Nichts wird uns trennen (Noting will separate us)

Südafrikanische Fotografie und Apartheid (South African Photography and Apartheid)

January 18 – February 17, 1985

Fig:
[1] dpa, “Strafanzeige gegen Münchner Kunst­ verein”, Süddeutsche Zeitung, February 1, 1985

Criminal Complaint Against Kunstverein München
dpa
Süddeutsche Zeitung, February 1, 1985

The German-South African Society has filed a criminal complaint against the Kunstverein München with the district attorney of the Munich Higher Regional Court for “advertising and supporting a terrorist organization.” The society justifies the complaint with the fact that a representative of the “African National Congress” (ANC), Tony Seedat, appeared as a speaker in a discussion about the situation in South Africa at the Kunst- verein on Tuesday, on the topic “Those who sow violence, reap resistance.”
According to German criminal law, the ANC is a terrorist organization directed by functionaries of the Communist Party of South Africa, equal to similar organizations in Europe such as the Red Army Faction and the Red Brigades, as stated in the complaint. The district attorney should therefore examine the behavior of the Kunstverein’s board from a criminal aspect. In this context, the Munich chapter of the society pointed to a section of the criminal code (129a, paragraph 1), which makes advertising and support for a terrorist organization a punishable offense.
The managing director of the Kunstverein, Wolfgang Stock, chose not to comment on the matter on Thursday and is consulting a lawyer. The event is connected to an exhibition at the Kunstverein with works by twenty-seven photographers on the subject of racial segregation in South Africa, through February 17 (see yesterday’s issue). Despite a request from the South African Consul General in Munich, Nicolaas W. du Bois, to cancel the exhibition, the Kunstverein intends to continue showing it. Stock stated that he would not allow the works’ artistic character to be denied by the Consul General, and that the association “fully supports the demand for the restoration of human rights in South Africa.” The exhibition is accompanied by artworks and documentation on the subject of apartheid.

[2] Press release for an evening of talks titled Wer Gewalt sät, erntet Widerstand (in the context of the exhibition Nichts wird uns trennen. Südafrikanische Fotografie und Apartheid), dated January 22, 1985

“The exhibition Nichts wird uns trennen (Nothing Will Separate Us) includes 194 works by twenty-seven photographers who live in South Africa and deal with the regime of racial segregation. The photographers—a quarter of whom belong to the oppressed part of the population—see their work as a contribution to liberation from apartheid. The works show cityscapes and landscapes, portraits, and images from the everyday life of the black majority between Cape Town and Johannesburg. The exhibition has al- ready been shown to great acclaim in Frank- furt am Main, Hanover, Hamburg, and Co- logne. In Munich we have complemented it with the UNESCO poster series ‘Fifteen Artists Against Apartheid’ and a multivision show on the history of and current situation in South Africa [...].
We have made one room of the Kunst- verein available to Munich-based initiatives against apartheid: the project group ‘Women for South Africa—Against Apartheid,’ Am- nesty International, and the Anti-Apartheid Movement. We would like to sincerely thank these initiatives for their dedicated coopera- tion.” (Excerpt from the press release from January 7, 1985)
The exhibition was followed by a crimi- nal complaint against the Kunstverein, filed by the German-South African Society, for “advertising and supporting a terrorist orga- nization,” in particular for inviting Tony Seedat, a representative of the African National Congress (ANC), to an evening of talks. A letter from the German-South Afri- can Society states, “The ‘African National Congress’ (ANC) is a terrorist organization in the terms of German criminal law, direct- ed by functionaries of the banned Commu- nist Party of South Africa, whose purposes and activities are directed at committing murder, manslaughter, crimes dangerous to the public, and against personal freedom.” The ANC, one of whose most prominent members was Nelson Mandela, was illegal- ized in South Africa from 1960 to 1990; it was a leading force, not least through exiled members, in the struggle against South Afri- can apartheid. The ban was lifted on Febru- ary 2, 1990. Criminal charges against the Kunstverein were dropped.