In the organizer's words:

Believing in a future - Jewish biographies in the parliamentary founding generation after 1945.

A documentary approach

They survived the National Socialist reign of terror and believed in a future in Germany - determined to take responsibility: in parliament.

This exhibition documents the diverse, now largely forgotten Jewish biographies of the founding generation of the German Bundestag. It recalls the moving fates of the members of parliament who were persecuted under National Socialism as Jews or because of their Jewish origins, and pays tribute to their work in the controversial debates about German guilt and lasting responsibility.

Creating a better Germany: This motive drove them - in East and West. The new political beginning took place in a divided country. German-Jewish history after 1945 must therefore also be told as a German-German story, characterized by political interactions and personal relationships.

The parliamentary commitment of these women and men reflects optimism, hope and the will to shape the future. However, doubts and disappointments, political setbacks and political failure also become clear - the resistance of a society that talked a lot about the war, but little about personal involvement in the dictatorship.

It is a story of social continuities and personal ruptures, of contradictions and contrasts - and it is precisely in this ambivalence that it is revealing of the challenging path of a society of perpetrators, followers and victims into the new democratic order.

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The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog in German and English - with a foreword by Bundestag President Julia Klöckner and a greeting from the President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Dr. Josef Schuster.

Accompanying educational material enables school classes to explore the exhibition for themselves in a biographical search for clues. In addition, there are numerous offers for school classes in grades 9-12/13 on the topics of National Socialism/Holocaust, the East-West conflict and the history of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Visit to the exhibition

January 28 to March 6, 2026, Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Hall of the Paul Löbe House. Free admission

Pre-registration is required. All information on registration and public guided tours can be found at: www.bundestag.de/zukunft

If you are interested in a guided tour or would like more detailed background information on the exhibition, please contact us.

The exhibition was developed by the Department of History, Politics and Culture (WD 1) in the Scientific Services of the German Bundestag. It was financially supported by the Federal Foundation Sites of German Democratic History.

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