Lecture: "Poetry and science. Theodor Fontane and the history of art."

Lecture with photo presentation by Prof. Henrik Karge, TU Dresden.

Theodor Fontane's poetic beginnings in Berlin are closely linked to the literary associations of the "Tunnel over the Spree" and the "Rütli", whose central personality until his early death in 1858 was the art historian Franz Kugler.

Another important art historian, Karl Schnaase, wrote a six-page expert opinion on Fontane's "Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg" project in 1860, thereby obtaining state funding for a major literary undertaking that made a decisive contribution to the popularity of its author. The lecture will also uncover the political background that led to the success of the 1860 initiative. What role do historical buildings and works of art play in the "Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg"? How do they shape the writer's view of the Brandenburg-Prussian past?

Fontane's remarks on the former Cistercian monastery of Lehnin in the third volume of "Havelland" are a particularly interesting example: the poet experienced the monastery church with the elector's burial place in a semi-ruinous state before it was purified and restored in a restorative wave after the foundation of the German Empire in 1871.

Speaker: Prof. Henrik Karge, TU Dresden 

Event in cooperation with the Goethe Society Kassel and the art history course at the Kunsthochschule Kassel.