Art, Identity, and Memory in Berlin
with Hannah Rothbard, Multimedia Artist and current Fulbright Grantee

In this episode of Fulbright Pulse, we speak with Hannah Eve Rothbard, a multimedia artist, curator, and writer from South Florida, usually based in New York and now in Berlin: As a 2024/25 Fulbright Scholar, she is spending the academic year in Germany's capital exploring the regeneration of German Jewish culture through painting and mixed media art.

Hannah's work interweaves themes of Jewish identity, diaspora, queer culture, memory, and built space—drawing on her background in fine arts and urban studies. In this conversation, we follow her Fulbright journey in Berlin, from long walks through Charlottenburg to hosting her first solo exhibition, Willkommen, which combines archival research, layered symbolism, and personal reflection.

We talk about Hannah’s experiences engaging with Berlin’s Jewish community, the absence of visible Jewish identity in Germany today, and how art can act as a medium for processing history and imagining new forms of connection. She shares the stories and symbolism behind two of her striking pieces—Ghosts and Guilty and Jüdische Wissenschaft von heute—and how they reflect both historical memory and contemporary realities in Berlin’s queer and Jewish communities.

We also hear about Hannah’s reflections on security, visibility, and belonging, the subtle influence of Jewish history on Berlin's present-day culture, and her thoughts on fear, dialogue, and building bridges across communities. Finally, Hannah shares her advice for future Fulbrighters, what she’s learned by slowing down, and what’s next for her as she brings her work back to New York.

This is an episode about art as research, cultural exchange as healing, and the importance of talking—and listening—even across difficult divides.

Interviewed by Jonas Happ.

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