A history for today

By dealing with and presenting the life and the person of Anne Frank the Anne Frank Zentrum serves to keep alive the memory of the National Socialist crimes and carries the message of her diary into the present time.

The Anne Frank Zentrum is committed to promoting a varied and lively society and to working against anti-Semitism, prejudice and any kind of discrimination against people. It is especially committed to encouraging personal decisions to act in everyday situations of exclusion or peer pressure. The main focus of the work of the Anne Frank Zentrum is on educational work with young people.

The foundation of the Anne Frank Zentrum in Berlin goes back to an initiative in 1994. At the time the showing of the international travelling exhibition »The world of Anne Frank. 1929-1945« was being prepared in Berlin. The exhibition was shown in six boroughs of the city to mark the 50th anniversary of the liberation from National Socialism. Specifically to support the coordination of the exhibition and the extensive accompanying programme a Society of Friends was founded.

With this organisation as a basis, efforts were made towards the founding of the Anne Frank Zentrum in Berlin so that the work on the topics of the exhibition could be continued. To this end the existing Anne Frank Centres in Great Britain and the USA offered guidance.

On completion of a cooperation agreement with the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam the Anne Frank Zentrum was finally opened on 12 June 1998. Since then numerous visitors, youth groups and school classes have been coming to the Anne Frank Zentrum from Berlin and the whole country. Since September 2002 the Anne Frank Zentrum has been based next to the Hackesche Höfe at 39 Rosenthaler Strasse in Berlin.