New associate members at the Zentrum für Kulturtechnik

In order to strengthen interdisciplinary exchange within HU Berlin, in spring 2025 we invited researchers who already collaborate with us or have interfaces with our departments to become associate members of the ZfK. After first obtaining the approval of their home institutes and faculties, we are very pleased to announce that we were able to welcome nine new associate members at the ZfK-Zentrumsratsitzung meeting on 25 June 2025.

We are delighted to welcome the following as associate members of the ZfK:

• Prof. Dr. Petra Anders, Department of Education Studies
• Prof. Dr. Claudia Derichs, Institute of Asian and African Studies
• Prof. Dr. Eva Ehninger, Department of Art and Visual History & KHK inherit. Heritage in transformation
• Prof. Dr. Pauline Endres de Oliveira, Faculty of Law & Berlin Institute for Empirical Integration and Migration Research
• Yasemin Keskintepe, Department of Art and Visual History, Das Technische Bild
• Prof. Dr. Martin Reinhart, Berlin School of Library and Information Science & Robert K. Merton Center for Science Studies
• Dr. Jakob Schillinger, Department of Art and Visual History, Menzel-Dach
• Prof. Dr. Nadja-Christina Schneider, Institute of Asian and African Studies
• Prof. Dr. Gesa Stedman, Centre for British Studies

Additional associate members are currently undergoing the admission process. We welcome applications from interested researchers at HU Berlin who wish to contribute to the profile of the Zentrum für Kulturtechnik with its three pillars: ‘Exhibiting/Mediating,’ ‘Heritage/Collections,’ and ‘Knowledge Exchange with Society.’ Information on secondary membership at the ZfK can be found here or in the section ‘About us’.

In the beginning, Hermann von Helmholtz-Zentrum für Kulturtechnik focused on “Image – Script – Number”, represented by prominent thinkers such as Horst Bredekamp (art history), Jochen Brüning (mathematics) and Friedrich Kittler (history and theory of culture). The consistent focus on the mediality and materiality of knowledge made it possible to take an innovative look at a wide range of interdisciplinary contexts. In a second phase, materiality in its aesthetic form came even more to the fore and enabled new forms of knowledge analysis at the design and collection level. Since 2021, this analysis has been expanded and supplemented by social anthropological perspectives and questions of knowledge transfer as genuine sites of inter- and transdisciplinary knowledge production.

As of spring 2025, the Hermann von Helmholtz-Zentrum für Kulturtechnik has a new short title: Zentrum für Kulturtechnik. The new abbreviation – ZfK – can also be found in the new logo.

The new logo unites the three phases: Aesthetically and visually based on Latin letters, it can be read as an abbreviation for “Zentrum für Kulturtechnik”. In fact, however, the characters are taken from Unicode, i.e. the paradoxical attempt to unite the diversity of the world’s more than 110,000 fonts in one code without forming a semantic unit. The logo thus captures the challenge of dealing with irreducibly diverse knowledge in an image that is both legible and illegible: the Z is also a mathematical symbol, the f is taken from the Mongolian Phagba script and the K from the ancient Lycian language. As individual characters, they are neither arbitrary nor can they be brought into a closed system of meaning. Each use is potentially a vulnerable argument. The reflexive paradox is programmatic for the work on and with cultural techniques, understood as media of distancing, through which understanding becomes possible in the first place. On this basis, ZfK tests the interaction of material- and collection-based research, the opening up of disciplinary epistemologies and the third mission: knowledge exchange with society and outreach as the third pillar of the university.

[Text: Prof. Daniel Tyradellis]

Note: Due to the in-progress redesign of the ZfK website, the new abbreviation will not be adapted throughout this website.

On 08.06.2021 the election for the Council of the Central Institute “Hermann von Helmholtz-Zentrum für Kulturtechnik” will take place. Further information about the procedure, deadlines and how to apply for absentee ballots can be found in the Election Notice HZK (PDF in German).

Opening hours polling station at the HZK: 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Gerlachbau – Hermann von Helmholtz-Zentrum
Kurssaal
Campus Nord
Philippstr. 13, Haus 3
10115 Berlin-Mitte

The way to the Kurssaal is signposted. Voters who cannot enter the building with a key card can use the house bell/intercom system (“Kurssaal”) to gain entry.

The local election committee can be reached by telephone all day on 030 2093 12879.

Dear visitors of the Tieranatomisches Theater,

with the relaxation of the Infection Protection Act (Infektionsschutzgesetz) announced at the beginning of March 2021, cultural institutions are gradually reopening to the public. We too are eagerly awaiting the relaunch of our exhibition and event programme, and we deeply miss your presence.

So why does the TA T remain closed?

As an institution of the Humboldt-Universität, we are subject to the rules agreed between the Berlin Senate Chancellery for Science and Research (Senatskanzlei für Wissenschaft und Forschung) and Berlin’s universities. This means that work at Humboldt-Universität will continue under limited conditions and our properties will not be accessible to the public. I would like to emphasise that we are not hiding behind this decision, but are fully committed to it. There are several reasons for this. The scientific assessment of the course of the pandemic has so far been very correct with forecasts and there are many indications that the fact-based warnings from the scientific community against too rapid relaxation are absolutely justified. In this situation, it is still appropriate to wait with reopening – for the protection of staff and the public. Don’t get me wrong: I believe that the cultural sector and the public engagement it facilitates with science, among other things, are indispensable to life and of systemic importance. A closure of the institutions is an economic catastrophe for many people who make a living from it – and much better political measures are needed here, but also solidarity from all of us. However, closed museums, theatres and clubs are not the end of culture. Instead, we must use this time to develop other forms of mediation and encounter that will be important in the future. This is exactly what we, like many other institutions, are doing behind the scenes right now.
When we open the TA T for you again in spring or summer, there will not be visible changes in the building, but we will also be more present online with guided tours and events. This will require personnel, financial and technical changes and, not least, curatorial innovations. The first steps can already be seen. Linked on the TA T homepage, you will find the virtual “TA Tour” developed by the Cluster of Excellence “Matters of Activity” – an augmented reality experience of the historic building. On Instagram, we offer live, short tours of special details of the building and exhibitions that have otherwise remained hidden. So I am pleased that we will be able to share our work with you in various ways in the future.

Kind regards, Yours

Felix Sattler
Head TA T, Curator

The dates for the 2021 HZK Zentrumsrat meetings are:

24.03.2021, 3-5 p.m. – Agenda (PDF)
02.06.2021, 3-5 p.m.
08.09.2021, 3-5 p.m.
01.12.2021, 3-5 p.m.

Deviations from these dates will be agreed in the committee.
In case of special urgency, additional dates will be convened by the Director, if necessary.
The invitation, including the agenda and preparatory documents, is issued seven days before the start of each meeting.
Meeting dates and agendas are announced publicly.