hamburger essay organizer

Monday, October 19, 2020

Free printable hamburger graphic organizer for paragraph writing.

Writing paragraphs is challenging for lots of kids, my son included. So we've been making use of graphic organizers to help him with his writing. Basically, I want it to be less stressful and anxiety-inducing for him. 

I really like using this hamburger graphic organizer for writing  because it helps my son plan out his paragraphs before actually writing them. It helps break down the writing process into smaller, bite-sized pieces and helps him visualize what his paragraph should look like.

The idea is to make a nice juicy hamburger, loaded with toppings, instead of a boring bunwich with no "meat." As delicious as buns are, they're a bit boring on their own...

About the Hamburger Graphic Organizer

This graphic organizer is designed to help kids plan out and organize their thoughts before writing a paragraph. 

Hamburger paragraph writing follows the format of writing a paragraph with an opening sentence about the topic, supporting it with three details, and wrapping it up or closing the paragraph with a concluding sentence. 

Basically, they're building a hamburger where the buns are the opening and concluding sentence and the meat and toppings are the supporting details. 

The hamburger would be pretty boring with just the buns, right? Same idea goes for paragraphs. A well-written paragraph needs details to support the topic or argument. Essentially, it needs a bit of "meat."

So encourage kids to think about the "meat" of their paragraph ahead of time by writing it down on this blank hamburger graphic organizer and they'll be that much closer to writing a better paragraph.

Download the Free Hamburger Graphic Organizer Printable

This printable includes two hamburger graphic organizers, one with lines and one without, that your child can fill in. A digital Google Slides version is included as well. To get your copy, click the link below.

>>  Click here to download the free printable

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Using the "Hamburger Method" to Write an Essay: Planning the Essay

• Planning the Essay
• Writing Paragraphs

Use the video and downloadable documents on the left to help you follow the instruction in the right-hand column.

The Top Bun: The Introduction Paragraph

• Begin with a "hook" to catch your reader's attention and then broad general information to introduce your topic.
• Narrow down your information and end your introduction with your thesis statement. See video  How to Write a Thesis for Beginners for more help.
• The premises of your thesis statement provide the road map for your body paragraph.

The Good Stuff: The Body Paragraphs

• Each body paragraph supports a premise from your thesis.
• See the next tab "Planning the Paragraph" for tips on writing your body paragraphs.
• Begin with your weakest point and build to your strongest.
• Your ideas should have a logical flow
• Some premises will take more than one paragraph to fully develop or defend a single premise.
• As your writing skills advance, your university-level papers should have more than three body paragraphs.
• Ultimately the instructor's assignment guidelines and you, as the author of the paper, decide how many paragraphs are needed to provide the proper evidence to support your premises.
• When moving beyond the three paragraph model, pay close attention to the logical arrangement of your paragraphs to ensure your reader can follow your thought processes.

The Bottom Bun: The Conclusion Paragraph

• Restate your thesis statement using different words.
• Summarize each paragraph or premise of your essay.
• Impact : a compelling fact, quote, or statistic that hightlights the impact of your topic or argument
• Synthesis: how the paper's most important arguments connect and why the connections are significant
• Applications: how your findings can be used in other contexts
• Implications : broad efffects or consequences of your thesis
• Proposal: a course of action or resolution to a problem presented in the paper

Adapted from Dunn, Emma, "How to Turn the High School "Hamburger" Essay into a University-level Paper." Writing and Communication Centre: September 14, 2020. University of Waterloo. Accessed November 24, 2023. https://uwaterloo.ca/writing-and-communication-centre/blog/how-turn-high-school-hamburger-essay-university-level-paper. 

• << Previous: Overview
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• Last Updated: Nov 25, 2023 12:41 AM
• URL: https://library.cdu.edu/hamburger-method

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• language arts

Hamburger Writing

Hamburger Graphic Organizer Complete Guide

Edraw content team, do you want to make your hamburger graphic ogranizer.

EdrawMax specializes in diagramming and visualizing. Learn from this hamburger graphic organizer complete guide to know everything about hamburger graphic organizer. Just try it free now!

Students and experts often write reports and paragraphs for educational purposes. The most important part of writing paragraphs is their original writing. Your writing abilities will indicate your subject knowledge even if you use reference materials and websites. The Hamburger paragraph is the professional graphic organizer for essays, paragraphs, and reports.

The Hamburger Graphic Organizer is the most exquisite of digital mind maps for both students and instructors. These hamburger paragraph samples will assist you in teaching your children the elements of a strong paragraph. Begin with the top bun, which represents the topic sentence, and explains the concept of the paragraph. And then comes the tasty supporting sentences/details: Onions, Tomatoes, ketchup, bacon, mustard, and a beef patty (100% vegetarian). Now, finish the paragraph with a bottom bun, also known as a concluding sentence that relates to the topic phrase. A Hamburger Graphic Organizer is an essential part of modern learning.

1. What is Hamburger Graphic Organizer

The " paragraph hamburger " is a writing organizer that visually highlights the critical parts of a paragraph. A topic sentence, descriptive sentences, and a concluding sentence are the core elements of solid writing. Each of these elements forms a distinct piece of a hamburger. It defines the major components of various types of writing, such as reports and essays, to assure that the writer sticks to the proper structure and information pyramid. Educators utilize hamburger visual organizers to help pupils comprehend how to organize their thoughts into writing. Many pupils learn to convey their ideas with integrated paragraphs and better understand paragraph writing structure with its aid. Hamburger Graphic Organizer assists in illustrating the organization or structure of ideas and displays how information is connected realistically.

The hamburger graphic organizer is a writing organizer that visually highlights the critical parts of a paragraph.

2. Benefits of Using Hamburger Graphic Organizer

Graphic organizers are commonly used these days for learning and professional purposes. Hamburger Graphic Organizer is a very common type of graphic organizers. Students and teachers usually use it for learning and building concepts. Some of its benefits are given below:

• Hamburger Graphic Organizers are simple but effective tools that can assist children with dyspraxia, executive functioning disorders, and other challenges that might cause writing issues.
• A visual organizer does more than just divide a task into more manageable steps. It may also help children organize their thoughts visually. They can learn best by using a such strategic techniques.
• Academic skills can be improved using Hamburger Graphic Organizer.
• This Organizer assists learners in clarifying their thoughts before commencing formal writing in detail.

3. How to Use a Hamburger Graphic Organizer

Hamburger Graphic Organizer is based on the hamburger method. While giving a constructive compliment on anything the individual performs well, you should start with a constructive remark (Otherwise known as the fluffy bun part). Then you come to the heart of the affair, which is, of course, constructive criticism. Writing an essay is very much like making a hamburger. Consider the prologue and epilogue as the bread pieces, with the "meat" of your argument sandwiched between these. The introduction contains your thesis statement, whereas the conclusion summarises your argument. Both should be limited to a few phrases. As an instructor, if you want to teach your students to create a hamburger paragraph, you need to give them a set of instructions that will help them complete the task. There are students with varying learning skills, kids with reading difficulties, younger learners, and second language learners, and they all need these instructions to proceed with educational writing.

• Give them several samples of some well-written paragraphs and ask them to identify the components. Encourage students to go through them on their own by offering several paragraphs with labelled sections.
• Give participants some of the already completed pieces. For example, you may give them all of the "filler" sentences and ask them to produce an excellent introduction or closing statement.
• Provide them with already filled-in examples. Suggest that they cut out each section and then reassemble the pieces.
• Instruct them to locate a passage in their textbook. See if the students can identify the different parts of the text. Make them rewrite the textbook passage if required!
• Encourage them to verbalize the paragraph before writing it. Make use of scaffolding. For instance, "What is one thing you'd want to tell me about Fido (child's dog's name)?" "How much fun is Fido to cuddle with?" (Inquire for further information.) "So, what did you say about Fido?" (conclusion).

4. How to Make a Hamburger Graphic Organizer in General

Writing a solid paragraph is the core of composition writing. In addition, the concepts that teach our primary students about paragraph writing will help them for the rest of their lives. The hamburger model is an effective way to get students to practice writing. The hamburger model, also known as a sandwich model, is a composing strategy that assists students in constructing a paragraph or an essay. This model uses a paragraph structure of "introduction - supporting details - conclusion". It may help produce an organized and coherent paragraph.

1. Describe three main points of a paragraph:

• The Top Bun : It describes the topic sentence of a paragraph. This sentence represents the basic concept. The top bun is another name for the topic sentence.
• The middle or supporting sentence : The middle section provides reasoning, facts, and explanations, among other things, to justify the main topic statement.
• The Bottom Bun : This is an ending sentence of a paragraph.

2. Encourage students to construct a topic sentence that shows what the rest of the paragraph will contain.

3. Students should write multiple supporting statements that provide more details on the topic.

4. Teach to develop an ending sentence that reiterates the topic sentence.

5. How to Make a Hamburger Graphic Organizer in EdrawMax

Creating a Hamburger Graphic Organizer in EdrawMax is an easy process. The free visual organizer creator has multiple features, such as importing data straight from a .csv file or building one from scratch using free templates. In this article, a complete guide is provided to help you make a great hamburger writing graphic organizer.

Step1 Open EdrawMax and Login

Log in to EdrawMax with your registered email account. If you have never used EdrawMax before, you just need to create your new account by registering into EdrawMax with your personal or professional email ID.

Step2 Choose a Built-In Template

EdrawMax is one of the best free graphics organize templates. By clicking "Education" from the left navigation panel, you may choose a pre-designed theme from the product or service based on your desire or necessity. It will show a wide range of graphic organizer styles. Additionally, on the EdrawMax Online canvas, hit "+" to start from scratch and design a graphic organizer.

Step3 Select the Symbol

You can use a symbol bank to add your favourite symbols to ready-made templates or use these symbols to create a customized hamburger writing graphic organizer. It is located on the left of the screen and comprises basic drawings and arrow shapes. Diagrams, Graphs, Charts, Clip Art, Icons, festivals, Education, Design elements, and other figures are featured in the symbols library. With suitable icons and content, you may create an effective graphic organizer. You can add any logo to the sketching page by dragging and dropping it.

Step4 Add Components and Text

In this step, you will insert text in your Hamburger Graphic Organizer template. Double click on the sample text boxes, and write your required information in those boxes. Using different text tools will help you create a great graphic organizer template.

Step5 Customize the Details

Several tools in the EdrawMax will help you modify the graphic organizer design according to your needs. You can use various options that include a pen tool, pencil tool, text tool, connectors, formatting of shapes option, the movement of point tools, drawing of geometrical forms, the motion of anchor points, etc.

Step6 Export & Share

Once your graphic organizer is finished, you can easily export and share it with your colleagues or customers. A graphic organizer can be exported in various forms, including Graphics, JPEG, PDF, and HTML. You can also publish the designs on other social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Line.

Basically, it is simple to create a hamburger graphic organizer in EdrawMax, just grab a template and keep customizing, drag and drop professinal symbols to make your plan better. If you are still confusing about how to create a hamburger graphic organizer in EdrawMax, just check this graphic organizer guide , or check the video below. Or you can find more tutorial videos from our Youtube .

6. Free Hamburger Graphic Organizer Examples & Templates

There are 6 examples of hamburger graphic organizer that you can refer or use immediately. Just click the image to download EdrawMax , and download the templates accordingly. Then double click to open the templates and customize as your prefer. Or open the templates from EdrawMax Online, and duplicate the templates. Click this graphic organizer examples to get more inspirations.

Example 1: Hamburger Paragraph

This template is for the Hamburger paragraph. A paragraph hamburger is made up of three pieces. The first component is the top bun, which contains your topic statement. This section is where you describe your paragraph and key concept. You place the burger filler beneath the theme sentence, which offers supportive evidence about your topic statement. The third component is the hamburger's bottom bread. In this area, you end your paragraph by adding a few phrases regarding your primary concept and referencing your topic sentence.

Example 2: Hamburger Graphic Organizer

This template is for Hamburger Graphic Organizer. Students use these templates to create projects, enhance their writing abilities, and organize their ideas. This Hamburger template has five sections. The uppermost bun is where students put their theme phrase and explain their key points. The second section includes supporting statements that give further details about the problem. The third section links to the second and provides additional information about the topic. You can keep adding these supporting details and statements until you prove your claim and reach a conclusion.

Example 3: Hamburger Writing

Hamburger writing contours are available in a variety of formats, but the basic structure of each hamburger graphic organizer is the same. In this case, from the inside out template resembles a hamburger. This hamburger template includes a theme, supporting evidence, and a conclusion. This hamburger writing template will assist you in understanding the best way to portray the correlation between pieces of data. You must present the thesis statement and the theme first in any paragraph. In the stuffing section, you add up to three supporting passages before wrapping up your writing in the final segment.

Example 4: Hamburger Paragraph Writing Template

A hamburger paragraph writing template is primarily used in the classroom to make the students understand different writing frameworks and graphic organizers. This template has a hamburger on the left and a writing portion on the right. The uppermost area of the hamburger has a top bun that corresponds to the topic statement of the paragraph, the filling represents the supporting pieces of evidence, and at the bottom, the lower bun represents the concluding phrase. Students must learn to write the topic phrase, details, and the final sentence in a logical order.

Example 5: Blank Hamburger Graphic Organizer

This example is one of the most common kinds of Hamburger Graphic Organizer templates. This sandwich-shaped template is divided into three distinct sections. Students explain the concept of the target passage in the topic sentence to give information about their text. The second element which is also called the sandwich's body has two or three segments. All of these segments include information and supporting phrases about the topic sentence. The body contains a high proportion of reasoning and relevant information. Students conclude their writing and share their closing remarks in the final section.

Example 6: Hamburger Graphic Organizer for Writing

The hamburger graphic organizer for writing explain the writing format of any passage or report using a hamburger as an analogy. The first section of a paragraph is its topic or thesis statement which defines the direction and the main idea of the paragraph, and it closely resembles the top bread bun of a hamburger. The supporting phrases in the middle portion resemble the fillings of the hamburger. At last, the third segment of the paragraph is the conclusion that reflects the bottom bun of a hamburger.

7. Free Hamburger Graphic Organizer Software

EdrawMax is a free and widely used hamburger graphic organizer software in this category. It is popular among beginners because it provides simple, minimalistic features and easy-to-follow guidelines. It is being used in multiple businesses, educational, and social projects. This software has numerous features. Some prime features include:

• EdrawMax comes with a free version where you get to access some of the amazing design features. You can use this free hamburger graphic organizer creator to create over 280 types of different diagrams -- all in one single canvas.
• EdrawMax offers over 50,000 vector-enabled symbols. In our ' Predefined Library ' section, you will find all the hamburger graphic organizer-related symbols.
• EdrawMax lets you create great hamburger graphic organizers and provides you with additional features where you can share your file to different social media platforms or directly share the URL in your email to your client or architect.
• In addition to having over 25 million registered users, this free hamburger graphic organizer creator comes with extensive online resources. From video tutorials to elaborated guides just like this one, you will always find the right symbols, tips, and ways to create awesome hamburger graphic organizers for your projects.

8. Final Thoughts

The hamburger paragraph assists students in organizing their thoughts and sharing their opinions. It is a unique way to demonstrate the ideal narrative writing layout. The Hamburger Graphic Organizer contains the main components of a paragraph and organizes information using a hamburger as a metaphor. It encourages students' creative thinking while teaching them how to connect details in paragraphs. It only takes a few clicks to select a template and create a Hamburger Graphic Organizer.

It encourages students' creative thinking while teaching them how to connect details in paragraphs. Because it only takes a few clicks to select a template and create a hamburger graphic organizer, EdrawMax is the professional graphic organizer creator. Its symbol library also contains a large number of shapes and visuals. You can find many Hamburger Graphic Organizer templates in the template community.

Graphic Organizer Complete Guide

Check this complete guide to know everything about graphic organizer, like graphic organizer types, and how to make a graphic organizer.

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Free Editable Hamburger Paragraph Examples

Frequently writing reports and paragraphs is common for students and professionals. In writing paragraphs, the thing that matters the most is your original writing. Even if you use helping content and websites, your writing skills will demonstrate your understanding of the topic. Hamburger paragraph is the most suitable graphic organizer for writing essays, paragraphs and reports.

1. What is a Hamburger Paragraph?

A hamburger paragraph is a graphic organizers that illustrates the key parts of paragraphs or other writings. It outlines the main points of various writings such as reports and essays to ensure that the writer follows the correct format and information hierarchy. Educators use hamburger graphic organizers to help students understand how to convert their ideas into organized text. With its help, most students learn to share their concepts with cohesive paragraphs and better understand paragraph writing structure.

2. Hamburger Paragraph Examples

Here are some of the most commonly used hamburger paragraph templates from EdrawMax's templates community. The purpose of these templates is to help students understand the concept of writing structures and idea organization. A hamburger graphic organizer makes it easier to visually represent the relationship between information in any paragraph or report. Our paragraph hamburger templates examples will help you better understand hamburger format writing. Check out these examples and pick a suitable template for your writing assignment.

Example 1: Hamburger Paragraph

This is a hamburger paragraph template. There are three parts of a paragraph hamburger. The first part is the top bun, which is the topic sentence of your writing. In this part, you explain your paragraph and your main idea. Under the topic sentence, you add the burger filling, which contains supporting information regarding your topic sentence. The third part is the bottom bun of the hamburger. You conclude your paragraph in this section by writing a few sentences about your main idea and making a reference to your topic sentence.

Example 2: Hamburger Graphic Organizer

This is an example of a hamburger graphic organizer. Students use these templates to make assignments and improve their writing skills and idea organization. The hamburger in this template contains five parts. The top bun where students add their topic sentence and give the main idea. The second part contains supporting sentences to provide more information about the topic. The third part connects to the second part and gives more supporting information about the subject. With such a template, you can keep adding supportive details till you prove your point and reach a conclusion.

Example 3: Hamburger Writing

Hamburger writing outlines come in various formats, but the key structure of each hamburger graphic organizer is similar. The template in this example resembles a hamburger from the inside and outside. The topic, supporting, and conclusion are part of the hamburger. Paragraph hamburger template helps you understand an ideal way to depict the relationship between pieces of information. The paragraph starts with the topic sentence and the main idea. In the filling section, you add two or three supporting paragraphs and conclude your writing in the last area.

Example 4: Hamburger Paragraph Writing Template

A hamburger paragraph writing template is mainly used for teaching purposes, and it helps students understand various writing structures and graphic organizers. There is a hamburger on the left side and a writing area on the right side in this example. The colors and lines represent which part of the hamburger represents which part of the paragraph. The top bun is the topic sentence, the filling is the supporting sentence, the bottom bun is the conclusion sentence. Students have to write the main idea, details and conclusion of the paragraph in an organized order.

Example 5: Hamburger Paragraph Examples

This is one of the most commonly used hamburger paragraph examples. There are three parts to this sandwich template. The topic sentence is the first part where students write the main idea of the target paragraph to explain the purpose of their writing. The second part is the body of the sandwich, which is further divided into two or three sections. Each of these sections contains details and supporting sentences regarding the topic sentence. All arguments and related information are mostly written in the body. In the last part, students conclude their writing and give their final thoughts.

Example 6: Hamburger Paragraph Template

The hamburger paragraph templates use a hamburger as a metaphor to describe the writing structure of any paragraph or report. The first section of the paragraph is the topic sentence that resembles any hamburger's top bun, and it provides the main idea and direction of the paragraph in question. The second section is the details and support statements that resemble the filling in a hamburger. The third section is the paragraph's conclusion that mirrors the bottom bun of a hamburger.

Click on the image to edit. Source: EdrawMax Online

3. Online Hamburger Graphic Organizer Maker

A graphic organizer maker is a helping tool for educators and students to create hamburger graphic organizers for assignments and other teaching purposes. EdrawMax Online is the best hamburger graphic organizer maker out there. Most educators use paragraph hamburgers to teach their students, but they don't usually have spare time to make a graphic designer from scratch because it takes some time and effort.

With EdrawMax, teachers can use professional templates and customization tools to create any graphic organizer in minutes. Having pre-made templates makes all the difference because there is zero possibility of making any mistake or using the wrong format.

4. Key Takeaways

Hamburger paragraph helps students understand how to organize ideas and share their concepts. It is a creative method to showcase the ideal paragraph writing structure. The hamburger graphic organizer contains the key parts of a paragraph, and it takes a hamburger as a metaphor to organize information. It helps increase students' creativity while learning how to relate information in paragraphs.

As a result, it is important to find a stauible tool for making hamburger paragraph examples. EdrawMax Online is an ideal graphic organizer maker, because it only takes a few clicks for you to select a template and create a hamburger graphic organizer . You also find many shapes and icons in its symbol library. Find more graphic organizer template in the template community.

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Writing an Essay is Like Making a Hamburger

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What does a hamburger have to do with persuasive writing? Plenty if you’re a student in the rural Jackson County, W.V., school system. The district last year launched a comprehensive literacy strategy to help its 4,700 students put their thoughts down on paper in an organized manner. The strategy--a popular approach across the country that employs the hamburger image as a graphic organizer-- is used in grades K-12 and throughout the curriculum. The top bun is the thesis, the bottom bun the conclusion, and the meat of the essay is sandwiched in between. Rhonda Jelich, the district’s director of elementary education and staff development, told Education Week that the literacy lessons are age-appropriate, but the concept is to give all students a writing structure - a visual way to construct an essay. Fourth grader Briana Sotomayor put this strategy to good use by penning a winning essay for the district’s drug-and-alcohol-prevention competition. We asked her to explain how she writes using the hamburger model.

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CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK

Berlin Was a Beacon of Artistic Freedom. Gaza Changed Everything.

The home of boundary-pushing artists from around the world has been upended by debates about what can and can’t be said about Israel and the war.

A mural calling for the return of Israeli hostages in Berlin. Credit... Andrew White for The New York Times

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By Jason Farago

Reporting from Berlin

• April 6, 2024

When the musician Laurie Anderson was launching her career in the early 1970s, an avant-garde artist who wanted to work at scale had to go abroad — to one place in particular.

“I got my start in Germany, because of state-supported art,” recalled Anderson, who exhibited at its national museums and performed with its symphony orchestras when she was still an emerging talent. She lived for a time in West Berlin. She met Lou Reed, her future husband and a sometime Berliner himself, in Germany in 1992.

Fitting, then, that she would accept a prestigious guest professorship this year at a German art school. Then, in late January, a local blogger fulminated after finding her signature among 16,000 names on a two-year-old open letter that decried “apartheid” in Israel and the Palestinian territories. The university then called, seeking explanations. Rather than distill her thoughts about “this unbelievably tragic war” into the kind of public statement they seemed to want, she withdrew. “It did teach me that I didn’t really want to have that kind of sponsorship,” she concluded. “If I’d known they were going to ask things like that, I never would have accepted that job in the first place.”

She’s far from the only artist who finds herself unsure of her welcome here these days. The arts scene in Germany — and especially Berlin — has been turned upside down by Hamas’s attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, and the siege and bombardment of Gaza.

Prizes have been rescinded. Conferences called off. Plays taken off the boards. Government cultural officials have suggested tying funding to what artists and institutions say about the conflict, and media — both traditional and social — bubble with public denunciations of this writer, that artist, this DJ, that dancer. The disinvitations have brought counter-boycotts. And a climate of fear and recrimination has put Berlin’s status as an international cultural capital in greater hazard than at any time since 1989.

Berlin had once been the artistic beacon of all Europe, but what’s happening here today is a very German story. The country’s responsibility for the Holocaust still defines a cultural sector whose institutions are committed to a national process of reckoning and atonement. That culture of remembrance also undergirds Germany’s staunch support for Israel, and the strict limits it places on criticisms of its ally. (Only recently has the rising toll in Gaza prompted some German leaders to question their unwavering support. ) So while artists around the world — from the stage of the Oscars to the Whitney Biennial — have been vocal about the war, in Germany such statements can have a major cost: canceled performances, lost funding, and accusations of antisemitism in a society where no charge is more serious.

“Berlin was broke, but a community was there,” said the electroclash star Peaches, who has lived here since 2000, when we met up for breakfast in Prenzlauer Berg. I asked her what’s changed lately, and she noted how risk-taking institutions were already running scared amid threats to funding. “What was going on here was openness to all these intersections. And since the last few months, there’s been a lot of that taken away.”

That sense of new limitations, new controls, new anxieties, is already exacting a price on culture in a city that had made a welcome of artists into its post-Wall calling card.

“ This angst makes it harder for us to work internationally, attract the best talent on the highest level and bring diverse audiences together,” said Klaus Biesenbach, the director of the Neue Nationalgalerie, who previously led museums in New York and Los Angeles. “If the artists leave, one of the last real bonuses that Berlin has would be gone.”

The cancellations, postponements and uproars have hit every cultural sector, with anger and accusations coming from as high as the chancellery. The Berlin International Film Festival saw withdrawals and protests this year — and after its closing ceremony, at which several laureates called for a cease-fire in Gaza, federal and state officials issued threats to withhold future support.

D.J.s have been dropped from lineups at Berghain and other clubs, sometimes after posting anti-Israeli statements, but often for much milder support for Palestinian lives.

The Maxim Gorki Theater, one of the city’s most acclaimed playhouses, canceled a prizewinning play about Israelis and Palestinians in Berlin — leading several intellectuals and artists to cancel appearances there in turn.

In the galleries of the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, a hub for the city’s art scene, recently shipped sculptures are sitting in unpacked crates. Their creators now refuse to exhibit in Germany to protest what they describe as restrictions of speech supporting Palestinians.

Some cultural leaders are raising alarms. In January, the Berlin state government proposed a new funding clause that would require grantees to sign a document opposing “any form of antisemitism” — and used a definition that listed certain criticisms of Israeli policy as antisemitic. Artists protested, and the proposal was withdrawn, but the outgoing director of the Goethe-Institut, which promotes German language and literature abroad, fretted in Der Spiegel that “longstanding partners in the international cultural world are losing confidence in the liberalism of German democracy.”

For many artists, especially foreigners who settled in Berlin as a place of freedom and cultural abundance, the very survival of the city as an artistic capital is in doubt, or perhaps already gone.

“Berlin, in my view, is not a place where artists can create freely,” said Ai Weiwei, the Chinese artist and dissident, who keeps a studio in Berlin but no longer lives here. “Whenever I hear about German government officials imposing restrictions on artists’ freedom of speech, or expression, it fills me with despair.”

It’s of course not just in the capital. The Frankfurt Book Fair “indefinitely postponed” a prize ceremony for Adania Shibli, an acclaimed Palestinian writer and Berlin resident. The city of Bremen reneged on its own prize ceremony for the Jewish writer Masha Gessen over an essay comparing Gaza to the ghettos of Nazi-occupied cities. The Berlin-based artists Jumana Manna, who is Palestinian, and Candice Breitz, who is Jewish, both had exhibitions at regional museums canceled on the grounds of (as usual) controversial social media posts. Even Greta Thunberg, the climate Cassandra, has been canceled in Germany after wearing a kaffiyeh and calling for a cease-fire at a recent protest.

But it is Berlin that stands to lose the most from all these disinvitations and denunciations, and from the larger malaise in German democracy from which they spring. The success of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, and the broader advance of the populist right in Europe, have shaken postwar and post-Wall norms of historical responsibility. The arrival of a million refugees from Syria and elsewhere in 2015 continues to shape ongoing debates about who is a German. New spending freezes and austerity budgets , triggered by restrictions on government debt, spell trouble for a capital that still has three major opera houses.

All this while indisputably antisemitic rhetoric, and even violence, have been rising in Germany. In October, masked assailants chucked Molotov cocktails at a synagogue (they missed; no one was hurt). Anti-Jewish slurs and stars of David were painted on government buildings and residences.

When pro-Palestinian activists came to the Hamburger Bahnhof, one of Berlin’s leading institutions for contemporary art, and shouted down the director of one of the country’s Jewish museums with slogans such as “Zionism is a crime,” they affirmed the belief of many here that anti-Israeli rhetoric is just a step away from antisemitism.

Against that backdrop, some Jewish Berliners see criticism of Israel as much more than a foreign policy dispute. “I’m an aggressive Zionist for only one reason: because I want to survive,” Maxim Biller, the author of the novel “Mama Odessa” and one of the country’s leading columnists, told me over coffee. “And I can be a German writer with a Jewish project here only because there is a state of Israel.”

Naturally there is a German compound noun for that interdependence, endlessly slung around and debated in the last few months. The word is Staatsräson , or “reason of state”: a national interest that is not just nonnegotiable but existential, defining the state as such. Angela Merkel, the former chancellor, described Israel’s security as Germany’s Staatsräson in a historic address to the Knesset in 2008. Her successor, Olaf Scholz, has repeatedly invoked Staatsräson in his defenses of Israeli policy since Oct. 7.

“ Staatsräson means: The existence of Israel is a condition of possibility for the existence of Germany,” explained Johannes von Moltke, a professor of German cultural history at the University of Michigan, who’s currently in Berlin. “Because if there is no Israel, then Germany’s guilt is all-consuming again. And you can’t countenance that possibility.”

In other words, the cultural crackup of the last few months only appears to be part of an international conflict. It is, in fact, resolutely German. What is really being fought over here is a hazy, transcendent national concept that, since Oct. 7, has overtaken more firmly constitutional principles of free expression and free association.

The tensions have been building since at least 2019, when the federal Parliament adopted a resolution designating the movement calling for a boycott of Israel as antisemitic , and urging local governments and “public stakeholders” not to fund organizations or individuals that support it. That makes a big difference here, since so many artists, writers and musicians receive generous government aid. The resolution, though nonbinding, led some cultural institutions to rescind invitations to critics of Israeli policy, and many more to take a hesitant approach.

“People in cultural institutions are risk-averse,” said Tobias Haberkorn, who edits the Berlin Review , a new literary publication. “So if they have to decide, ‘Am I going to invite this or that artist with a Middle Eastern background, or not?’ I can very well see them not inviting them. Just to avoid the potential hassle.”

Since Oct. 7, accusations of antisemitism have flown much more broadly. Some are merited. Many others are dubious. Quite a number of those accused of antisemitism have been Jewish, such as Gessen.

“There are many Jewish perspectives, and that is not being honored here in a country where the history cannot be excused,” said Peaches, who is also Jewish. “For any progressive Jewish person who is thinking about what is going on, and understanding the history of what is going on, to be called antisemitic — by Germans — is ridiculous. Never did I think in 2024 that I would be thinking about that.”

Yet it’s worth pointing out how few of these accusations revolve around cultural production. It is rare for Berlin’s theaters or festivals to cancel someone for what they actually sing or paint or film. What gets you now are statements, posts, likes, signatures: the imperatives of social media, which are swallowing culture wholesale. Once debates like this would have played out in Germany’s elite press, where intellectuals clashed over the country’s moral responsibility to the past. Today the national papers, and the institutions too, are playing catch-up to Ruhrbarone, a small website from the provincial city of Bochum that took down Anderson and many others.

Perhaps the lowest point yet came at the end of this year’s film festival, when numerous prizewinners called for a cease-fire in Gaza; two went further, using the words “genocide” and “apartheid” to describe Israel’s actions. That prompted Germany’s culture minister, Claudia Roth, to announce an inquiry into the film festival’s governance. In a subsequent interview with Der Spiegel , Roth said that “the freedom of the arts includes curatorial responsibility,” and suggested that the festival’s organizers had to ask themselves: “Which films are being selected? How are the juries appointed?”

The festival’s outgoing artistic director, Carlo Chatrian, hit back at that government interference in an open letter , accusing German officials and news organizations of rhetoric that “weaponizes and instrumentalizes antisemitism for political means.”

Surely this city ought to have learned by now that directing culture toward political ends rarely ends well. Those who have forgotten might take a walk over to the Gendarmenmarkt, a grand central square now gashed by construction barriers, and its monumental statue of a German playwright and philosopher with a rather subtler understanding of how culture and government inform each other. His name was Friedrich Schiller, and what he saw was that the arts were not aristocratic luxuries, not decorations; they were the very motor of human freedom. The arts, Schiller taught his fellow Germans in 1795 , “enjoy an absolute immunity from human capriciousness. The political legislator can bar the way to its domain, but he cannot rule within it.”

This freedom of the arts still defines Berlin, which knows better than most cities what dangers lurk when they are overregulated. It defined the Weimar period, when Otto Dix caricatured the powerful and August Sander photographed society without embellishment. And the postwar era, when novelists forged a new German literature in a register that definitively broke from the Nazi past. And also the Cold War, when punk bands on either side of the Wall made music in defiance of national aims. And especially the heady years after reunification, when a global generation of designers and D.J.s reestablished the unlovely city as Europe’s beating heart.

Lose that cultural freedom and you lose much more than a “scene.” You lose the very ground — the ground of sympathetic imagination — upon which you combat antisemitism and all other forms of bigotry. “The opportunity to experiment for creatives and artists from all over the world is one of the most important things Berlin still has going for it.” said Biesenbach. “We need to protect it.”

Jason Farago , a critic at large for The Times, writes about art and culture in the U.S. and abroad. More about Jason Farago

Our Coverage of the Israel-Hamas War

News and Analysis

President Biden threatened to add a condition on future support for Israel on how it addresses concerns about civilian casualties and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza , prompting Israel to commit to letting more food and supplies  into the besieged enclave.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is facing challenges on multiple fronts:   domestic support is eroding, there is  international fury over the death toll in Gaza, and the fallout from the killing of seven aid workers has heightened global anger.

A series of Israeli failures , including a breakdown in communication and violations of the rules of engagement, led to the deadly airstrikes that killed seven humanitarian aid workers  in Gaza.

Internal Roil at TikTok: TikTok has been dogged for months by accusations that its app has shown a disproportionate amount of pro-Palestinian and antisemitic content to users. Some of the same tensions  have also played out inside the company.

Palestinian Detainees: Israel has imprisoned more than 9,000 Palestinians suspected of militant activity . Rights groups say that some have been abused or held without charges.

A Hostage’s Account: Amit Soussana, an Israeli lawyer, is the first former hostage to speak publicly about being sexually assaulted  during captivity in Gaza.

A Power Vacuum: Since the start of the war, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has done little to address the power vacuum that would appear after Israeli forces leave Gaza. The risks of inaction are already apparent in Gaza City .

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• Victor Mukhin

Victor M. Mukhin was born in 1946 in the town of Orsk, Russia. In 1970 he graduated the Technological Institute in Leningrad. Victor M. Mukhin was directed to work to the scientific-industrial organization "Neorganika" (Elektrostal, Moscow region) where he is working during 47 years, at present as the head of the laboratory of carbon sorbents.     Victor M. Mukhin defended a Ph. D. thesis and a doctoral thesis at the Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia (in 1979 and 1997 accordingly). Professor of Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia. Scientific interests: production, investigation and application of active carbons, technological and ecological carbon-adsorptive processes, environmental protection, production of ecologically clean food.   

Title : Active carbons as nanoporous materials for solving of environmental problems

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