The Kleist exhibition
Puzzles.
Heinrich von Kleist’s biography takes us to the time around 1800. His works, on the other hand, are timeless and remain among the most important literary and journalistic texts in the German language. The interactive exhibition therefore presents life and work separately.
Kleist’s unique selling point is his virtuoso, tension-filled handling of the German language – the material he shapes. The specific characteristics of his writing can be discovered in a playful, illustrative way.
The text worlds created from this language are presented under thematic perspectives in audio quotations. Without offering prefabricated images, the exhibition thus enables very personal approaches to Kleist’s work.
“If I were fit for something else,
I would gladly take it with all my heart:
I just write poetry,
because I can’t help it.”
Heinrich von Kleist
The life of Heinrich von Kleist is presented in its historical context. Pictures, written testimonies and replicas as well as impressive room installations show Kleist’s life phases in characteristic images. Each room is dedicated to a biographical section: origin and officer’s career, studies and engagement, travels and the attempt as a civil servant, writer’s existence, suicide.
An interactive tablet guide provides in-depth information as well as all exhibition texts in English and Polish.
Participants
Curator
Dr. Barbara Gribnitz
Kleist-Museum
Design
Arge Panatom GmbH and scenography valentine koppenhöfer
Supporters
European Union/European Regional Development Fund: Investing in your future!
The Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media
Ministry of Science, Research and Culture of the State of Brandenburg
City of Frankfurt (Oder)
Sponsors
Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation
Arbeitskreis selbständiger Kultur-Institute (AsKI)
Investitionsbank des Landes Brandenburg
Kulturland Brandenburg
Sparkasse Oder-Spree
Stadtwerke Frankfurt (Oder)