Parcours des
Resistance
100 and 18
100 Hopebringers and 18 ground reliefs commemorate the men and women who helped others. 100 stands for a century, an entire life. 18 is a look into the abyss of the 20th century, because the 1 stands for the first letter in the alphabet, the 8 for the eighth: AH, Adolf Hitler. But 18 is also a lucky number. In Judaism it stands for Chai, life. So we are in the midst of a tension between history.
The life stories of the resistance fighters tell us who we could have been and show us the way. For history, as Ardi Goldman it understands it, is not a museum arrangement but omnipresent. History has shaped us and still does. The course of the resistance is a journey through time into the here and now of people who risked their lives and grew beyond themselves. It is an „auratic space“ that tells stories of people about whom we, according to Walter Benjamin, knew nothing „before we remembered them,“ and who come alive within us. These are true stories, states of hope filled with imagination and creativity. And foolishness. Stories where luck plays a role or does not play a role and where coincidence has guided the course of events. Stories that inspire courage. Because, as Wladimir Kaminer put it:
„If we only cry, we lose ourselves in unconsciousness!“
In this way, the context of German history becomes visible, namely: „Who we could have been and how the story could have turned out differently.“
This look back forward, a bridge to the here and now of the 21st century, sharpens the awareness even in difficult times, such as these, with war and crises, in order to keep the democratic path intact.
Parcours des Resistance
The Stolpersteine, a project initiated in the 1990s by the artist Gunter Demnig, served as inspiration for the Hopebringers. The small brass plaques embedded in the ground bear the names of victims of National Socialism and are located in front of the last freely elected places of residence of the deportees. The Stolpersteine are a social sculpture that literally make remembering an everyday act. Anyone can „stumble“ over them, kneel down, read the names and pause. The Stolpersteine remind us of the persecuted, the trail of resistance commemories those who have resisted. By bringing the stories of people back to the consciousness, those who were not ignored but acted upon. Hopebringers in a dark time. A sign of remembrance, of what was and how it could have been different.
We know this yesterday — we have to think about it tomorrow.
100 Hopefuls
18 ground reliefs
The 100 Hopebringers Eberhard F. Gutberlet and 18 ground reliefs were created in 2024/2025 by a Frankfurt-based artist with a clear and at the same time deeply expressive visual language. They are intended as a silent echo of people and stories that should not be forgotten. The works were cast in Glocken and Kunstgießerei Rincker in the Hessian Sinn – a family business in its 14th generation since 1590.
Memorial to the German Resistance
It was Ardi Goldmanthe idea to tell a story that is larger than a life and saved many; the story of resistance. A story of many stories. The ones that are known and the ones that only a few know and that may be told here for the first time. A topography of hope.
He traveled to Berlin with his small team and presented his concept to Professor Dr. Johannes Tuchel, the head of the German Resistance Memorial. The inclusion of the Hopefuls in a Union-Gelände“publicly accessible space” flanked by restaurants, the Fortuna Irgendwo, the Roman Fabrik, offices and shops, convinced him.
The cooperation with the Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand has made Goldman’s Topography of Hope responsible. We must honor the stories of those whose stories we tell, continue and pass on their work with imagination and creativity.
Ardi Goldman Kunst-
und Kulturstiftung gGmbH
Uniongelände
Hanauer Landstraße 188, 60314 Frankfurt am Main