Responsibility
Responsibility
Responsibility: "In the city centre –
200 years of the Universität Unter den Linden".
That the Humboldt Universität is not defined
as a particularly conspicuous ‘Ivory Tower’, separated from its
surroundings will be shown in the exhibition “In the City Centre – 200
Years of the Universität Unter den Linden”. Major objectives of this
exhibition will be to show:
- What role did the university play in the changing political systems and times?
- What has been its contribution to the culture and society in Berlin?
To achieve this the history of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin will be presented in terms of its unique location, in the centre of Prussia’s and then Germany’s Capitol, in the Capitol of the GDR and, today, in the Capitol of reunified Germany.
A chain of office and other university insignia, a gown, an old lectern and Hegel’s writing table – with such historical exhibits from the university’s rich historical collections as well as high-tech presentations of a host of groundbreaking discoveries and research highlights, the exhibition will show the continuities in the university’s history from the legendary foundational moment to the present day in the context of its often turbulent history.
Visitors will meet luminaries of academia such as Friedrich Schleiermacher and Max Planck, but also mavericks like Georg Simmel and Robert Havemann. They will be able to follow at close range the rapid rise of the Berlin University to a top position in the world of academia, where it left an indelible mark with 29 Nobel prize winners in the first three decades of the 20th century, but also the decline in the dark period from 1933 onwards with the exclusion of Jewish academics and students, the book burning and other repressive measures. This multimedia exhibition will go on show in the historical centre of Berlin, in the new Jacob-und-Wilhelm-Grimm-Zentrum.
The exhibition is organized by Professor Elmar Tenorth and his team and is supported by the ‘Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft’, the ‘Cornelsen Verlag’, the ‘Mercator Stiftung’ and the ‘VDS Bildungsmedien e.V.’.
Interview with the trustess Ilka Thom and Dr. Kirsten Weining (in german).
