Barbara Greul Aschanta was born in Frankfurt am Main where she lives today. Having graduated from the art academy in Düsseldorf she started working as a freelance artist. Her two-sided painting “Deutschland im November” (Germany in November) commemorates the night of pogroms in 1938 and the fall of the Wall in 1989, which both occurred on 9 November. The painting no longer exists.
Barbara Greul Aschanta’s painting “Deutschland im November” (Germany in November) refers to the night of pogroms in Nazi Germany on 9 November 1938 and the fall of the Wall on 9 November 1989. The mirror relief in the centre aims both to create the illusion of a crack in the Wall and commemorate the pogroms against Jews. The painting was often shown in the media and frequently defaced. In 2009, Greul Aschanta refused to restore her painting; it no longer exists. She objected to the East Side Gallery’s museum-like character and restoration on the grounds that it commercially exploited the Wall paintings.
Greul Aschanta studied painting at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Düsseldorf from 1969 to 1975, taking a master’s degree under the painter Karl Otto Götz. An award-winning freelance artist, her work has been shown in numerous exhibitions. Her art consistently confronts political issues such as antisemitism and women’s rights.