These days we are all photographers – with our mobile phone cameras always at the ready. But what was it like in the 19th century? When Gottlieb Theodor Hase (1818 –1888) started working with a camera, the medium was still new and not everyone was impressed with this technical achievement. Nevertheless Hase managed to establish himself as the first professional photographer in Freiburg Originally from Erfurt, he even managed to become Baden’s official court photographer.

It was only after several years as a successful wandering photographer, during which time he also offered the well-heeled middle-classes his services as a painter that Hase settled in Freiburg. In contrast to most of his contemporaries, he applied himself not only to lucrative portrait photography but also captured architecture, everyday scenes, and landscapes on glass plate and paper. His works represent an important testimony of the past and take observers on a journey back through time.

Source: organiser

The Museum für Neue Kunst (MNK) is celebrating a rediscovery: Priska von Martin (1912-1982) left an extensive and extremely modern oeuvre to posterity. In her life, she broke new ground and created something extraordinary in what was the male domain of sculpture at that time.

Her female figures, reindeer, moose and horses are made of bronze, plaster, aluminium or simply cardboard, sometimes miniature, sometimes life-size. Von Martin not only presented her works in the traditional mode of works on pedestals in art museums, but also staged many sculptures outdoors and photographed them in various contexts – ranging from Munich's Königsplatz to a common gravel pit. The delight she took in experimentation is also evident in her visually stunning and colourful drawings, collages and watercolours.

From over 60 sculptures, 230 works on paper and in excess of 1,000 photographs from her own collection, the MNK will present an exhibition in conjunction with the Gerhard Marcks Haus in Bremen. It constitutes an homage to a great artist and daughter of the City of Freiburg.

A catalogue will be published in German and English by the Snoeck-Verlag to accompany the exhibition.

Source: organiser

For 200 years, Roman legionaries shaped life on the Upper Rhine. Their main task was to safeguard the borders of the Empire. Yet what did the soldiers do in times when there was no war? The young men came from all parts of the Roman Empire that extended in its heyday from Egypt to Britain. With their diverse skills and expertise they brought innovations in technology, education and religion, whose influence has persisted up to the present day.

Finds from Baden-Württemberg, Hesse and Alsace testify to the numerous tasks of the legionaries. They built infrastructure like roads and aqueducts, they took on administrative tasks, they insured public order, similar to our police. In the exhibition, tools, gaming pieces and a wax tablet cast light on their daily life. But what would a legionary be without his armour? One highlight is a bronze find from Hagenau: the prototype of a Roman helmet. Everyone who likes to try is invited to put on a Roman armour or to try out a Roman surveying instrument.

Source: organiser

History holds many puzzles. What do we actually know about Freiburg’s past? Who founded the city and who lived here?What kind of jobs did they have? And what did they do in their spare time? Were the famous Bächle always a popular place for children to play? Or what were they originally used for?

Some of the answers can be found in written sources but we do not learn much about people’s everyday lives. Discoveries from the ground tell us much more: cooking utensils, decorated stove tiles, oil lamps, medieval leather shoes, drinking cups and playing pieces, a pot from the time the town was founded or a toilet seat from the 13th century – all of them are first hand reports. Putting the pieces together, we receive a multifaceted picture of earlier times.

For the 900th anniversary of the city’s foundation, the Städtische Museen Freiburg and the Landesamt für Denkmalpflege are organising a major exhibition that brings into focus these fascinating objects from previous centuries. Hands-on activities, 3D animations, search-and-find pictures and an exhibition comic create links to the present day.

Source: organiser