA.