Der Anfang, das Ende und alles dazwischen. Love Stories
Vom 23. August bis zum 16. November widmen sich das Klingspor Museum und das Haus der Stadtgeschichte dem Thema Liebe.
Die Kooperationsausstellung »Der Anfang, das Ende und alles dazwischen. Love Stories« nimmt das Jubiläum der Verlobung Goethes und Lili Schönemanns in Offenbach zum Anlass, den unterschiedlichen Facetten der Liebe nachzuspüren. Im Haus der Stadtgeschichte wird die Kraft der jungen, meist glücklichen Liebe im Fokus stehen, während das Klingspor Museum sich dem Themenkomplex Liebe, Schmerz und Trennung annimmt. In beiden Ausstellungsteilen wird dabei auch persönlichen Liebes- und Trennungsgeschichten von Offenbacherinnen und Offenbachern Raum gegeben.
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Die Eröffnung
Am 22. August fand die Eröffnung der Ausstellung "Der Anfang, das Ende und alles dazwischen. Love Stories" im Hof des Büsing Palais statt. Viele Besuchende nutzen den Spätsommerabend, um die Ergebnisse dieses große Kooperationsprojekt der beiden städtischen Museen zu zelebrieren. Zwischen den Sprachbeiträgen sorgten die Liebeslieder von "Omo Live Looping Sessions aka Moritz André für eine besondere Atmosphäre. Wir danken allen Beteiligten für die wunderbare Hilfe und allen Besuchenden, dass sie den Abend mit uns verbracht haben. Besonderer Dank geht an den Kulturfond RheiMain vertreten durch Dr. Susanne Völker, der dieses Projekt in diesem Rahmen erst möglich gemacht hat.
Das Begleitprogramm zur Ausstellung
22. August, 16 Uhr
Verleihung Rudo Spemann-Preis
Klingspor Museum
29. August, 19 Uhr
Kino Love Stories
Dirty Dancing (1987), Original mit Untertiteln
Eintritt nach Wahl
Klingspor Museum
30. August, 11 Uhr
Stadtspaziergang „Mit Goethe und Lili nach Little Italy“
Mit Ingrid Walter
Kosten: 5 Euro
Treffpunkt: Haus der Stadtgeschichte
30. August, 16 Uhr
Kuratorinnen-Führung durch beide Ausstellungsteile
Kosten: Eintritt und 2 Euro
Treffpunkt: Haus der Stadtgeschichte
30. August, 15 – 17 Uhr
„Farbe küsst Papier“ Familiendruckwerkstatt im Rahmen der "Love Stories"
Mit Marina Kampka, Christina Dirlich
Kosten: Kinder frei / Erwachsene 5 Euro
Info und Anmeldung unter: hds-terminplanungoffenbachde
Druckwerkstatt im Bernardbau
4. September, 19 Uhr
Vortrag »Liebe in der Antike«
Mit Dr. Kerstin Appelshäuser-Walter
Kosten: 5 Euro
Haus der Stadtgeschichte
6. September, 15 Uhr
Szenisch-romantische Parkbegehung- die Geschichte von Lili Schönemann und Johann Wolfgang Goethe
Mit Annina Schubert, Pirrko Cremer
Kosten: 5 Euro
Treffpunkt: Haus der Stadtgeschichte
7. September, 16 Uhr
Love is in the book! Liebeserklärungen in Wort und Bild
Beispiele aus der Sammlung des Klingspor Museums
Mit Dr. Stefan Soltek
Kosten: Eintritt und 2 Euro
Klingspor Museum
11. September, 18 Uhr
Eröffnung Neue Kunstfreunde
Kosten: Eintritt frei
Haus der Stadtgeschichte
12. September, 19 Uhr
Comiclesung
Ulli Lust liest aus ihrem Comic Die Frau als Mensch: Am Anfang der Geschichte
Eintritt nach Wahl
Klingspor Museum
13. September, 11:30 – 17:30 Uhr
Samstagswerkstatt
Farben der Gefühle
Mit Künstlerin Petra Ober
Kosten: 40 Euro
Mit Anmeldung klingspormuseumoffenbachde
Klingspor Museum
18. September, 18 Uhr
Lieder rund um die Liebe. Ein Abend fürs Herz
Chansons mit Carola und Gregori
Annina Schubert und Joachim Dohm tanzen den »Lindy Hop«
Eintritt nach Wahl
Haus der Stadtgeschichte
19. September, 19 Uhr
Kino Love Stories
Selvi Boylum Al Yazmalım / Das Mädchen mit dem roten Kopftuch (1977)
Eintritt nach Wahl
Klingspor Museum
20. September, 17 Uhr
Kuratorinnen-Führung durch beide Ausstellungsteile
Kosten: Eintritt und 2 Euro
Treffpunkt: Haus der Stadtgeschichte
21. September, 16 Uhr
Comiclesung
Helena Baumeister liest aus ihrem Comic oh cupid
Kosten: Eintritt und 5 Euro
Klingspor Museum
25. September, 18 Uhr
„Raag e Isqh“ Melodie der Liebe
Klassisch indischer Kathak Tanz
Mit Surangama Dasgupta, Lokeshwari Dasgupta, Suramya Pushan Dasgupta
Kosten: 5 Euro
Haus der Stadtgeschichte
26. September, 19 Uhr
Copy und Paste
Performance mit Paula Schulenburg und Lisa Nürnberger
Treffpunkt: Vorplatz Klingspor Museum
Eintritt nach Wahl
27. September, 14 Uhr
Textwanderung und Geschichten „Lilis Tempel“
Mit Sigrid Katharina Eismann und Dr. Jürgen Eichenauer
Kosten: 5 Euro
Treffpunkt: Haus der Stadtgeschichte
3. Oktober, 18 – 20 Uhr
Liebesfunken
Zeichenworkshop mit Johanna und Cristóbal Schmal
Es sind keine Vorkenntnisse erforderlich
Eintritt nach Wahl
Klingspor Museum
4. Oktober, 14 – 17 Uhr
Ein (Liebes)Brief
Handschrift und Kalligrafie erforschen
Mit Künstlerin Tanja Leonhardt
Kosten: 30 Euro
Mit Anmeldung klingspormuseumoffenbachde
Klingspor Museum
7. – 9. Oktober, jeweils 10.30–13.30 Uhr
Love and role models. Ferienspiele für Mädchen ab 12 Jahren
Mit Astrid Jäger
Eintritt frei
Infos und Anmeldung hds-terminplanungoffenbachde oder 069 8065 2475
Haus der Stadtgeschichte
7 – 10. Oktober, 10:00 – 13:00 Uhr
Ferienprogramm Freundschaft. Mein Körper. Du und ich.
Alter 6-12 Jahre
Kosten 50 €
Mit Anmeldung klingspormuseumoffenbachde
Klingspor Museum
10. Oktober, 19 Uhr
Kino Love Stories
Too young to die (2002), Koreanisch mit Untertiteln
Eintritt nach Wahl
Klingspor Museum
12. Oktober, 15 Uhr
Vortrag: Das Leben von Lili Schönemann
Mit Dr. Annette Seemann
Kosten: 5 Euro
Haus der Stadtgeschichte
19. Oktober, 15 Uhr
Vortrag: Das Nibelungenlied
Mit Dr. Jörg Füllgrabe
Kosten: 5 Euro
Haus der Stadtgeschichte
26. Oktober, 15 Uhr
Kuratorinnen-Führung durch beide Ausstellungsteile
Kosten: Eintritt und 2 Euro
Treffpunkt: Klingspor Museum
30. Oktober, 18 Uhr
Her Dark Power
Lesung und Signierstunde mit Carina Schnell
Kosten: 5 Euro
Haus der Stadtgeschichte
31. Oktober, 19 Uhr
Lesung und Gespräch
Laura Melina Berling liest aus ihrem Buch Modern Heartbreak – Feministischer lieben
Eintritt nach Wahl
Klingspor Museum
1. November, 15 – 17 Uhr
Kinderworkshop “Mein Freundebuch”
Astrid Jäger
Kostenfrei
Info und Anmeldung hds-terminplanungoffenbachde
Haus der Stadtgeschichte
7. November, 18 Uhr
Kuratorinnen-Führung durch das Klingspor Museum
Kosten: 2 Euro
Treffpunkt: Klingspor Museum
7. November, 19 Uhr
Kino Love Stories
Portrait de la jeune fille en feu (2019), Original mit Untertiteln
Eintritt nach Wahl
Klingspor Museum
8. November, 15 Uhr
Mein Hoffnungswort auf Postkarten
Workshop im Rahmen der MutMachTage der Evangelischen Stadtkirchenarbeit Offenbach
Mit Anmeldung, Eintritt frei
Klingspor Museum
13. November, 18.30 Uhr
Filmvorführung „Zwischen uns die Mauer“
In Kooperation mit dem Frauenbüro Offenbach
Eintritt frei
Haus der Stadtgeschichte, Erich Martin Raum, Graphische Sammlung, Bernardbau, Haus B, zweiter Stock
14. November, 19 Uhr
EAT IT. Drag-Show
Eintritt nach Wahl
Klingspor Museum
15. und 16. November, 11:30 – 17:30 Uhr
Gefühle sammeln (Klingspor Museum und Druckwerkstatt)
Mit Künstlerin Monika Jäger und Illustratorin Tatjana Prenzel
Kosten: 80 Euro und 10,00 Euro Materialpauschale
Mit Anmeldung klingspormuseumoffenbachde
16. November, 16 Uhr
Kuratorinnen-Führung durch beide Ausstellungsteile
Kostenfrei
Treffpunkt: Haus der Stadtgeschichte
Im Anschluss an die Führung:
17.30 Uhr Verbrennen der Trennungswünsche aus der Ausstellung
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Schulworkshop ab 1. Klasse bis Oberstufe:
Gefühle sammeln in Farbe und Form – ein eigenes Buch gestalten 2,50 Euro / Kind
Kindergartenworkshop:
Gefühlsgespenster 1 Euro / Kind
Information und Anmeldung unter klingspormuseumoffenbachde
Exhibition Texts
Lili – Goethe's great love? 250 years of Goethe and Lili in Offenbach
If I, dear Lili, did not love you,
What joy would this sight give me!
And yet, if I, Lili, did not love you,
What would my happiness be?
JOHANN WOLFGANG GOETHE, 1775
At the beginning of 1775, 25-year-old Johann Wolfgang met 16-year-old Lili at a concert in her parents' house in Frankfurt. This first encounter was followed by many more meetings in Offenbach, and their engagement was arranged by a friend of the family at Easter 1775, but broken off again in September the same year.
The intensity of this brief relationship can be glimpsed in Goethe's poems, dedications, and literary characters, but there is no source today for Lili's feelings from her perspective. Even the doubts and turmoil that preceded the breakup can only be gleaned from Goethe's words. On the one hand, Goethe felt the utmost happiness, but on the other, he experienced almost uncontrollable, immense suffering.
“On top of the world, then down in the dumps” – this famous saying was written by him after his relationship with Lili.
Goethe ironically referred to himself in a letter as “Fastnachts-Goethe” (Carnival Goethe) because he had to dress up for the elegant society in Lili's parents' house in Frankfurt. However, Goethe found his freedom in Offenbach at that time. With the onset of finer weather, most of their meetings took place here. “In the country with very dear people,” he wrote in a letter from Offenbach. In addition to the Bernard and d'Orville families, this also included the music publisher André and the German Reformed pastor Ewald.
“I had to press your precious letter to my lips with emotion. I could say no more.” This was Goethe's reply to an acquaintance who, decades later (in 1830), told him of Lili's confession regarding her childhood friend. Namely, that “if his generosity had not steadfastly rejected the sacrifices she wanted to make for him,” she would later have been “robbed of her self-respect and civic honor.”
Sweet Lili, you were so long
All my joy and all my song;
Now, alas, you are all my pain, and yet
You are still all my song.
JOHANN WOLFGANG GOETHE, Autumn 1775
What is love?
Almost everyone has an idea of love and the feeling that this term conveys. But when asked what love is, there are very different answers.
Psychologist Stefanie Stahl describes new love as a kind of hormone poisoning. In fact, science can divide romantic infatuation into different phases of hormonal flooding, which arise from a mix of serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin.
In evolutionary biology, love between people can be explained by the bonds that humans need to form in order to cope with the long period of raising children or to form stronger communities. Love is therefore the glue that holds communities together and goes far beyond a purely romantic bond between a man and a woman.
But is love really a single clear feeling, as the word suggests? Or is it rather a whole bouquet of feelings directed at important people in our lives?
What is love for you?
Love and drug intoxication: biologically not so different?
Every love begins with falling in love: this special feeling of elation is caused by a specific combination of hormones and neurotransmitters. This exceptional state changes our perception and our actions. That is why people in love think and behave differently from other people. For some, the situation is comparable to a drug high: both at the molecular level and in terms of brain activity, addiction and love are closely related – at least in prairie voles, where this has been studied. What about humans?
HEART PALPITATIONS, SWEATY PALMS, EXUBERANCE, INCREASED ALERTNESS, INSOMNIA, and LOSS OF APPETITE are “symptoms” of both new love and drug intoxication. What causes this?
DOPAMINE is a neurotransmitter that triggers feelings of happiness.
OXYTOCIN is a hormone that influences interpersonal behavior during physical intimacy.
The prefrontal cortex is the area of the brain responsible for controlling behavior in response to situations and regulating emotional processes.
The nucleus accumbens plays a central role in the mesolimbic system, the brain's “reward system,” as well as in the development of addiction. This is where “feelings of happiness” are promoted.
The substances dopamine and oxytocin have a direct effect on these areas when people are in love and cause receptor structures to be converted into new connections.
NORADRENALINE is a messenger substance produced by the body that acts as a stress hormone. Significantly more of it is released when people are in love.
At the same time, people who are acutely in love produce less SEROTONIN than control subjects. This is not surprising, as serotonin has an inhibitory effect on libido.
It is concluded that the elation of being in love is caused by a specific combination of hormones and neurotransmitters flowing through our blood. People in love are in a kind of state of emergency that alters their perception and behavior, comparable to a drug high. Addiction and love are closely related.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aem_0AcHZo
Quarks: Love and being in love: Is it all just an illusion? | Quarks Dimension Ralph
Love and sexuality
Sexuality is probably one of the most observed and regulated areas of human behavior. Sex and love can go hand in hand, but often they do not. In marriage, at least, sexuality was formulated for centuries as a pure duty in Christian societies. In the Napoleonic code “Code civil” of 1804, sex in marriage was for the first time not defined as a duty, but as a free choice, because sexuality was associated with love:
The heart must be able to breathe freely, so to speak, during an act in which it is so deeply involved.
Jean-Étienne-Marie PORTALIS, French lawyer, 1803
Facets of love
While the upheavals in the area of freedom from constraints took place in the long period between Romanticism and the 1960s, the revolution in the area of possibilities has occurred within the last fifty years. The slow acceptance of love marriage has been suddenly overtaken by the infinity of possible partners.
SVEN HILLENKAMP, sociologist, philosopher, and writer
For many people, the idea of traditional romantic love is associated with a physical relationship between a man and a woman who want to stay together for as long as possible, i.e., who are monogamous. In reality, relationships are much more diverse, and reflection on other forms of happy relationships is booming. Same-sex partnerships have been part of human consciousness for thousands of years, and changing partners is just as common as long-term relationships. Since the 1970s, Western societies have also been thinking a lot about open relationships and polyamory, and asexual relationships have also been given a name. Living together as friends, raising children together and caring for one another is no longer a utopian ideal.
How would you like to live together?
In love, engaged, married...
You call it love – we call it unpaid work.
SILVIE FEDERICI, philosopher and activist, 1975
From today's perspective, love and marriage seem to be closely related, at least if you consider voluntariness and affection to be conditions for love and marriage. However, voluntariness is still not a given in many parts of the world, and affection can change over the course of a marriage without necessarily leading to divorce. Marriage is first and foremost an institution, a kind of social contract that has legal consequences. In Germany, married couples enjoy tax benefits, the rights of their offspring are automatically regulated, and marriage gives rise to a mutual obligation to provide for one another, which can certainly be a romantic idea. However, caring for and looking out for one another is not, of course, tied to marriage. Care work also takes place in friendships and unmarried partnerships of all kinds, just not with state support. Marriage as a state-sponsored institution can therefore certainly be questioned because it reinforces the idea of the nuclear family consisting of a father, mother, and child, thereby cementing role models that generally lead to one-sided dependence on women. Despite all the progress made, wives still do the lion's share of unpaid care work, which is why they are more likely to choose part-time work and suffer from lower pensions. This means that in marriage, they are often automatically dependent on their husbands for financial support, whether with or without love. Since October 2017, the Marriage Equality Act has been in force in Germany, allowing same-sex couples to marry and thus opening up new ideas about family and partnership. Marriage and love can work very well together, but marriage without love also exists, just as love without marriage does.
The search for love Dating: The principle of trial and error
Over the centuries, courtship has followed very different rules. In the Middle Ages, European culture stylized the ideal of courtly love, which consisted of eternally courting an unattainable woman, serving the inner development of the suitor. For centuries, marriages were simply arranged, and it was not until the 18th century that the idea of love marriage gradually established itself, along with the apparent freedom of choice in finding a partner. When Goethe and Lili met in 1775, they were accompanied by the critical voices of the Schönemann and Goethe families, who did not approve of their choice and contributed to the failure of the relationship.
“The disappearance of courtship or wooing is a rather astonishing feature of modern love practices and marks a clear difference from traditional romantic customs.”
EVA ILLOUZ, sociologist, 2018
Today, it seems easier than ever to meet other people – and yet at the same time it is complicated. Whether through apps, social networks or in everyday life, people are constantly connected, available at all times and seemingly networked without limits. And yet many feel a growing sense of loneliness. Dating apps promise unlimited possibilities, and the selection of profiles seems endless. But in this world full of options, it is also increasingly difficult to commit. The next date seems just a click away. Today, non-commitment is considered freedom—and at the same time, it becomes a burden. In an age when encounters are becoming increasingly fleeting, the question arises: How willing are we to open ourselves up to others?
250 years of Goethe and Lili in Offenbach
“She could not deny that she had noticed a certain gift for attracting people, which was also associated with a certain characteristic. Through much discussion, we arrived at the questionable conclusion that she had also exercised this gift on me, but had been punished for it by being attracted to me as well.”
JOHANN WOLFGANG GOETHE. Dichtung und Wahrheit, 1811.
With these words, Johann Wolfgang Goethe retrospectively describes his first encounters with Elisabeth (Lili) Schönemann, who went down in literary history as Goethe's fiancée.
At the beginning of 1775, the 25-year-old Johann Wolfgang met the then 16-year-old Lili at a concert in her parents' house in Frankfurt. This first encounter was followed by many more meetings in Offenbach. The engagement was arranged by a friend of the family at Easter 1775 and broken off on September 20. The intensity of this brief relationship can be glimpsed in Goethe's poems, dedications, and literary characters, but there is no source today for Lili's feelings from her perspective. Even the doubts and turmoil that preceded the breakup can only be gleaned from Goethe's words.
The poem dedicated to Lili in the drama Stella, written in 1775 and published a year later, reads:
In the lovely valley, on snow-covered
heights
Your image was always close to me;
I saw it around me in light
clouds,
It was there in my heart.
Feel here how, with almighty
impulse
One heart draws another –
And that in vain love
Flees from love.
JOHANN WOLFGANG GOETHE, 1776
What is love?
Almost everyone has an idea of love and the feeling that this term describes. But when asked what love is, there are very different answers.
Biologically, love can be explained by a changing mix of hormones that literally flood the body.
In evolutionary biology, love between humans can be explained by bonding. Love is the glue that holds communities together and goes far beyond a purely partnership-based bond between a man and a woman.
According to philosopher and psychoanalyst Erich Fromm, people today are no longer good at loving. He argues that people today primarily seek to be loved rather than to love themselves. Yet love is primarily about giving, not receiving.
In fact, love can also hurt very much when it ends or is rejected. The exhibition at the Klingspor Museum explores the connection between love and suffering.
Why does love sometimes hurt?
Love and pain
Does the blossoming of youth captivate you,
This lovely figure,
This gaze full of loyalty and kindness
With infinite power?
When I try to quickly withdraw from it,
Admonish myself to flee,
In that very moment
My path leads me back to her.
And by this magical thread,
Which cannot be broken,
The lovely, loose girl
Holds me fast against my will;
I must now live in her spell
Life on her terms.
Oh, how great the change!
Love! Love! Let me go!
JOHANN WOLFGANG GOETHE. Dichtung und Wahrheit, 1811
Johann Wolfgang Goethe describes the close proximity of love and pain in almost all of his writings dealing with his relationship with Lili Schönemann. In fact, it is only in recent times that love and suffering have ceased to be considered naturally belonging together. The desire for love without suffering differs from the firm belief of past centuries that pain is a consequence of love:
It is always an unattainable star that we love, and all love is always deeply
its essence a secret tragedy, but it is precisely this that enables it to express its powerful, fruitful effect. One cannot descend so deeply into oneself, one cannot
draw from the source of life, where all forces are still intertwined, all opposites still undifferentiated, without also feeling happiness and torment in their mysterious connection. For what happens to human beings lies beyond that carefully and laboriously protected sense of well-being that we spend our whole lives trying to protect against all
pain as if it were our worst enemy. But in all the most creative and emotional experiences of our lives, happiness and suffering are one and the same.
LIV STRÖMQUIST, 2020 and LOU ANDREAS-SALOMÉ, 1900
Loss, separation, and transformation
But there is no absence other than that of the other: the other leaves, I remain. The other is in a state of perpetual departure, in a state of travel; he is, by his very nature, a wanderer, a fugitive; I, who love, am, by my opposite destiny, settled, immobile, available, waiting, bound to the spot, not picked up like a package in a deserted corner of a train station. The absence of the lover goes in only one direction and can only be expressed from the position of the one who stays behind—not from that of the one who leaves."
ROLAND BARTHES. A Lover’s Discours: Fragments, 1977
The loss of a loved person through separation or death is certainly one of the most traumatic experiences in human life. Goodbyes are part of life, and yet people are rarely practiced in dealing with events that are so completely beyond their control. Loved ones die, choose a different life or other people, and the pain digs its furrows. Over time, wounds become scars, but the lost person is often still present somewhere—as a memory, as one's own story, sometimes even as love.
Toxic
In some relationships, love is confused with other feelings—with possessiveness, for example, with fear of loss or with desire. Terrible things are sometimes done in the name of love. In Germany, around one in four women is a victim of physical or sexual violence by their current or former partner at least once, and almost every day a woman dies violently in Germany as a result of femicide. Some men also experience physical violence in relationships, and psychological violence through manipulation of all kinds also occurs in the name of love. In love bombing, for example, emotional dependency is forced upon one partner for the benefit of the other. Ghosting refers to the sudden and unannounced termination of contact with a person, and gaslighting involves denying or devaluing another person's feelings and experiences.
Love and sexuality
Sexuality is probably one of the most observed and regulated areas of human behavior. Sex and love can go hand in hand, but often they do not. In marriage, at least, sexuality was formulated for centuries as a pure duty in Christian societies. In the Napoleonic code ‘Code civil’ of 1804, sex in marriage is not mentioned as a duty for the first time, but as a free decision, because sexuality is associated with love:
The heart must be able to breathe freely, so to speak, during an act in which it is so deeply involved.
JEAN-ÈTIENNE-MARIE PORTALIS, French lawyer, 1803
Violence also resides close to sexuality. The male gaze on the female body is a well-established mechanism, especially in art, and the Me Too movement only revealed the connection between power and sexual exploitation again in 2017. Homosexuality and queer sex meanwhile, must continue to fight for its right to exist in many parts of the world and is still punishable by imprisonment and death.