Dauerausstellung

http://www.init-design.de/ausstellungen.html?id=6

Two days before the university's ceremonial opening of the building, this exhibition was opened inside the IG-Farben-Haus. It chronicles the house's past on glass plates, in both English and German. According to the designers, the glass plates bring transparency to the building's complex past.

Was the creation and installation of the exhibition a sign that the university wasn't afraid of its past? As Schröder tried to encourage Germans to engage with the past but not be scared of or obsessed by it, it does seem like this was an attempt to live that neue Unbefangenkeit (new impartiality). The history of the area is given and not covered up. The whole history of the building, and not just the Nazi connections is displayed. However, unfortunately it's not clear from what I can find online whether the RAF bombings of the 1970s are covered, or at what depth.

But why was it opened two days before the moving-in celebrations? Was it to give the press time to write up informed (by what the university wanted them to see) background pieces for the day of the celebrations? Or was it to move focus away from the troubled past of the building and onto the future?