Time Travel

The collection holdings housed at the Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg (KOG) and the Silesian Museum in Görlitz (SMG) were fully documented and digitally consolidated as part of a German-Polish collaboration with the Herder Institute and the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław. Exhibitions in Görlitz and Regensburg, as well as in Wrocław, Katowice, and Marburg, presented a selection from the Haselbach Collection, which has been replaced by high-quality facsimiles in the traveling exhibition. They invite visitors on a “journey through time” to a rich cultural landscape in the heart of Europe that has attracted artists and tourists alike for centuries.

Topographical illustrations from various periods in art history, particularly from the Romantic and Biedermeier eras, transport viewers into a fascinating world of romantic mountain landscapes, stately cities, and former industrial strongholds. They showcase the diverse “discoveries” of Silesia by artists, engravers, and publishers, especially with the rise of tourism in the 19th century. A colorful array of images unfolds before the viewer’s eyes, bringing to life for today’s generations the charm of Silesia—a region Goethe once praised as a “tenfold interesting land.”

A comprehensive illustrated book was published to accompany the exhibition: Popp, Dietmar [et al.] (eds.) (2007): Zeit-Reisen: Historical Views of Silesia from the Haselbach Print Collection. Marburg: Herder Institute. ISBN 978-3-936168-57-0 

An exhibition by the Herder Institute, the Silesian Museum in Görlitz, and the Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg, in cooperation with the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław, supported by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, the Hessian Ministry of Social Affairs, the Saxon State Ministry of the Interior, and the Foundation for German-Polish Cooperation, presented by the German Cultural Forum for Eastern Europe