Wannsee: Laboratory for the Future | Bard College Berlin, 2025

Wannsee is a place of radical contradictions. Surrounded by forests, parks and castles, it has since the 19th century attracted affluent industrialists as well as artists. Long known as a popular destination for summer excursions and water sports, its name is at the same time forever darkened by association with the Wannsee Konferenz of 1942, when the Holocaust was planned by the officials of the Nazi regime.

Following World War II, Wannsee’s strategic location between Berlin and Potsdam (the capital city of Brandenburg), made it a border zone between West and East Berlin. Against this backdrop, students of Bard College Berlin explored during a seminar in 2025 Wannsee’s political, social and environmental landscapes, past and present. The students addressed theoretical and archival materials, reflecting on cultural and artistic movements from the early twentieth century, such as Lebensreform (‘life-reform’) and Ausdruckstanz (‘Expressionist dance’) to our time.

Images: Elizaveta Savitskaia, 2025