JOSEPHINE BAKER
Freedom – Equality – Humanity
18 May to 24 September 2023
Josephine Baker is an icon. She was an international star, a champion of liberty and the struggle against racism. Singing and dancing, she captivated audiences around the world and used the stage to promote the message that peace, liberty and equality are a universal human right, regardless of skin colour, religion, nationality, gender or sexual orientation.
«I’m not intimidated by anyone. There is only one race, the human race.»Josephine Baker
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1906, Josephine Baker experienced segregation and racial violence as a child. In 1925, her show talent took her from the USA to liberal Paris, then the creative epicentre of Europe. There she became a star, the highest-paid revue dancer and the first female superstar with African American roots.
Our exhibition sheds light on the foundations of Josephine Baker’s success and how she transformed the ostensible stigma of her skin colour into a strength by using her fame to set others free: As a member of the Resistance during World War II, as a mother of twelve adopted children of diverse backgrounds, as an ambassador for humanity and a committed champion of the American civil rights movement. For her lifetime achievements, Josephine Baker became the sixth and the first non-white woman to be inducted into the French Hall of Fame, the Panthéon in Paris, on 30 November 2021, and has been officially considered a national heroine ever since.
Admission tickets
Would you like to go directly into the exhibition without stopping at the cash register?
Buy Print@home tickets online!
€5 / €2.50 (concessions)
€13 / €6.50 (concessions), combined ticket for all exhibitions
Free admission for everyone up to and including the age of 18.
Happy-Hour-Ticket: 7 € (available two hours before the museum closes; individual visitors only, all exhibitions)
More information
Literatur zur Ausstellung in der Bibliothek
Media Guide for the exhibition

Find out more about the icon Josephine Baker in our media guide (German and English).
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