WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:01.640 "What is Enlightenment?" 00:00:01.640 --> 00:00:04.040 Is first of all a question. 00:00:04.040 --> 00:00:05.960 But it is also a quote. 00:00:05.960 --> 00:00:08.960 It is a quote, because it is the title of a very famous 00:00:08.960 --> 00:00:12.320 essay by Immanuel Kant. 00:00:12.320 --> 00:00:17.360 But it is also a quote, because it is asked in a footnote 00:00:17.360 --> 00:00:21.120 that is very significant for us, and I believe a grand 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:25.760 and wonderful museum like the German Historical Museum 00:00:25.760 --> 00:00:28.240 should once have a large exhibition 00:00:28.240 --> 00:00:31.720 based on a footnote. 00:00:31.720 --> 00:00:34.920 The context is as follows: 00:00:34.920 --> 00:00:39.320 In 1783, a magazine 00:00:39.320 --> 00:00:44.600 was founded in Berlin, the "Berlinische Monatsschrift", 00:00:44.600 --> 00:00:49.080 which shortly after its founding printed an article 00:00:49.080 --> 00:00:53.520 advocating for civil marriage. 00:00:53.520 --> 00:00:55.680 This was very provocative, 00:00:55.680 --> 00:01:00.880 and shortly after, a contribution appeared from a clergyman 00:01:00.880 --> 00:01:03.960 named Johann Friedrich Zöllner, 00:01:03.960 --> 00:01:08.520 who vehemently opposed civil marriage. 00:01:08.520 --> 00:01:12.320 Not so much because of the church, but he believed 00:01:12.680 --> 00:01:15.680 it was against the interests of the state. 00:01:15.840 --> 00:01:18.360 And in a footnote, he also knew 00:01:18.360 --> 00:01:21.240 why this idea even came up. 00:01:21.240 --> 00:01:26.480 It was probably these Enlighteners who had such ideas. 00:01:26.480 --> 00:01:29.040 And so he asked in the footnote 00:01:29.040 --> 00:01:32.560 What exactly is this Enlightenment? 00:01:32.560 --> 00:01:36.560 No one has answered this yet. 00:01:36.560 --> 00:01:41.760 The Berlinische Monatsschrift took this as an occasion. 00:01:41.760 --> 00:01:45.160 Today we would say for a kind of advertising campaign. 00:01:45.160 --> 00:01:48.000 To put this question out there, 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:50.840 and received contributions 00:01:50.840 --> 00:01:55.320 that wanted to answer the question "What is Enlightenment?" 00:01:55.320 --> 00:01:58.200 Kant's essay was one of them. 00:01:58.200 --> 00:02:00.640 It appeared in 1784. 00:02:00.640 --> 00:02:03.880 Another essay came from Moses Mendelssohn. 00:02:03.880 --> 00:02:06.480 He slightly modified the title 00:02:06.480 --> 00:02:10.520 and spoke of enlightening as a verb. 00:02:10.520 --> 00:02:13.200 In England, to enlighten 00:02:13.200 --> 00:02:16.720 was more popular as a noun. 00:02:16.720 --> 00:02:21.320 And so there were suddenly very different contributions, 00:02:21.320 --> 00:02:28.440 showing that there was no clear answer again, or conversely 00:02:28.440 --> 00:02:33.360 many clear answers that did not always agree. 00:02:33.360 --> 00:02:38.120 At a time when the century was almost over, 00:02:38.120 --> 00:02:43.560 when many Enlightenment writings had already been published. 00:02:43.560 --> 00:02:49.240 There was already an American Revolution and independence in 1776. 00:02:49.240 --> 00:02:53.520 And still, the question was What is Enlightenment? 00:02:53.520 --> 00:02:57.640 Enlightenment is often understood as a philosophical direction 00:02:57.640 --> 00:03:02.520 and very often the question arises, how can one exhibit a philosophy? 00:03:02.520 --> 00:03:07.480 What can one show visually, what can one display? 00:03:07.480 --> 00:03:12.400 And we are trying, in a way, to square the circle. 00:03:12.400 --> 00:03:16.600 We want to show ideas by showing objects 00:03:16.600 --> 00:03:19.760 that can vividly illustrate the ideas of Enlightenment 00:03:19.760 --> 00:03:22.520 with their positive statements 00:03:22.520 --> 00:03:26.520 and their contradictions. 00:03:26.520 --> 00:03:30.960 The model I had in mind in the conception of the exhibition 00:03:30.960 --> 00:03:33.160 is that of a kaleidoscope. 00:03:33.160 --> 00:03:35.680 We see certain problems, certain questions. 00:03:35.680 --> 00:03:41.400 One goes from one section to another: Science, Religion, and Education, 00:03:41.400 --> 00:03:46.000 and one sees how some of the objects, 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:49.640 the people, the events are taken up again, 00:03:49.640 --> 00:03:54.520 but in a slightly different light and in a different constellation, 00:03:54.520 --> 00:03:59.000 so that this series of constellations, 00:03:59.000 --> 00:04:04.200 which I would like to summarize under the concept of the kaleidoscope, 00:04:04.200 --> 00:04:08.080 reflects the exhibition concept quite well, I believe. 00:04:08.080 --> 00:04:12.080 You will see objects that are simply 00:04:12.080 --> 00:04:15.600 wonderful and astonishing. 00:04:15.600 --> 00:04:20.200 You will see manuscripts by Isaac Newton, 00:04:20.200 --> 00:04:24.440 you will see the silver microscope of George III of England. 00:04:24.840 --> 00:04:28.840 You will see a ball gown, 00:04:29.200 --> 00:04:34.640 with airships woven as a pattern, 00:04:34.640 --> 00:04:37.640 so that science, so to speak, 00:04:37.680 --> 00:04:40.600 becomes popular and fashionable. 00:04:40.600 --> 00:04:43.600 You can walk through and simply 00:04:43.600 --> 00:04:47.440 enjoy these extraordinary objects. 00:04:47.440 --> 00:04:50.160 You can also see the contradictions. 00:04:50.160 --> 00:04:54.800 What Enlighteners proclaimed is not necessarily what 00:04:54.800 --> 00:05:00.240 they implemented in reality or even in their writings. 00:05:00.240 --> 00:05:03.240 The basic thesis of the exhibition 00:05:03.240 --> 00:05:08.800 is that not a simple answer to what Enlightenment is 00:05:08.800 --> 00:05:11.560 is so important for us today, 00:05:11.560 --> 00:05:16.560 but the problems that are shown, 00:05:16.560 --> 00:05:19.240 whose legacy we are today.