Projects of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar are funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Free State of Thuringia, represented by the State Chancellery of Thuringia, Department of Culture and the Arts.
Klassik Stiftung Weimar kicks off the Theme Year 2024 “Auf/Bruch”
In view of the upcoming Thuringian state election in 2024, the Klassik Stiftung Weimar dedicates this year’s Theme Year to the radical upheavals and revolutions of the 20th century. The Foundation will investigate the cultural contexts of selected collection holdings at key turning points in history, specifically 1924, 1933 and 1949, and reassess established patterns of interpretation. The exhibitions, events and discursive projects all focus on how the interests of culture and politics always seem to interweave and the role that artists and art can play in a liberal, cosmopolitan society.
The main exhibition of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar in 2024 explores the topic of the “Bauhaus and National Socialism” for the first time. The three-part show highlights the complex political history of the Bauhaus until its closure in 1933, and sheds light on the extremely diverse paths the Bauhaus members embarked on during the Nazi dictatorship. It quickly becomes clear that modernism was never immune to the seductive power of totalitarian regimes.
The Theme Year events begin with the conference “New Beginnings and Failure – Yesterday and Today”on 22/23 March, consisting of a public debate about the core topics of the year at the Study Centre of the Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek.
“In this super election year 2024 – 100 years after right-wing parties took control of the Thuringian state parliament in 1924, which led to the expulsion of the State Bauhaus from Weimar – the Klassik Stiftung Weimar decided to address the existential contradictions of the 20th century which still reverberate today. With the Theme Year ‘Auf/Bruch’ we shed light on the struggle for democracy based on exemplary events, historic figures and artworks. In exhibitions, debates, educational programmes and our annual magazine, we inquire into the volatile relationship between culture and politics, art and power – a topic which has become exceedingly relevant again today. In this regard, we are expressing our political position as a leading cultural and research institution,” stated Foundation president Ulrike Lorenz.
Start of the Theme Year 2024
Never have cultural upheaval, catastrophe, collapse and renewal come in such close succession as they did in the German empire, the Weimar Republic, the civilisational breakdown of National Socialism, and the founding of East and West Germany. For many, Weimar is symbolic of this eventful history which continues to fascinate us today. It was here that the rich cultural legacy of so-called Weimar Classicism gave way to classical modernism with its design and artistic visionaries of the 20th century. This storied ducal city also has a darker side – one characterised by anti-progressive, anti-democratic and nationalistic tendencies. Helmut Heit, director of the Kolleg Friedrich Nietzsche who is responsible for this year’s Theme Year concept, explains that “Weimar, as symbolic for Germany, has stood for the idea of making the world better through literature, art and culture. At the same time, history has shown us – especially in the 20th century – how this idea has painfully failed in the face of reality again and again. The same applies to the avant-garde thinkers associated with the Nietzsche-Archiv and the Bauhaus movement, or the attempt to use Goethe in the former GDR to rebuild a better Germany. New beginnings and failures lie so closely together in Weimar that we have to ask whether something might be wrong with the idea. In the exhibition on the ‘Bauhaus and National Socialism’, we explore this dramatic history in depth. In the Weimar Controversies, we ask what the future holds for our relatively young democracy today.”
Central exhibition of the 2024 Theme Year and joint opening of the Quarter of Modernism
The Theme Year exhibition “Bauhaus and National Socialism” from 9 May to 15 September is the first exhibition to examine to what extent the Bauhaus and its members were entangled or implicated with National Socialism after 1933. The exhibition will be presented on 1,000 m2 at three different locations – the Bauhaus Museum Weimar, the Museum Neues Weimar and the Schiller Museum – and will feature some 450 pieces of art and design from private collections and renowned museums in Europe and the United States.
For many years, the Bauhaus was regarded as inherently “good” in diametrical contrast to National Socialism – an overly one-sided view, as it turns out. While some Bauhaus students and instructors suffered persecution, others thrived under Nazi rule. In a presentation entitled “The Bauhaus as a Site of Political Contest, 1919-1933”, the Museum Neues Weimar spotlights the artistic and political conflicts which began with the founding of the design school in Weimar and continued in Dessau and Berlin. At the Bauhaus Museum, the presentation “Removed – Confiscated – Assimilated, 1930/1937” focuses on the “degenerate art” confiscations in 1937 and the campaign that preceded it in Weimar. And the presentation at the Schiller Museum sheds light on the Bauhaus members and their struggle "Living in the Dictatorship, 1933-1945". It addresses the balancing acts they performed in the face of the new political circumstances after 1933.
The exhibition officially opens on 8 May 2024 with a ceremony marking the grand opening of the Museum of Forced Labour under National Socialism.
Accompanying events at all KSW institutions
Nietzsche-Archiv
The focus on “Weimar and National Socialism” is supplemented by a programme at the Nietzsche-Archiv from 21 March to 1 November: What does Friedrich Nietzsche have to do with National Socialism? What was it about Nietzsche that fascinated both fascists and anti-fascists alike? The cabinet exhibition “Nietzsche in National Socialism” reveals how this European philosopher became a “German prophet”. The presentation highlights the contradictory forms of Nietzsche appropriation and asks to what extent the philosopher himself was responsible for the fatal rupture in how his work was interpreted.
Study Centre of the Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek
The presentation “Monarchists, Democrats, National Socialists” on display from 23 May to 30 November in the Study Centre of the Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek documents an age rife with dramatic upheavals and revolutions. On display are handwritten dedications from the first half of the 20th century, whose authors and recipients belonged to a broad spectrum of political camps.
Belvedere Castle and Liszt House
The exhibition “German Hour” by the Berlin-born sculptor and object artist Olaf Metzel offers a contemporary review of Germany’s eventful history. Presented at Belvedere Castle and the Liszt House, Metzel’s political works engage in a fraught thematic and aesthetic dialogue with their historical surroundings. The show, which runs from 7 June to 1 November, marks the start of the event series “Weimar Contemporary”, with which the Foundation is bundling its activities in the area of contemporary art. In addition to works created specifically for Weimar, e.g. a new version of NSU (2013/24), the exhibition includes other important pieces by Olaf Metzel, highlighting the clash of the Orient with the Occident, such as “Kebap Monument” (2007) and “Turkish Delight” (2006).
Park Cave
After extensive renovation, the Klassik Stiftung Weimar reopens the Park Cave in the Ilm Park as an event venue with a natural-scientific focus. The “Park Cave Experience – Through Time and Climate” opens on 21 March with a permanent exhibition on the major environmental upheavals of history and the present day, i.e. ice ages and climate change. The new presentation also highlights aspects of contemporary political history, including the use of forced labour in World War II to expand the artificial cave with a Nazi aerial defence command centre and a public air raid bunker.
Other highlights in 2024
Two archival institutions of the past and present: Commemorating the anniversary of archive founder Sophie and remembering the fire at the Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek
Goethe- und Schiller-Archiv
The Klassik Stiftung Weimar’s Theme Year programme honours two extraordinary figures whose contributions to Weimar’s cultural-political and art-historical development cannot be overstated. The special exhibition “Sophie. Power. Literature – A Regent Inherits Goethe”, on display at the Goethe- und Schiller-Archiv from 8 April to 15 December 2024, takes a critical look at the accomplishments of Grand Duchess Sophie of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach. On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of her birth, the exhibition explores how the Dutch-born princess made an indelible impression on German cultural history by initiating the first complete edition of Goethe’s works and founding of the first research-oriented literary archive in Germany.
Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek
Twenty years have passed since a fire ravaged the Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek on 2 September 2004. To mark the occasion, the library initiated the project “Future Memory” last year, calling eye-witnesses to share their memories, mementos and photos of the event, as well as their hopes and wishes for the library. These contributions will help shape the library’s collections and serve as the basis for making the library a storehouse of knowledge in the future. The results will be integrated into the collections of the Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek and presented to the public on 2 September.
Final commemorative event honouring Caspar David Friedrich: Caspar David Friedrich, Goethe and Romanticism in Weimar
Schiller Museum
In the same way the former Grand Duchess represents the advent of Germany as a cultural nation, the works by Caspar David Friedrich mark the revolutionary rise of the Romantic period. The final highlight of the major commemorative year marking the 250th anniversary of this internationally renowned artist, the Klassik Stiftung Weimar presents the special exhibition “Caspar David Friedrich, Goethe and Romanticism in Weimar” from 22 November 2024 to 2 March 2025 at the Schiller Museum. This exhibition is the first ever to present Weimar’s entire collection of Friedrich’s paintings, drawings and graphic prints to the public. The show will largely focus on Friedrich’s early career and his ambivalent relationship to Wolfgang von Goethe.
The Klassik Stiftung Weimar wishes to thank its funding providers, generous patrons and sponsors, and especially the eight associations and circles of friends for their passionate, civic-minded commitment.
Jochen Staschewski, managing director of LOTTO Thüringen, explained the reasoning for his continued support for the Foundation’s Theme Year events: “This Theme Year is particularly meaningful to LOTTO Thüringen as a main sponsor. In order for the Thuringian state lottery to fulfil its mission to promote public welfare, stable democratic structures must exist. Especially today, it’s so important to analyse the causes of ruptures in the past and learn lessons for the present and future.”