The seminar for the 2025/26 winter semester, entitled “I still have a suitcase in Berlin,” focuses on the object that was celebrated in the song of the same name by Marlene Dietrich in 1951.

The song was composed by Bully Buhlan, a German jazz and pop singer, pianist, pop composer, and actor who enjoyed great success, especially in the post-war period and early 1950s.

With the song “Ich habe noch einen Koffer in Berlin,” Marlene Dietrich not only wanted to express her attachment to her hometown, but also – after World War II – to win back the hearts of (West) Germans. In some circles there, she was considered a “traitor to her country” because she had become a US citizen and taken a stand against the Nazi regime. Her West German comeback tour in 1960 was partly a fiasco.

The suitcase here symbolises memories and experiences from the past. The desire to return to Berlin refers to a deep emotional attachment to the city and the region. The longing for the pre-war era and nostalgia in the face of the destruction of the metropolis and the entire country during World War II are central themes of the song. The melody and vocals impressively convey the emotions and attachment to her hometown.

Travel has been an integral part of human civilization since the beginning. As our means of transportation have evolved, so too have the methods and objects used to transport our belongings. From its humble beginnings to the modern age of innovation, luggage has undergone a remarkable evolution. The concept of luggage dates back to ancient times, when people traveled the earth on foot, on horseback, or in small boats. At that time, luggage consisted mainly of simple containers made from materials such as animal skins or woven reeds. These early forms of luggage were practical and served to transport food, tools, and personal items as people traveled in search of better resources and opportunities.

The ancient Egyptians, for example, are known to have used woven baskets and leather bags to carry their most important belongings when traveling. These bags were not only functional, but also symbolized the status and wealth of the people.

The suitcase carries many emotions and combines different dimensions, which I would like to examine more deeply with the group and understand from different cultural perspectives. On the one hand, the suitcase can be a symbol of self-initiated travel and, in the same breath, of forced migration. Like a microcosm whose contents reflect its owner, the suitcase is an architectural space and, in its material execution, also a status symbol.

Important examples of suitcases in recent German history:

Schindler's suitcase: In October 1999, a suitcase containing 7,000 documents and photos was found in the attic of the apartment of his last lover, Annemarie Staehr, in Hildesheim. It contained the original list of Jews saved by Oskar Schindler and a complete list of his favors to the SS.

Mielke's red suitcase: Erich Mielke's red suitcase contained explosive documents about the GDR head of state Erich Honecker. Erich Mielke was the long-standing Minister for State Security (MfS) and kept the files in a small red imitation leather suitcase at his office in Berlin-Lichtenberg. During the fall of the Berlin Wall and the peaceful revolution in the GDR, the military prosecutor's office searched Mielke's offices in December 1989. Since then, legends have surrounded the red suitcase found during the search, starting with its exact location.

Walter Benjamin's suitcase: Benjamin's lost suitcase containing his last manuscripts, which he carried with him during his futile escape across the Pyrenees in 1940, is legendary. It was included in a tri-national exhibition project in the historic train station of the border town of Portbou, where Benjamin took his own life in a hotel room in 1940.

In art history, there are many examples of artists who have a special relationship with suitcases.

When Marcel Duchamp said in 1952, “Everything important that I have created fits into a small suitcase,” he was not being self-deprecating. Rather, he was referring to his Boîte-en-Valise, or “box in a suitcase,” a container that held miniature versions of about seventy of his artworks that he considered “important” enough to reproduce and keep together for collectors. Between 1935 and 1940, Duchamp created 20 copies of the Boîte, which are now scattered among museums and private collections.

Claes Oldenburg: For Oldenburg, the suitcase served as a container for a multi-part work, but also as a means of establishing a connection between art and consumer goods. In the mid-1960s, as he secured his reputation as one of the most irreverent Pop Art artists, Oldenburg created a series of fantasy proposals for everyday, oversized objects—lipsticks, an electric fan, a pair of scissors—to be installed as urban monuments in cities around the world. London Knees (1966), a pair of women's legs visible from mid-thigh to mid-shin, was to stand like giant twin towers in famous locations throughout London.

Born in Beirut to Palestinian parents (who, like other Palestinians, were denied Lebanese citizenship), Mona Hatoum has created some of the most complex works on the theme of exile. The strangely eerie work Traffic (2002) consists of two suitcases standing side by side, connected by human hair that “grows” out of one suitcase and protrudes into the other. It is a rather minimalist way of conveying all the possible complexities of human existence. It seems as if the woman who once carried the suitcases has disappeared. And although suitcases convey mobility, Hatoum has made them immobile. They seem less like travel accessories and more like cumbersome substitutes for the body of their vanished owner.

Mehtap Baydu's “Bread” (2011). The suitcase work by artist Mehtap Baydu also shows how many migrants had to and still have to leave their homes behind just to earn their bread: those who came to Germany to work often had nothing more than hand luggage with them. In Turkish, there is the term “Ekmek Parasi,” translated as “bread money,” which is also the inspiration and metaphor for this work.

In this winter semester 25/26 seminar, I would like to work with the students to explore the suitcase as a space-embracing and space-creating object, a symbol of longing and the future, but also of farewell and grief.

I will present a number of examples of the suitcase in art. Above all, we want to work together to understand the suitcase from the different cultural backgrounds of the seminar participants.

Each seminar participant will prepare and share further examples of the suitcase as a central object with the group for the seminar. Based on these examples and discussions, all seminar participants will develop a personal artistic concept, which will be manifested at the end of the seminar in a practical elaboration and installation work to be presented by the entire group in a final presentation.