Stages of the Enlightenment

In Halle-on-the-Saale, several centuries of the history of science and education have left their mark on an astonishing number of cultural institutions, among them, a baroque cabinet of curiosities, teaching collections and school gardens, archives, libraries and museums. On our two-day trip, we will focus on the latter and analyse collections and museums on nature and culture as archives, laboratories and stages between a desire for encyclopaedic breadth and constant specialisation, antiquarian preservation and practical reality, and within the context of social reforms and social commitments. Together with local representatives, we will examine how the intellectual appropriation of the world is actually manifested in the historical and contemporary presentations, and how changing ideas of power, knowledge and society are reflected within them. We will visit and discuss the Meckel Collections of the Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology as well as the Natural Science Collections of Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, the “Julius Kühn” Museum of Domestic Animals, the Franck Foundations in Halle: the cabinet of curiosities and the “stage-set” library (Kulissenbibliothek), the Geiseltal Museum, the “Eternal Rye trial” long-term experiment, the City Museum Halle, the Händel House as well as the State Museum of Prehistory.