The exhibition documents the biography of Fritz Bauer, who as Hesse’s Attorney General initiated the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial and gave decisive hints for the capture of Adolf Eichmann. He was subjected to antisemitic hostility during the Weimar era, when he became one of the youngest district court judges to serve in the republic, during the Nazi era, and finally in the Federal Republic. Despite his exile in Scandinavia during the »Third Reich«, however, he firmly believed in progress, especially as a Social Democrat.
After his return, as Attorney General, Fritz Bauer revolutionized the traditional image of this office, which was still entirely focused on the citizens’ duty of obedience towards the state. He devoted himself vigorously to the reform of criminal law in the Federal Republic of Germany and the prosecution of Nazi criminals. His guiding principle was Article 1 of the Basic Law, which he had affixed to the justice buildings in Braunschweig and later also in Frankfurt am Main: »Human dignity shall be inviolable«.
The online exhibition is based on the travelling exhibition of the same name developed in 2014 by the Fritz Bauer Institute and the Jewish Museum Frankfurt and curated by Monika Boll and Erik Riedel, which was dismantled in 2022 after being shown in twelve locations.
The technical conversion of the existing exhibition into digital form was financed by the Fritz Bauer Institute Association. The exhibition is available in German, English and plain language.
To the exhibition:
› Fritz Bauer. District attorney
Curators of the exhibition
Dr. Monika Boll, Fritz Bauer Institute
Concept and set-up of the first exhibition in Frankfurt
Erik Riedel, Jewish Museum Frankfurt
Supervision of the travelling exhibition 2015-2018
Dr. Sara Berger, Fritz Bauer Institute
Supervision of the travelling exhibition 2021-2022
Transformation of the travelling exhibition into the virtual exhibition, 2023
Locations of the travelling exhibition
21 April to 19 May 2022
Palace of Justice in Vienna
31 October 2021 to 2 January 2022
Municipal Museum in Braunschweig
28 April to 17 October 2021
Topography of Terror Foundation in Berlin
15 March to 3 June 2018
Documentation Center Nazi Party Rally Grounds in Nuremberg
15 October 2017 to 25 February 2018
Jewish Museum of Westphalia in Dorsten
9 March to 28 June 2017
Military History Museum of the German Armed Forces in Dresden
21 April to 21 August 2016
NS-Documentation Center of the City of Cologne
27 January to 28 March 2016
Museum for the History of Christians and Jews in Laupheim
7 May to 26 June 2015
Regional Court in Tübingen
26 February to 17 April 2015
Regional Court in Heidelberg
9 December 2014 to 15 February 2015
Thuringian Parliament in Erfurt
10 April to 7 September 2014
Jewish Museum Frankfurt
