In Spite of Painful History, Can Art Help Us Heal?

Kristallnacht, or simply Pogromnacht, occurred 80 years ago on November 9-10, 1938. The Pogrom was carried out by SA paramilitary forces and German citizens. The name Kristallnacht originates from the shards of broken glass that littered the streets after Jewish-owned stores, buildings, and synagogues were smashed.

On November 10, 1938, groups of violent men marched through Hagen City Center. “The Piano in the Volme” is an art initiative by Dietmar Schneider & Slavica Stoltenhoff to acknowledge the death of a Hagen butcher, Simon Cohn, who was killed as a result of the Pogrom. The Cohn’s piano was pushed along with other furniture out of the Cohn home onto the river Volme.

A yellow piano now sits on the street of the main pedestrian shopping district in Hagen, so that all who see it, or hear its music might reflect on those times, as well as work toward a more tolerant future.