Founded in 1995, the Max Dienemann / Salomon Formstecher Gesellschaft Offenbach e.V. sees itself as a forum for contemporary Judaism. The events organised by the society – lectures, panel discussions, discussion evenings, historical tours and excursions as well as readings and concerts – are intended to convey an authentic picture of Jewish life from a historical and contemporary perspective.

The focus is on the legacy of German Jewry, which was destroyed in the Shoah. We see the three-hundred-year history of Offenbach’s Jews as part of the history of our urban community and the reciprocal influences. Our society particularly wants to uncover the traces of Judaism that were formative in Offenbach for more than a century and are associated with the names of Rabbis Dr Salomon Formstecher (1808-1889) and Dr. Max Dienemann (1875-1939). While Rabbi Formstecher was an outstanding representative of the Reform movement, Rabbi Dienemann was a leading representative of Jewish liberalism. Both rabbis were recognised beyond Offenbach.

The society has also published several publications, e.g. on Rabbi Max Dienemann’s contribution to Jewish theology, on the “Stele of Remembrance” at the site of the former synagogue in Große Marktstraße and on the former synagogue in Goethestraße.

 
 

Currently, Markus is actively involved in the research project KITeGG and serves as the leader of the AI Laboratory at the University of Mainz. His work demonstrates a nuanced understanding of the intersection between design and technology and the mediation of this relationship.

 

Markus is part of..

 

Opoku is part of the artist collective PARA, which works in the field of interdisciplinary and site-specific installations and performing arts. Her works deal with themes such as chronopolitics, future heritage and speculative feelings. Since 2021, she has been one of the curators of the Balance Club Culture Festival, which explores the political significance of club culture in society, its role in different communities and its contribution to technological and cultural progress.
She studied Book Art and Graphic Design, Art and Digital Media and Photography at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design Jerusalem and completed her diploma studies in Fine Arts with Prof. Tina Bara at the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig in September 2021.

 
 

She is a scholarship holder of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and winner of “gute aussichten – junge deutsche fotografie // new german photography 2021/2022.”

Her work has recently been exhibited at WESERHALLE Berlin, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Angewandte Wien, Grassi Museum Leipzig, Künstlerhaus Dortmund, Halle 14 Leipzig, (im)Mutable Studio Los Angeles, with a solo exhibition at Synnika Frankfurt, Times Museum’s Huangbian Station Contemporary Art Research Centre (HBS) in Guangzhou, China and EIGEN+ART Lab, Berlin.

 
 
Photo: Naomi Rado
 

Vanessa is part of...

 

Since 2012, he has been researching and since 2019 teaching at the Institute of Art History at the Ludwig-Maximilians Universität in Munich. After his Magister in art history in 2012 and a Master in Cultural Heritage Protection Studies he finished a one year fellowship at the KU Leuven in 2014. From 2014 until 2016 he worked as a scientific researcher at the Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe. In 2019 he coordinated a research project in partnership with the Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg. Between 2020 and 2022 he was a scientific researcher at the Corpus der barocken Deckenmalerei in Deutschland at the Ludwig-Maximilians Universität in Munich where he defended his Dissertation on the munich residence.

His interests include Virtual Research Environments, semantic data modeling, (Heritage/Historic) Building Information Modeling, 3D modeling, documentation and visualization standards for digital 3D reconstruction of cultural heritage.

 
 

Jan is part of…

 
 

Alle Städte stehen vor den strukturellen Herausforderungen einer nachhaltigen Kreislaufwirtschaft. Seit 2019 werden Gebrauchtmaterialien aus dem Kulturbetrieb durch MFA gerettet, gelagert und für maximal die Hälfte des Neupreises weitervermittelt, Ausstellungen zur besseren Materialweiternutzung abgebaut und neue Ausstellungsarchitekturen und viele weitere Nutzungen aus dem Materialfundus entwickelt. Mit der MFA App können Materialien digitalisiert, für User und Kooperationspartner zugänglich und innovative Gestaltungsprozesse in CAD Software nutzbar gemacht werden.

 

Ola was involved in

 

Noteworthy exhibitions curated by him include the virtual exhibition “DEMO-” (2023) in Frankfurt’s public space, “Framing Movements” at the Suzanne Dellal Centre in Tel Aviv (2021 and 2022), and “In-visible Realness” at the PS120 Gallery in Berlin (2019). In 2020-2021, Ben directed the BOX project-space at the HfG in Offenbach, and in 2018, he co-curated the graduate show of the Kunsthochschule Berlin Weissensee. An Editor-at-Large at PASSE-AVANT, Ben’s writings have been featured in various catalogues, publications, and magazines, including Arts of the Working Class, Ocula, and Frieze.

 

Photo by Ivan Murzin

 
 

yet Ob künstlerisch Forschend, als Theatermacher*In, ob Schlendernd, als Perfomer*In, träumend, als MusikTheaterGamedesigner*In, Musiker*In, als Teil der Initiative Creative Gaming oder der Neuen Deutschen Medienmacher*Innen, ob Afrofuturistic, als Autor*In, weltenwandelnd, als Dramaturg*In oder Radical Soft-&Kind, als Kulturelle Bildner*In: Digitale und analoge Spiele haben Sarah Fartuun Heinze im Grund schon immer bewegt – und tun es noch.

 

Next Contribution

 

When in 1994 the trained photographer and Communications Design graduate Michael Volkmer teamed up with his former fellow student Annette Scholz to become self-employed, there was no way of knowing how the agency would evolve over the decades. It all started with CD-ROMS – for the musician Udo Lindenberg, for Opel and soon afterwards for Mercedes-Benz. And from these first projects came the desire to work with clients over the long term and to advise brands on their strategies.

From golden years to green agency

In the teething years of the Internet, Scholz & Volkmer forged their way with pioneering spirit to take a medium that was mostly characterized by technology and turn it into one more defined by design. For this Michael Volkmer and his team were awarded numerous prizes for excellent design and Michael Volkmer himself became a member of ADC and DDC and since then has been called onto the jury of renowned award bodies such as the Cannes Cyber Lions, DA&D London and ADC New York.

 

He is a supporter of the application of Frankfurt / Rhine-Main as World Design Capital under the leitmotif Design for Democracy.

 
 

Michael is part of

 
 

After finishing her B.A. in Stage and Costume Design and B.A. in Art Education at the National Academy of Art in Sofia, she had the need to externalize her skills via media and interaction. That led her to complete her master’s degree in the Interface Cultures department at Kunstuniversität Linz. Currently, she is pursuing her second M. A. in Experimental Game Cultures at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.

She is driven by the implementation of Organisational and Cognitive Ergonomics elements combined with a new genre of social and cultural events.