A01=Priya Basil
Author_Priya Basil
Berlin
Category=AMG
Category=JH
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Germany
Museum
Postcolonial
Restitution
Product details
- ISBN 9783035807523
- Weight: 59g
- Dimensions: 120 x 190mm
- Publication Date: 25 Sep 2025
- Publisher: Diaphanes AG
- Publication City/Country: CH
- Product Form: Paperback
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A reflection on the reconstruction of the Berlin Palace and its contradictory use as an ethnological museum.
Having recently accepted German citizenship, writer and activist Priya Basil explores the Humboldt Forum from a deeply personal perspective. She delves into the question of what such a building, such a project, means for an understanding of the past and for belonging in the present. This much disputed, contested, celebrated monument now exists—but what exactly does it monumentalize? Basil writes, “In German, the word Schloss means a palace, and also a lock. The central question: Can a lock also be a key?”
Having recently accepted German citizenship, writer and activist Priya Basil explores the Humboldt Forum from a deeply personal perspective. She delves into the question of what such a building, such a project, means for an understanding of the past and for belonging in the present. This much disputed, contested, celebrated monument now exists—but what exactly does it monumentalize? Basil writes, “In German, the word Schloss means a palace, and also a lock. The central question: Can a lock also be a key?”
Priya Basil is an author and activist. She is co-founder of the Organisation Authors for Peace, a member of the advisory council at the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights, and initiator of the campaign for an official continent-wide Europe-day holiday. Her book, Im Wir und Jetzt. Feministin werden, was published in German in 2021.
