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This fragment is part of the "CulturalxCollabs - Weaving the Future" carpet.
Through the fragment we trace the journey of the fragment owners and their collabs as they explore, experiment and creatively advance socially relevant themes. Here is the fragment as we are sending it on this three and a half-year journey.
Follow this story to observe the transformations the fragement undergoes over the course of these years...
...and on we go...
...with Evangelical Church Community of Alt-Schöneberg
We are the Evangelical Church Community of Alt-Schöneberg, the oldest Protestant congregation in the Schöneberg district, with a history stretching back to 1180. And yet we are a vibrant, visible, and actively engaged community in our neighbourhood!
Our profile can be summarised in the following points: Lived ecumenism, Queer tolerance and social engagement, Outstanding church music, A spiritual home for children, youth, and families, Activating work with senior members, Social-diaconal action.
We have shared three moments from the carpet fragment's history in our congregation, illustrated here with images that, for data protection reasons, are largely symbolic in nature.
Handover
During the first Sunday service in September 2025, carpet fragment #23 was formally presented to us. Susanne Lenzen, Administrative Director of the Faculty of Performing Arts at the Berlin University of the Arts, and her husband Dr. Fabian Lenzen, a church elder and thus a member of the congregation's leadership, brought us the fragment from the University of the Arts, where it had been housed for the previous six months.
The first Sunday service of each month is a special format for us, in which we do not hold a traditional sermon – normally the centrepiece of a Protestant service in the Lutheran tradition. Instead, we address families with children of all ages, bringing biblical content to life through playful scenes and interactive formats that are relevant and connected to everyday experience. Because the stories of the Bible have something to say to all of us, however small or large we may be. Our church musicians are also specially trained to offer musical contributions in which children can join in – singing, calling out, clapping, or moving to the music. The family service is more than a children's service and by now speaks to all generations: with its intercession rituals, in which we are free to say what brings us joy, what weighs on us, or what we may place in God's hands because it feels too large or unresolved for us to carry alone. It was into this open and creative setting that the travelling carpet fragment arrived.
Church Council Meeting
The carpet fragment accompanied us for six months – here it joined us at a meeting of our Church Council. The Church Council (Gemeindekirchenrat = GKR for short) is the governing body of our congregation, responsible for all legal, financial, and organisational matters of a community that has not only a spiritual but also a material form: to do our work, we too need buildings, infrastructure, staff, and financial resources.
The GKR is therefore a powerful expression of the fact that the Protestant Church in Germany still upholds – and above all lives by – important and constitutive principles: it is democratically constituted and provides for voluntary engagement at every level, including leadership. Ordained ministers lead the congregation with regard to the administration of the sacraments, which only they may confer. They form the heart of pastoral and liturgical life. For everything else – organisation, personnel, finance, and legal affairs – there are committed lay members who bring their professional and biographical competencies and experience to managing the local congregation and, above all, filling it with life. These laypeople too act in the spirit of the Christian message. As Luther aptly put it, in the language of his time, through the concept of the priesthood of all believers.
KonFirm Classes
Our KonFirm instruction is our very special distinguishing feature – a genuine innovation, as far as we know: unique in Germany to date. Protestant confirmands and Old Catholic candidates for confirmation are taught together, so that ecumenism becomes a foundational experience of faith for the next generation of believers. Here the carpet fragment joined one of our KonFirm Sundays – a monthly full-day session in which the normally weekly instruction is condensed into a single day: many young people today find it almost impossible to commit to a regular weekly evening appointment alongside their other school and extracurricular obligations. We have responded to that reality. Our photograph here takes particular care to respect data protection requirements. But what matters to us is this: we have a growing generation of faith in our congregation and are not simply staring at declining membership numbers. We are also directing this generation's gaze towards the broader perspective of ecumenism. And beyond that, we also look to the interreligious reality of our city and our district: contact with Jewish communities and progressive Muslim believers is already part of everyday life in our neighbourhood.
Susanne Grünberg, Chair of the Church Council
The journey continues...
...with Susanne Lenzen
LIVE ON STAGE
As part of the scenic workshop programme LANGE SCHATTEN (LONG SHADOWS) by the
Voice/Opera department of the Berlin University of the Arts (directed by Prof. Lars Franke) fragment no #23 could be seen live on stage at the UNI.T - Theatre of the Berlin University of the Arts.
...AND ON WE GO...
...with FINE Mortuary College
Kevin Koch, President of FINE Mortuary College from Niagara Falls New York State with Maggie.
World War 2 Memorial and Lincoln Monument in Washington DC
Thank you for the opportunity to participate in the project. It has been a great story to share.
The journey begins...
...with Dr. Fabian Lenzen
The Diversity of Funeral Culture and a Small Piece of Carpet
Since the beginning of December, a small piece of a carpet has been hanging in the Federal Training Center for Funeral Directors in Münnerstadt. What's the story behind it? In fact, the fragment is part of a project by the Museum of Islamic Art at Pergamonmuseum. For the CulturalxCollabs project, the newly weaved doppelganger of the Caucasian Dragon Carpet, which has been in the possession of the Berlin Museums for 140 years, was divided into 100 individual pieces, which will "travel" within Germany until 2027 to different places representing our funeral culture. Therefore, as seen in the pictures, the carpet fragment has already visited our mourning station at the Ohlsdorf Park Cemetery in Hamburg. The first picture shows our managing director, Stephan Neuser, and the master of the Funeral Directors' Guild of Berlin and Brandenburg, Dr. Fabian Lenzen, with the fragment.
The project aims to encourage thinking and dialogue about diversity and interculturality. In the 21st century, intercultural competence and knowledge of various funeral cultures are essential skills for funeral directors and contribute to an open dialogue about mourning and funeral culture. Despite the differences in cultures with their unique funeral traditions, our commonality lies in honoring the deceased, a practice that has been upheld by people for tens of thousands of years.
Connection to the Theo-Remmertz Academy and the Foundation for German Funeral Culture
Every region of this world, every religion, and every community has its funeral culture. What they have in common is that people worldwide have been burying their dead for tens of thousands of years. The dignified treatment of the bodies of those who have passed away, combined with various rites, actions, and transcendence ideas, distinguishes and connects us at the same time. In the modern societies of the 21st century, influences from various cultures, religions, and regions increasingly mix or coexist in close proximity. This is particularly evident in urban agglomerations. Intercultural competence, knowledge of the significance of other funeral cultures, and openness to changing concepts are more important than ever for undertakers and young people training to become funeral professionals.
What we are doing with the carpet fragment
The carpet fragment travels to different places in Germany that are significant for our funeral culture and its preservation and transformation. At the same time, it will repeatedly be displayed at the Federal Training Center for Funeral Services, the Theo-Remmertz Academy. In all these places, it is intended to invite reflection on diversity, interculturality, and the exchange of ideas. In April, the carpet fragment was passed on to an international partner who is a funeral culture actor in another part of the world, before finally becoming part of the overall project again. In 2027, all 100 fragments are to be reunited in the then newly reopened Pergamon Museum.
Front and Back
About the Project
The Museum for Islamic Art's project, #CulturalxCollabs - Weaving the future, celebrates the transformative power of cultural exchange and the shared threads that unite us all. All the things we love, have loved and will ever love come from cultural exchange, migration and diversity, or as we like to call it #CulturalxCollabs.
100 carpet fragments, cut from a replica of the iconic dragon carpet, will travel the world (delivered by DHL). The fragments will ignite #CulturalxCollabs with co-creators, inspiring human ingenuity, fostering community and ultimately demonstrating how cultural exchange enriches all our lives.
Follow #CulturalxCollabs on Instagram as the project unfolds...
...or learn more here
Weaving the Future
Join us on a journey with 100 carpet fragments as they travel around the world for three and a half years, finding temporary homes while bridging cultural boundaries, fostering worldwide community united by the power of human stories.
Fragment Journeys
100 carpet fragments part of the "CulturalxCollabs - Weaving the Future" project. Follow their journeys through the ever changing owners' over three and a half years.
Where is the Dragon?
The star of the "CulturalxCollabs - Weaving the Future" project is a so-called Caucasian dragon carpet from the 17th century. A dragon carpet - all well and good - but: where is the dragon?
