Obituary for Prof Dr habil Arthur Engelbert

A native of Westphalia, he obtained his doctorate after studying art history, history and philosophy under Gottfried Böhm and Max Imdahl. This was followed by a postdoctoral qualification under Bazon Brock. From 1995 to 2017, Arthur Engelbert taught the subject area “Media Theory and Media Practice” in the Arts Management and Cultural Work degree programme at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam and, as a member of the Departmental Council and, from 2008 to 2010, as Chair of the University Senate, shaped the development and profile of the degree programme, the Department of CITY | BUILDING | CULTURE and the university as a whole. Alongside his academic work, he headed the multimedia company MIB GmbH for over a decade and served on the board of the Berlin Werkbund Archive.

With media productions such as the Digital Gallery at Berlin’s Gemäldegalerie (1998) and numerous CD-ROM publications, including Lumpensammler im Datenraum (1993), he was one of the pioneers of a thoughtful integration of digital media, art and cultural education. His work developed new forms of mediation and shaped the early debate on the use of electronic media in cultural institutions and the cultural public sphere.

Numerous excursions and study trips took him and his students from Grimme, Görlitz and Wrocław to Cairo, Cape Town and Johannesburg, to Hong Kong, Jerusalem and Mumbai. The research project cultrans followed on from these experiences. The intensive intercultural project work opened up new spaces to explore, together with the students, questions regarding the “difference of the individual under the conditions of other cultures and power constellations”, whilst at the same time allowing one’s own position to become clear. The Pedestrian Republic project was dedicated to a different form of perception and pace of travel, which took him back to Sicily time and again.

In 2012, Arthur Engelbert was one of the co-founders of the “Institute for Applied Reality Change”. The name stands for the combination of reflection and practical intervention that shaped Engelbert’s thinking and work. With curiosity and great human warmth, he explored media use and cultural techniques in everyday contexts and at sites of cultural perception. His studies on politics and the image, on the staircase, the crisis of the newsstand, or on forms of “alternative learning” and “mutual aid” shed new light on what is seemingly taken for granted. He also published works on art and cultural history, including *Conrad von Soest. A Dortmund Painter around 1400* (1995) and *The Line in Drawing. Klee. Pollock. Twombly* (1985).

Arthur Engelbert retired in 2017. His drive to explore realities and their potential through writing remained a driving force until the very end, despite his illness. Arthur Engelbert passed away in Berlin on the 22nd of May 2026. Our thoughts are with his family. 

We will remember him for his artistic view of the world and as an intellectual inspiration. 

The (former) colleagues of the Arts Management and Cultural Work degree programme Michaela Arnold, Andreas Bienert, Julia Glesner, Uwe Hanf, Helene Kleine, Andreas Klisch, Nicola Lepp, Kerstin Niemann, Ellen Lissek-Schütz, Sigrid Redies, Renate Ruhne, Ulrich Richtmeyer, Hermann Voesgen

The Dean of the Department of Urban Planning, Architecture and Culture, Jan Raue

The University President of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, Eva Schmitt-Rodermund