COURAGE

connecting collections

The Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship was founded by the German parliament in 1998 and is tasked to reprocess the causes, history and consequences of the dictatorships in the Soviet occupation zone and the GDR. It was meant to accompany the unification process, to collaborate on the reappraisal of dictatorships in other countries and to commemorate the peaceful revolutions of 1989 as outstanding events in the history of German und European democracy. The Foundation collaborates with many institutions and projects. Its archives maintain, develop and secure public access to several dozen collections concerning cultural opposition in the GDR.

The Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media has the rank of a minister of state and is responsible for promotion and funding of cultural projects and institutions of national importance. The Commissioner manages an agency with a staff of nearly 250 people and represents the interests of the Federal Republic of Germany regarding cultural and media policies at the European Union.

The Berlin Senate is also the government of the State of Berlin. The Governing Mayor is a member of the Senate. When a coalition of Social Democrats and the Left Party was in charge of the Senate in 2008 it initiated the "Cultural Work in Berlin" initiative. Thanks to this programme the Association Song and Social Movements could receive funds for an archive post for three years. 

Ferenczy Museum Center, Szentendre
The Ferenczy Museum, founded in 1951, was originally designed to present the collected art pieces of a famous Hungarian artistic family, the sculptures, paintings, graphics, and carpets of the ‘Four Ferenczys,’ which were finally placed into the renovated Mansion Pajor of Szentendre in 2012. Apart from its main collection, the Museum is also renowned for its temporary exhibitions in the last few years, such as the retrospective of the journal “World in Move,” photos by Ata Kandó, or the avantgarde journal ‘New Symposium’  – the progressive literary and art movements of the Communist era. 
Apart from these, the Ferenczy Museum Center is responsible for the maintenance and management of a network of close to a dozen smaller-sized collections located in different sites all over the old town of Szentendre, like the collected oeuvres of famous Hungarian artists Imre Ámos and Margit Anna, and the Barcsay Museum, Czóbel Museum, Margit Kovács Ceramics Collection, Kmetty Museum, Lajos Vajda Museum, Szentendre Gallery, the Art Mill (MűvészetMalom), the Roman Lapidarium, and the Local History Exhibition.