Unku – eine Berliner Sintiza. Ein Abend zu Erna Lauenburger. Musikalische Lesung und Gespräch

In the organizer's words:

Erna Lauenburger (1920-1943), a Sintiza from Berlin, became known as Unku. In 1931, the youth book "Ede und Unku" by the author Alex Wedding (1905-1966) was published. The story is set in the working-class milieu of Berlin and focuses on poverty and labor struggles in the Weimar Republic. At the heart of the story is the friendship between the two children of the title.

Together with descendants of Erna Lauenburger, Margitta and Manolito Steinbach from the association Menda Yek e.V. and the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe as well as the Documentation and Cultural Center of German Sinti and Roma, the Stadtmuseum Berlin has expanded the BERLIN GLOBAL exhibition to include the biography of Erna Lauenburger.

On the occasion of the "Romnja* Power Month", the "Day of Provenance Research" and the expansion of our exhibition, we cordially invite you to the opening of the exhibition area with a musical reading!

Program

Margitta Steinbach, Ulrich Baumann, Deputy Director of the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, and Brenda Spiesbach, curator at BERLIN GLOBAL, will give a brief insight into the joint process of expanding the exhibition.

Manolito Steinbach, the nephew of Erna Lauenburger, and the Romani Weiss Swingtett will set the story of the Sintiza's life and persecution to music.

Afterwards, journalist Gilda-Nancy Horvath will talk to Margitta and Manolito Steinbach about the importance of family remembrance and public recognition of those murdered.

Participants

Margitta Steinbach is one of the founders of the association Menda Yek e.V. and a project employee at AMCHA Deutschland e.V. Since 2021, Steinbach has been working as a project employee at AMCHA Deutschland e.V. in the area of "Sinti*zze and transgenerational trauma".Margitta Steinbach belongs to the Sinti*zze community and is the grandchild of survivors of the Berlin-Marzahn forced labor camp and the Magdeburg Holzweg forced labor camp. In 2022, Steinbach and other descendants of the two forced labor camps founded the association Menda Yek e.V. ("One of Us"). The association deals with the psychosocial consequences of the Holocaust for Sinti*zze. The focus is on the unresolved traumas. An essential part of the work is to ensure that the relatives of the affected families are actively involved in all processes of the remembrance policy - according to the motto: "Not about us, but with us".

Manolito Steinbach is a guitarist and cultural ambassador. As a member of a family of Sinti musicians in Berlin, Manolito Steinbach came into contact with music at an early age, with his cousin, the German Sinti musician Häns'che Weiss, having a significant influence on him. Manolito Steinbach has presented his music at major festivals such as the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival and the Django Festival Augsburg. He was also a prizewinner at the Pinneberg Summer Jazz Festival in 2010.In addition to his musical activities, Manolito Steinbach is politically committed to the rights of Sinti and Roma. He uses his platform to share his personal history as a Sinto in Germany and is actively involved in cultural exchange.

Dr. Ulrich Baumann has been Deputy Director of the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe since 2008 and has been a member of its staff since 2002. In 1998, he completed his dissertation on the history of former Jewish rural communities in Baden. From 1999 to 2002, he worked for the Claims Conference documenting the assets of Jewish merchants in Berlin. At the same time, he worked on educational projects for the Shoah Foundation and the Jewish Museum Berlin. In recent years, Ulrich Baumann has designed or advised on a number of exhibitions for the Foundation on victims of National Socialist persecution (Holocaust, murder of the Sinti and Roma, patient murders, terrorist justice of the German Wehrmacht courts, persecution of people interned by the National Socialists as "asocials" and "professional criminals" in concentration camps). He also researches the history of non-Jewish and Jewish entrepreneurs and businesswomen in Berlin from 1900 to 1961.

The Romani Weiss Swingtett, consisting of Romani Weiss (guitar), Hannah Bienert (violin), Manolito Steinbach (guitar) and André Loos (bass), fuses classic jazz manouche à la Django Reinhardt with influences from the legendary Great American Songbook and contemporary jazz in their music.

Gilda-Nancy Horvath (moderator) is an Austrian journalist. In 2025 she is a guest lecturer at KSH Munich on the topic of "Social Innovation & Disruptive Leadership". In 2024 she won the Council of Europe Prize for Journalistic Excellence in Ethical Reporting for her portrait series "Glaso" (voice) about personalities from the Roma community at Deutsche Welle Europa. Since 2019, she has been an elected member of ERIAC (European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture), the largest umbrella organization of Roma and Sinti cultural organizations worldwide. The journalist (ORF, DW Europa) also works as a communications consultant for governments and politicians as well as for leaders from the NGO/NPO sector. She writes plays, texts and rap lyrics as her alter ego "Nancy Black" in German, English and Romani.

- free of charge

- Please book a free ticket in advance online or on site at the Humboldt Forum box office

- Berlin Global, 1st floor, room "Krieg" and hall 5

- from 12 years

- Language: German