Jump directly to the page contents

“What is Enlightenment?” is the title of a major exhibition that can be visited at the Deutsches Historisches Museum until the beginning of April 2025. It engages philosophy, science, religion and education in a dialog and poses questions about equality, justice and emancipation - topics that captivated people in the Age of Enlightenment and that we are still grappling with today. The retrospective Enlightened! focuses on women of the 18th century who thought, felt and acted enlightened in different ways. What insignia of power did queens equip themselves with? How did they rule and govern? What opportunities for advancement were offered to female workers and artists? What battles did they have to fight? What reforms did they initiate? The program Enlightened! brings together feature and essay films from the silent era to the present day, which do not present us a glorious vision of progress. Rather, it is the contradictions and ambivalences that interest the stories told - sometimes even the conditions that are responsible for the failure of enlightened women. (Philipp Stiasny) 

Review