Simone Weil: The most dangerous disease

Texts by Simone Weil and photos by August Sander, André Kertész, Richard Avedon, Josef Sudek and Edouard Boubat, among others.

An exhibition of the Anti-War Museum, the Peace Library of the Protestant Church in Berlin-Brandenburg

  • Opening: Thursday, February 20, 2025, at 7 pm
  • Talk with Jochen Schmidt, Peace Library Anti-War Museum of the Evangelical Church Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia and Denis Bury, Director of the Ludwigsburg Prison Museum
  • Special opening hours for the election weekend from Friday to Sunday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
  • Duration: until mid-September 2025

The Peace Library/Anti-War Museum combines excerpts from Simone Weil’s texts with works by important photographers to create a moving exhibition. At the invitation of the Ludwigsburg Prison Museum, it will be on display at the museum from next week.

At the opening on Thursday, February 20, 2025 at 7 p.m., the new director of the museum, Denis Bury, will hold a discussion open to the public with Jochen Schmidt, who has been active in the Peace Library-Anti-War Museum of the Evangelical Church Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia and its director for over 40 years.

The French philosopher Simon Weil, born in Paris in 1909 and died of tuberculosis in Ashford/England in 1943, worked as a teacher, was involved in trade unions, took part in the Spanish Civil War and lived voluntarily in poverty. “I would like to write about her, to give her voice, but I know: I can’t do it, I’m not up to it, not intellectually, not morally, not religiously,” writes Heinrich Böll in ‘Last auf meiner Seele’, published by Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag in 1985.

On the occasion of the election weekend, the Ludwigsburg Prison Museum will be open from Friday to Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm. Regular visits are possible on Wednesdays and Sundays from 1 to 5 pm. Guided tours are available on request.

On two floors in the former Tollhaus of the prison – one of the oldest buildings in the baroque city of Ludwigsburg – a selection of around 5000 objects from the prison’s own collection and loans on the history of torture, imprisonment and punishment can be seen. Prisoners‘ clothing, guillotines, a prison cell and objects from the RAF in Stammheim are just some of the exhibits.

The Peace Library/Anti-War Museum is a voluntary group from the former GDR citizens‘ opposition movement. At the time eagerly mistrusted by the GDR state and the Stasi, it has been working for over 40 years. In GDR times alone, exhibitions were shown over 300 times. This makes it one of the most active groups within the opposition movement.