Natur und deutsche Geschichte. Glaube – Biologie – Macht

The exhibition covers 800 years of history, ranging from Hildegard von Bingen's concept of "viriditas", the green creative power, in the 12th century to the early anti-nuclear movement in Wyhl and the different concepts of nature in both Germanys in the late 20th century. The appropriation of the supposedly natural was also one of the ideological foundations for the Nazi dictatorship, which wanted to bring both "external" and "internal nature" under its power of definition and control with a myriad of laws. The "Nuremberg Laws" and the "Reich Nature Conservation Act" were enacted in the same year: 1935.

The time periods are traversed in five chronologically arranged rooms with different stations. These stations are intended to present events or developments in the form of "vignettes" in which the concept of nature is changed or shaped in a striking way. The project aims to take a broad look at the changing meaning and terminology of "nature" and highlight it as a political factor in German history. The historical stages of this change will be traced, as well as the politicization and instrumentalization of the concept of nature in German history. Who defines what is considered nature? Who has access to it? How does what is understood as inner and outer nature change? And what happens when unforeseen events occur that require political action?