Rostock companies and their products from 200 years
8 October 2021 to 30 January 2022
Playing cards from Tiedemann's lithographic printing works, liqueurs from Kranstöver or jeans pants from VEB Jugendmoden Shanty - Rostock products sold far beyond the city limits. Some became international success stories. The special exhibition "Made in Rostock" explores the lively tradition of Rostock's business world and shows inventions and bestsellers from 200 years of the city's history.
Whether pedestrians or cab drivers, horse-drawn streetcars or omnibuses - cityscape photographs of old Rostock tell of the lively traffic on the city's streets. While horses, carts and carriages still dominate the streetscape in the earliest photographs, horse-drawn streetcars and bicycles soon appear, only to be replaced soon after by the electric streetcar, the bus and the automobile.
Following the exhibitions "On the open road" and "Rostock busy", this third part of the exhibition takes another look at the often overlooked details on the periphery of historical photographs. The photographic view of the rapidly changing image of road traffic over the past 150 years opens up an exciting piece of Rostock's cultural history.
Shots from the photo collection of the Rostock Museum of Cultural History will be on display, supplemented by valuable loans from private collections.
A richly illustrated catalog will be published by Hinstorff-Verlag to accompany the exhibition.
March 10, 2017 – June 11, 2017
In the middle of the 19th century cities expanded beyond their surrounding walls. As railway stations developed the city walls lost their function and gradually disappeared. Rostock as well expanded towards the West and South since 1850. Outside the “Steintor” residences arose in place of gardens and farmers houses. Farm tracks turned into avenues. Soon “Wallstraße” (Wall Street) was graced by first splendid mansions. After the Lloyd railway station was opened in 1886 a suburb developed featuring civic mansions and apartments along wide and generous tree lined avenues. Soon 6.970 citizens were housed in 784 buildings in the novel “Steintor-Vorstadt” (Stone Gate Suburb) around 1900. The area outside the “Steintor” became Rostock’s priciest neighbourhood.
For the first time an exhibition of the Rostock Cultural History Museum is dedicated to the southern suburb. You are invited for a stroll through the developing streets. Historical photographs and documents provide the backdrop for a journey into Wilhelminian time around 1900. The view onto the life of Rostock’s citizens inside the mansions and apartments is amended by stories and memories of citizens and visitors which bring the suburb to life.
Slüter’s reformation sermon in Rostock, Bernhard Reinhold, 1858
July 7, 2017 – November 5, 2017
On the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the protestant reformation the Rostock Cultural History Museum presents an exhibition on its history. The exhibition not only broaches the issue of events related to the reformation in Rostock and Mecklenburg, but also the cultural and religious exchange processes connected to it. The ecclesiastic and religious life and the faith before reformation, the development leading to upheaval and transformation, and the development of the protestant regional church in Mecklenburg since the mid-16th century play their role. Hence an overall view emerges onto the versatile religious, cultural and social processes during the 16th and 17th century, which can be summarized under the notion of reformation and its consequences.
Not only was Rostock the intellectual centre of the reformation in Mecklenburg, but also became an extraordinary multiplier of reformatory ideas as early as the 1520s. This is owed to the first protestant preacher in Rostock, Joachim Slüter. Already in 1525 he released a protestant hymnbook and in 1526 a prayer booklet, both in Low German language, which are the oldest evidence of this type at all. Especially the hymnbook became a bestseller and was distributed far beyond the boundaries of Mecklenburg. Hymns from Rostock shaped the protestant community singing in Sweden and Denmark, and also in England and Latvia as in many territories of the Holy Roman Empire. Characters like David Chyträus and Johann Quistorp the elder, or Johann Friedrich König, Heinrich Müller, or Theophil Großgebuer shaped Lutheranism beyond the boundaries of the empire and let emanate Rostock’s influence across the Baltic Sea towards Scandinavia.
November 30, 2018 - April 28, 2019
Since time immemorial, people have been fascinated by the magic of brilliant gold. More than 6,500 years ago, there was an ancient culture on the west coast of the Black Sea. At that time, a nation of peasants in the area of Varna discovered the cultivation of copper and gold. At first it was copper, with which people covered the bodies of their deceased chiefs, tribal elders and priests. But soon they gave the dead gold for eternity. More than 3,000 gold objects and other burial objects from prehistoric Varna were discovered during an archeological dig in the 1970s. The golden grave goods from the middle of the 5th millennium BC are among the oldest known jewels in the world. The exhibition "The oldest gold in the world" shows a spectacular selection from the grave finds of gold, copper and clay and leads into the world of one of the oldest cultures in the world and the beginning of civilization. The finds have already been shown in Bulgaria, Japan, Canada, France, Italy, Israel and the Netherlands, among others. Now comes the exhibition of the Archaeological Museum Varna with one of the most spectacular gold discoveries in the world to Rostock.
2nd exhibition of the exhibition series: Rostock’s Classical Modernism: “Degenerate Art” from the Estate of Art Dealer Bernhard A. Böhmer.
Part 1: From Abbo to de Fiori
17th of May to 16th of June 2019
Location: the Hanseatic and University City Rostock Display Depot
In the world of classical modernity, and particularly for the artists of that time, the modern world was turning like a kaleidoscope: the vast and broken patterns of new artworks were being created at an ever-faster rate: faces both with and without names, ladies of the night and their admirers, gigolos and war cripples, circus acrobats and carnival barkers, the holy and the crooks, the bourgeois and the revolutionaries, lovers and the lonely hearts. For many, greater even than the yearning for a rural idyll was the longing for the promise of the big city.
With their graphics, avant-garde artists documented their surroundings by providing a representation of the flood of the overpowering impressions to which they were exposed in the 20th century. And in so doing, the artists and their experiments became the focus of attention. Loved by some but hated by others: the graphics gained a novel artistic meaning.
Over 580 graphics can be found in the estate of art dealer Bernhard A. Böhmer, and in this exhibition series, the artworks are presented to the public for the very first time. The 2nd exhibition casts light of the phenomena of graphics from classical modernism, with 257 artworks from 67 artists presented in four displays.
In 1958, the exhibition of “German graphics from the early XX century”, with many works of art from Böhmer’s estate was held – but then closed in a matter of days. It is a phenomenon: how a few strokes can convey such considerable meaning. Why? This is a question best answered by the exhibition – best experienced in images and sounds.
Curator: Susanne Knuth
November 24, 2017 to March 4, 2018
.The exhibition year at the Rostock Museum of Cultural History will conclude in 2017 with an exhibition on the everyday history of the GDR.
With "From Ata to Central Committee. GDR Everyday Life in Objects," the museum presents simple and well-known and lesser-known objects from everyday life in the GDR and uses these examples to tell the story of everyday life in the GDR between privacy and state influence. The focus is on topics such as family, school and studies, career and work, leisure and vacation, or social activity. The objects and their stories make it possible to examine whether and how the state influenced people's lives, how everyday life was mastered in the GDR.
Still open until November 4, 2018
.Historically grown Hanseatic city at the mouth of the Warnow River, craftsmen's town, industrial city, district capital and gateway to the world of the GDR, brick Gothic urban space, seat of an old university and center of a strong middle class in the past. Modern center on the southern Baltic Sea in the present. Formative characteristics and descriptions of what the city was and is, there were and are many for Rostock.
With the Rostock Museum of Cultural History, the city has one of the large municipal museums in northern Germany. The house opens the view on the city's anniversary in 2018 with the special exhibition from its own holdings, which demonstrate the history of the city and the region in an impressive way with their exhibits, as well as with targeted loans and partnerships. The exhibits, which have been preserved by generations, tell known and unknown stories from history, new and long known in a new way.
The exhibition addresses questions to Rostock's history. It looks behind the scenes of a city and its citizens, explains what they lived on, who ruled them, what they believed in, where they lived; asks where they came from and what shaped them. On these and other topics, the exhibition seeks answers and tries to describe what Rostock is.
Specularly, individual topics as well as important events are illuminated and deepened. The focus is on selected exhibits of art and cultural history as unique and eloquent testimonies to the development of the city of Rostock over "800 years".
600 years of the University of Rostock
.June 20, 2019 to November 30, 2019
The oldest university in Northern Europe has reason to celebrate. In 2019, the aim is to present 600 eventful years of Rostock University history in a dignified and appealing setting. The University of Rostock and the Rostock Museum of Cultural History are presenting a joint exhibition to mark the occasion. The history of Rostock University began 600 years ago. It was opened in 1419. The university in the city is one of the oldest in Germany and was the first in Northern Europe. The exhibition "People - Knowledge - Life Paths. 600. years of the University of Rostock". leads into the rich past of the alma mater in the city on the Warnow River. The focus is on many of the more than 200,000 people who have learned, taught and worked there over the past centuries up to the present day. Their history, achievements and experiences have shaped the university and will be told and presented here.
December 15, 2019 to March 22, 2020
.The writer Walter Kempowski set a literary monument to his hometown in the novels of the German Chronicle. Extensive knowledge, collections and memories were incorporated into a literary portrayal of bourgeois life in the first half of the 20th century in a northern German city. The joint exhibition of the Rostock Museum of Cultural History and the Kempowski Archive Rostock is a welcome opportunity to follow in the footsteps of the writer's literary work and to trace the work on the way to the successful novels.
Curator: Dr. Kartrin Möller-Funck (Kempowski Archive Rostock)
A city history of artificial lighting
.July 23, 2020 to October 25, 2020
From medieval candlesticks to modern city lighting, artificial light has always defined people's everyday lives. The special exhibition at the Rostock Museum of Cultural History takes you on a tour through brightly lit streets and dark alleys. We turn night into day and shine a spotlight on a multifaceted topic of Rostock's economic and technological history.
Curator: Ullrich Klein
MECKLENBURG TRACHTEN BY WOLFGANG "WOLF" BERGENROTH (1893-1942)
Danz up de Deel: Kiekbusch, Swedish Quadrille, Schausterdanz and Windmöllerdanz were the names of the Mecklenburg peasant dances. The almost forgotten dances were revived by the gymnastics teacher Marie Peters and her "Schweriner Mädchentanzgruppe" (Schwerin Girls' Dance Group), who designed a costume based on the traditional dress of the "Stubendirns" - but no one called it a "Dirndl". Nevertheless, the 'Marie-Peters-Tracht' became more and more popular among peasant women and peasants between Lübeck, Ratzeburg and Schwerin and was worn as peasant costume.
As a high school student, Wolfgang Bergenroth, born in Parchim, West Mecklenburg, admired the "Schwerin Girls' Dance Group" in their charming traditional costumes. As an apprentice decorator and painter, he drew traditional costumes from Marie Peters' private collection, especially beautiful the 'Dreistückmütze' - a colorful hood with long ribbons. As an illustrator, he designed colored woodcuts of Mecklenburg peasant dances for Marie Peters. The 'Trachten' never let go of him.
From 1924 Bergenroth lived as a freelance painter and illustrator in Rostock and was a member of the Rostock Artists' Association. His illustrations for the Mecklenburgische Monatshefte were in demand - mostly on the subject: folk costume. He left the narrow ridge on which he walked when in the 1930s he carried out major commissions from the military and army construction office for decorative painting: decorating Mecklenburg barracks and military hospitals with harvest festival and peasant dance scenes. In his head always circled the plan for a "large-scale Mecklenburg costume work."
The Bergenroth volume has been preserved in the Rostock Museum of Cultural History since 1943. As a unique document, it has already served ethnologists to reconstruct lost Mecklenburg costumes. Now this contemporary document is presented for the first time in a special art-historical exhibition with a variety of drawings and woodcuts also to the general public.
Curator: Dr. Susanne Knuth
A history in photographs
.September 22, 2020 marks the 750th anniversary of the founding of the Holy Cross Monastery. In the Middle Ages nuns lived here according to the rule of the Cistercian order. In 1586 it became a Protestant convent for conventuals from well-off families of the city. The convent was officially closed in 1920. However, the last convent lady still entered in 1948 and died in 1981.Today, the convent is a museum and not only the oldest preserved building complex in Rostock, but also one of the most important architectural monuments of the city.
The Rostock Museum of Cultural History is using the 750th anniversary of the founding of this important historical institution as the occasion for an exhibition.
From now on, the museum will present an exhibition on the history of the monastery. While the church and monastery courtyard have been repeatedly depicted in photographs since the 19th century, historical photographs of the interiors are rare. The exhibition illustrates the history of the monastery and convent from the period between 1860 and 1965 with a selection of rare photographs, many of which have never been shown before. The focus is on historic photographs of the convent and its church, before they were built into the University Church and Museum, and its residents.
37 artists from 5 countries were inspired by the former slates from the roof of the railroad remise at the ferry port in Gedser. They were invited to this experiment by metal sculptor Bernard Misgajski. He had discovered the potential of these slabs for art and was looking for idiosyncratic pictorial compositions that had been created over 130 years by deposits, wind and weather. These "slate pictures", once mined in the slate mines of Wales and brought by sea to Gedser, he captured in the format 24 X 19.5 cm in steel frames.
.The juxtaposition of these traces of time on a rock millions of years old and the multiform adaptations in the same format by the artists invite us to witness the metamorphosis of a material.
A film essay about the initiator Bernard Misgajski by Gudrun Brigitta Nöh and Andrea Köster as well as an extensive catalog complement the exhibition.
An accompanying program of artist talks, readings, and lectures encourages new views of an ancient rock and artistic engagement with the brittle material.
The creation of the exhibition was made possible by the Hanseatic City of Rostock, the partner municipality of Guldborgsund, the Vorpommern-Fonds and numerous sponsors.
