Consultation hour. Talking about death

Questions about death are omnipresent and answers are rare. That's why the Humboldt Forum invites a death counsellor, a pathologist, a murderer or a funeral speaker to the consultation hour.

Ask questions to people who have to deal with death almost every day and come along on Sundays to the consultation hour as part of the special exhibition un_endlich (infinite).

André-Sebastian Zank, born on 15 March 1967 in West Berlin, is a pastor of the Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia (EKBO) and, as a pastoral psychologist trained in depth psychology (DGfP), qualified in pastoral care, life counselling and supervision. Originally a trained nurse, he became involved early on in the field of end-of-life care, hospice and palliative work. From 2002, he established the hospice work at the Queen Elisabeth Herzberge Hospital (KEH) in Berlin-Lichtenberg. Today he is head and managing director of the Diakonie-Hospiz Lichtenberg gGmbH, founded in 2005 on the KEH grounds (mainly under the auspices of the Friedrich von Bodelschwinghschen Stiftungen Bethel-Bielefeld), an inpatient hospice with 10 places, as well as an outpatient hospice service. André-Sebastian Zank has been the chairman of the Hospice and Palliative Association Berlin e.V. (HPV-Berlin) since 2021.

Dr Susanne Ganepola completed her specialist training at the Charité in haematology, oncology and stem cell transplantation from 2005-2009, before finishing her specialist training at the Asklepios Clinic Hamburg-Altona in the Department of Haematology and Oncology from 2009-2011. During these years, she began to focus more intensively on palliative medicine. Since 2014, she has been working as an outpatient in the oncology practice. In 2017, she acquired the additional designation as a specialist in palliative medicine. There has been close cooperation with Martin Kramer and the Seestraße Oncology Practice since 2011. The nursing and palliative care service Kramer & Kramer, which was founded as a family business, received its health insurance authorisation in 1991. Before that, Martin Kramer worked in the intensive care unit. He completed further training in anaesthesia/intensive and palliative medicine as well as the professional title of quality manager in nursing. In their work, they want to enable people to live a safe and fulfilled life in their own homes for as long as possible. They are thus considered pioneers in the field of palliative home care. Martin Kramer has been a member of the board of Home Care Berlin e.V. Palliative Medicine Service for many years.

The doctor of law, sociology and industrial engineering came to end-of-life care through the death of an Indian friend. From the mother tongue to nutrition: the head of the intercultural outpatient hospice service Dong Ban Ja of the Humanist Association Berlin Brandenburg explains what end-of-life care looks like that takes into account the individual cultural context of the dying person.

Maria Kauffmann and Robert Freitag founded “Ab unter die Erde” 2020. A person is so much more than mourning and crying. Of course, that is also part of saying goodbye, but not only. The problem they see in today’s funeral industry is that the current farewell rituals only focus on that. In the process, the life of the person is often pushed into the background. That is exactly what they want to change.

They want to celebrate the life of the person. The two have decided to put together different “characters” as packages in which one or the other can find themselves: Simple and plain as a pragmatist anonymously in an urn grave or loud and special in the musician package with a vinyl burial and a concert-like farewell party. Maria and Robert have set themselves the goal of organising alternative and special funerals with unique memorial services. When planning and carrying out these individual farewell parties and funerals, the focus is always on the deceased. The type and location of the funeral as well as the farewell party itself are organised according to the interests and passions of the deceased. “We find that there are no taboos. Anything that helps to understand and process loss and farewell is not only right, but also important. What do you think? Let’s talk about it!”

For more than 30 years, Dorte Janussen has been researching the early evolution of animals and the development of animal worlds at the bottom of the deep oceans. Dorte Janussen, a Danish native, graduated from the FU-Berlin and completed her doctorate and habilitation in geology-palaeontology. Since 2001 she has been working as a marine biologist at the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum and since 2004 also as a private lecturer at the Wolfgang-v.-Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main. As a deep-sea researcher, Dorte Janussen has taken part in numerous expeditions, including in the Arctic and Antarctic, and she is (co-)author of more than 100 scientific publications. As a glass and light artist (artist’s name Dorte Sukavi), she finds her inspiration in the lights of polar ice landscapes and the glow of deep-sea animals.

Is there a positive way of dealing with death? Do people want to face their mortality? The co-curator of the exhibition un_endlich, Gesine Last, reports on the considerations that went into the conception of the unusual exhibition and reflects on her experiences with visitors and other participants in dealing with the often taboo subject of death.

- Place: Foyer exhibition un_endlich, ground floor

- free of charge

- from 12 years

- Language: German

- Duration: 120 Minutes