WHAT A FAMILY! Ruthe Zuntz: 500 Years in Focus

In the newest exhibition at the Jewish Museum Frankfurt, photographer Ruthe Zuntz explores her 500-year family history through a multimedia approach, using her father’s letters and his childhood memories of Frankfurt as a starting point for her search for traces of the past.

The extraordinary history of the Zuntz family leads from Frankfurt’s Judengasse to Great Britain, Israel, the USA, and back again to Germany. It was written by famous figures such as Leopold Zuntz, widely considered to be a co-founder of Jewish Studies, and includes business ventures such as the coffee bean roasting company A. Zuntz sel. Wwe, founded by Rachel Zuntz-Hess, Amschel’s widow.

Born and raised in Israel, photographer Ruthe Zuntz now lives with her family in Berlin. Throughout her years of research, she searched for her family’s traces and testimonies in Frankfurt and around the world.

View of the exhibition © Jewish Museum Frankfurt, Photo Norbert Miguletz

In her exhibition, which was specially developed for the Jewish Museum Frankfurt, the artist and photographer Ruthe Zuntz explores both family histories and transgenerational trauma and provides unique insight into the processing of memory and grief in the second and third post-Shoah generations.

Learn more about the exhibition on the museum website.