Articles (in German & English) and a power point presentation, radio and TV interviews
Archive – a collection of works
German version: Tanya Ury and Amin Farzanefar, editor: Amin Farzanefar
“Needless to say, when treatment was so frequent, there could be no question of proper documentation or assessment of the therapy; and that was what happened with your great-uncle too. Besides, said Dr Abramsky, all of the material on file – the case histories and the medical records Fahnstock kept on a daily basis, albeit in a distinctly cursory fashion – have probably long since been eaten by the mice. They took over the madhouse when it was closed and have been multiplying without cease ever since; at all events, on nights when there is no wind blowing I can hear a constant scurrying and rustling in the dried-out shell of the building, and at times, when a full moon rises beyond the trees, I imagine I can hear the pathetic song of a thousand tiny upraised throats. Nowadays I place all my hope in the mice, and in the woodworm and deathwatch beetles. The sanatorium is creaking, and in places already caving in, and sooner or later they will bring about its collapse. I have a recurring dream of that collapse, said Dr Abramsky, gazing at the palm of his left hand as he spoke. I see the sanatorium on its lofty rise, see everything simultaneously, the building as a whole and also the minutest detail; and I know that the woodwork, the roof beams, door posts and panelling, the floorboards and staircases, the rails and banisters, the lintels and ledges, have already been hollowed out under the surface, and that at any moment, as soon as the chosen one amongst the blind armies of beetles dispatches the very last, scarcely material resistance with its jaws, the entire lot will come down. And that is precisely what does happen in my dream, before my very eyes, infinitely slowly, and a great yellowish cloud billows out and disperses, and where the sanatorium once stood there is merely a heap of powder-fine wood dust, like pollen.”
P. 112 – 113, The Emigrants, W.G. Sebald, 1992, translation 1993, Vintage Books 2002, ISBN 9780099448884
On the 3rd of March 2009 the Historical Archives of the City of Cologne, the largest archive in Germany collapsed. A thousand years of German history, from handwritten documents of the Middle Ages, to the private effects of 900 Cologne personalities, authors like Heinrich Böll, Günter Wallraf, Irmgard Keun, the composers Jacques Offenbach and Max Bruch — was all buried under a pile of rubble.
After my mother’s death in London ten years ago, I brought several generations of my families’ effects back to Germany, from where those who survived had fled the Nazis. I decided on specifically this archive because most of the family came from Cologne, and because the effects of my great uncle Wilhelm Unger had already been put in safekeeping there after his death in 1985.
Our personal archive included, not only original scores of my father’s two operas and other musical compositions, and my grandfather’s film scripts, but also photographs and letters of family murdered in Nazi Germany. We have no copies of any of these documents.
A new underground line was being built by the Cologne transport company (KVB), too close to the archive; cracks had been observed, reported and for inconceivable reasons ignored, already long before the catastrophe:
“(Dr. Eberhard) Illner had already established cracks from subsidence in the cellar, the summer of last year, and even informed the Archive directors. He was the Archive departmental director for estates, collections and photography, and now runs the Historical Centre in Wuppertal.” www.bild.de (translation T.U.)
With various media I will be undertaking research and reporting on what has become of the family archive buried under the weight of its own history.
Festivals & Events
2009 (16.8) “Trapped” Cologne authors, priests and politicians on the collapse of the City Archives, 3 pm Basilika St. Severin, Im Ferkulum 29, 50678 Köln: Tanya Ury: The souls of my dead relatives. The Loss of the Ury/Unger family estate. 4.30 pm Severingtorburg, Chlodwigplatz 2, 50677 Köln: Tanya Ury: reading from Alfred H. Unger’s The Stories of the Great Nazarene (1926) www.koeln-journal.de/i…
2009 (24.8) Action: Köln Kann Auch Anders (Cologne can do it better), 6 pm, Tanya Ury reading (20 minutes) in front of the Cologne Town Hall, on the collapse of the City Archives – The Souls of my Dead Relatives. The Loss of the Ury-Unger family archive, Cologne (D)
www.koelnkannauchanders.de
2010 (3.3.) Tanya Ury: Presentation of “The Souls of my dead relatives”. The Loss of the Jewish Ury/Unger family estate. – lost in the City Archives. Reading: Gewissen (Conscience), “Rubble and Shame” – A year after the Collapse of the Historical Archives. KÖLN KANN AUCH ANDERS (Cologne can do better), Aura 09 & Kölner Komment (Cologne Comments), 7.30 pm Odeon Cinema, Severin Street 81, Cologne (D)
Publications & Press
Publications & Press
2009 (19.3) Tanya Ury, radio interview with Annette Hager, 6.08 – 8 pm, Resonanzen WDR 3, on the collapse of the Historisches Archiv (Historical Archives) Cologne (D)
www.wdr.de/themen/glob…
2009 (18.7) Television interview (recorded 15.6) with Achim Zeilmann of Aspekte ZDF “Hilfeschreie aus Papier” (Paper Cries for Help), 3 pm (repeated on days following): report on the collapse of the Historisches Archiv (Historical Archives) Cologne (D)
2009 (28.8) Television interview with Theo Roos, 7.20 pm, Kulturzeit – Köln Reloaded, 3 Sat, report on the collapse of the Historisches Archiv (Historical Archives) Cologne (D)
archiv.twoday.net/topi… wstreaming.zdf.de/3sat…
www.3sat.de/dynamic/si…
2009 (6.10) Article by Helga Humbach, on the Aura event (16.8.): “Trapped” Tanya Ury and Cologne authors, priests and politicians on the collapse of the City Archives, in ver.di-Zeitschrift Kunst & Kultur (Art & Culture Magazine), Cologne (D)
2010 (12) Juliette Brungs seminar on Dischereit and Ury’s archive-related work, conference in Boston (USA)
Artist’s Writings & Publications
2009 (22.4) “Cologne’s Conscience” (German), article on the collapse of the Historisches Archiv (Historical Archives) by Ury in the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger (Cologne City Advertiser) (D): „Guten Morgen Köln!“ (Good morning Cologne!) online 22nd April from 9 am
www.ksta.de/html/artik…
2009 (25.5) “Conscience 2” (German), 2nd article on the collapse of the Historisches Archiv (Historical Archives) by Ury in the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger (Cologne City Advertiser) (D): „Guten Morgen Köln!“ (Good morning Cologne!) online 25th May from 9 am
www.ksta.de/html/artik…
2009 (16.7) “Conscience 3” (German), 3rd article (shortened version) on the collapse of the Historisches Archiv (Historical Archives) by Ury in the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger (Cologne City Advertiser) (D): „Guten Morgen Köln!“ (Good morning Cologne!) online from ca. 9 am under the news heading: www.ksta.de/html/seite…
also: www.ksta.de/html/artik…
2009 (12.8) “Conscience 4” (German), 4th article on the collapse of the Historisches Archiv (Historical Archives) by Ury in the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger (Cologne City Advertiser) (D): „Guten Morgen Köln!“ (Good morning Cologne!) online from ca. 9 am under the news heading: www.ksta.de/gutenmorgen www.ksta.de/html/artik…
2009 (25.8) “Conscience” articles on the collapse of the Historisches Archiv (Historical Archives) by Ury, on the website “Köln kann auch anders” (Cologne can do better) (D) www.koelnkannauchanders.de
2019 (from 27.2.) Conscience 5, article (German: Gewissen 5) on the collapse of the Historisches Archiv (Historical Archives of the City of Cologne) and its devastating consequences for the Ury family legacy, ten years on, by Ury, published together with Conscience 1 – 4, 2009, online by Neue Rheinische Zeitung, Arbeiterfotografie (New Rhenish Gazette, Workers Photography) (D) at these links:
Gewissen (Conscience) 5 from 27.02.2019: www.nrhz.de/flyer/beit…
Gewissen (Conscience) 1 from 07.03.2019: www.nrhz.de/flyer/beit…
Gewissen (Conscience) 2 from 14.03.2019: www.nrhz.de/flyer/beit…
Gewissen (Conscience) 3 from 20.03.2019: www.nrhz.de/flyer/beit…
Gewissen (Conscience) 4 from 30.03.2019: www.nrhz.de/flyer/beit…