The permanent exhibition on the life and work of Erich Maria Remarque offers a detailed look into the life, work, and thoughts of the famous writer through numerous photographs, documents, and manuscripts. The exhibition is bilingual, presented in German and English throughout.

Divided into seven sections covering his youth in Osnabrück (1898–1921), the years in Hanover and Berlin (1922–1928), the discussion around All Quiet on the Western Front (1928–1930), his exile in Europe (1931–1939) and the USA (1939–1948), his political works in the 1950s, and the 1960s leading up to his death on September 25, 1970 in Locarno, the exhibition attempts to highlight the ruptures, contradictions, and controversies in Remarque's life while emphasizing their productivity for his work. It illustrates Remarque's numerous psychological conflicts, aiming to resolve the apparent contradiction between the "bon vivant" and the "militant pacifist," and provides insight into his acquaintances, friendships, and marriages. Numerous originals such as the death mask or Remarque's original desk complement the presentation.

Another focus of the exhibition is the worldwide, often highly controversial reception of Remarque's works, which have been translated into at least 60 languages and continue to attract a global audience of millions.

An information terminal allows visitors to delve deeper into specific questions about Remarque's life and work. Another terminal provides access to over 2,000 photographs spanning all stages of Remarque's life, his residences, contacts, and the film adaptations of his works.

The exhibition is open for free visits on Tuesdays to Fridays from 10 am to 1 pm and from 3 pm to 5 pm, and on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 am to 5 pm. Guided tours for school classes and other interest groups can also be arranged outside regular opening hours. Tours can be scheduled with Mr. Martin Siemsen (siemsen.m@osnabrueck.de) by phone at 0541/323-2109 or fax at 0541/323-4355.

A shop on-site offers materials related to Remarque's life and work for sale.

„Fly with me! Fly with me!“, calls Albi, the Alpine swift, who nests under the roof of the Linden Museum during the summer months. On your flight through the permanent exhibitions, you will encounter the transparent kangaroo, hear about an extinct bird, and can listen to the conversation with Seraa, the elephant. Whether in pictures or clothing, made from wood, ceramics, and stone – the animals and their representations tell of the coexistence of humans and animals. This relationship is not always straightforward. On one hand, many animals are admired, revered, and appreciated as companions or domestic and farm animals, while on the other hand, their habitats are also destroyed and they are hunted or displaced.

In the exhibition, illustrator Promina Shrestha brings the animals on the objects to life through her images. During the listening and stamping rally, you will discover together with Albi what the animals have to say, solve puzzles, and collect stamps.

€ 4/3 including permanent exhibitions
Children up to 18 years free

Tue to Sat 10 AM - 5 PM / Sun and holidays 10 AM - 6 PM / Closed on Dec 24, 25, and 31

The Romantic era was a particularly brilliant period for portrait miniatures, reaching its peak and at the same time signaling the end of this special painting technique. Countless artists created portraits with great empathy and astonishing technical perfection. More people than ever collected small portraits of their loved ones to carry with them or to gather at home as a pictorial family album. 142 masterpieces from the renowned Tansey collection illuminate the heyday of an art that had to make way for photography during the 19th century.

Accompanying the exhibition is a catalog that, in addition to the annotated reproduction of all works, is distinguished by essays by various experts on aspects of miniature painting during this time. Hirmer Verlag, bilingual German/English, 432 pages, 208 color illustrations.

Tue - Sun 11am-5pm

In performative video works, some of them community productions with Tiago Mata Machado, the Brazilian artist Cinthia Marcelle isolates everyday, routine movements and work processes from their functional and production-oriented context. The mostly collaboratively participatory situations are transformed into poetic, metaphorical images that put established routines of social interaction and a performance-oriented logic of modern societies into question.

The exhibition Bodies in Motion – Form in the Making contextualizes the performative, mostly based on simple action instructions performance-based video works of Cinthia Marcelle for the first time with icons of the American post-minimalist dance and performance practice of the 1960s/70s such as Yvonne Rainer, Bruce Nauman, Suzanne Harris, and the performative-participatory approach of the minimalist sculptures of the German artist Charlotte Posenenske.

The exhibition is curated by Anna Roberta Goetz.

Playing, laughing, being loud, romping, doing nothing – and that in an exhibition house! From September 4, 2024, BAUBAU invites exactly that. In the play space for children designed by artist Kerstin Brätsch, more is allowed than forbidden. Colorful wallpapers, structures, objects, and a range of “Loose Parts” form spaces on the ground floor of the Gropius Bau that do not impose fixed guidelines but are determined by the activities of the children. They dictate the direction and form of what happens here. Thus, this place becomes a space of possibilities that can change day by day.

BAUBAU will launch in September 2024 in a prototype version and will continue to develop and grow over the coming years both inside and outside the Gropius Bau – in close exchange with the children and their wishes, as this is their place.

The Play
All children have the urge to play. This is how they learn to understand themselves and the world. Especially open, self-determined play is of great significance for emotional and social development. The educational concept for BAUBAU is therefore based on the principles of free play: Here, there is time, space, and permission for children to follow their own needs and interests. They are accompanied by playworkers – trained staff who create a safe and supportive environment where children can play freely.

 
The Art
BAUBAU playfully questions what a museum or an art institution should be. The comprehensive spatial design developed by Kerstin Brätsch is full of references and inspirations: elements from her previous works, such as marbling, paintings, or stucco marble work, reappear here in altered forms and materialities. The wallpapers, curtains, fabrics, seating furniture, and climbing structures are inhabited by dinosaurs, fantastical beings, termite mounds, and abstract elements. With their strange, funny, and perhaps a bit eerie shapes, they create an open framework for free play.

Kerstin Brätsch's practice is designed to allow and incorporate influences from outside. While she has previously collaborated with artists or artisans, she now does so in a completely different way with children: She invites the children to reshape and further develop the space according to their own ideas and visions, without the influence of the artist in unpredictable ways.

Mon, Wed, Thu, Fri 12:00–18:00
Sat, Sun 11:00–18:00
Tue closed

Playing, laughing, being loud, romping, doing nothing – and that in an exhibition house! From September 4, 2024, BAUBAU invites exactly that. In the play space for children designed by artist Kerstin Brätsch, more is allowed than forbidden. Colorful wallpapers, structures, objects, and a range of “Loose Parts” form spaces on the ground floor of the Gropius Bau that do not impose fixed guidelines but are determined by the activities of the children. They dictate the direction and form of what happens here. Thus, this place becomes a space of possibilities that can change day by day.

BAUBAU will launch in September 2024 in a prototype version and will continue to develop and grow over the coming years both inside and outside the Gropius Bau – in close exchange with the children and their wishes, as this is their place.

The Play
All children have the urge to play. This is how they learn to understand themselves and the world. Especially open, self-determined play is of great significance for emotional and social development. The educational concept for BAUBAU is therefore based on the principles of free play: Here, there is time, space, and permission for children to follow their own needs and interests. They are accompanied by playworkers – trained staff who create a safe and supportive environment where children can play freely.

 
The Art
BAUBAU playfully questions what a museum or an art institution should be. The comprehensive spatial design developed by Kerstin Brätsch is full of references and inspirations: elements from her previous works, such as marbling, paintings, or stucco marble work, reappear here in altered forms and materialities. The wallpapers, curtains, fabrics, seating furniture, and climbing structures are inhabited by dinosaurs, fantastical beings, termite mounds, and abstract elements. With their strange, funny, and perhaps a bit eerie shapes, they create an open framework for free play.

Kerstin Brätsch's practice is designed to allow and incorporate influences from outside. While she has previously collaborated with artists or artisans, she now does so in a completely different way with children: She invites the children to reshape and further develop the space according to their own ideas and visions, without the influence of the artist in unpredictable ways.

Mon, Wed, Thu, Fri 12:00–18:00
Sat, Sun 11:00–18:00
Tue closed

Playing, laughing, being loud, romping, doing nothing – and that in an exhibition house! From September 4, 2024, BAUBAU invites exactly that. In the play space for children designed by artist Kerstin Brätsch, more is allowed than forbidden. Colorful wallpapers, structures, objects, and a range of “Loose Parts” form spaces on the ground floor of the Gropius Bau that do not impose fixed guidelines but are determined by the activities of the children. They dictate the direction and form of what happens here. Thus, this place becomes a space of possibilities that can change day by day.

BAUBAU will launch in September 2024 in a prototype version and will continue to develop and grow over the coming years both inside and outside the Gropius Bau – in close exchange with the children and their wishes, as this is their place.

The Play
All children have the urge to play. This is how they learn to understand themselves and the world. Especially open, self-determined play is of great significance for emotional and social development. The educational concept for BAUBAU is therefore based on the principles of free play: Here, there is time, space, and permission for children to follow their own needs and interests. They are accompanied by playworkers – trained staff who create a safe and supportive environment where children can play freely.

 
The Art
BAUBAU playfully questions what a museum or an art institution should be. The comprehensive spatial design developed by Kerstin Brätsch is full of references and inspirations: elements from her previous works, such as marbling, paintings, or stucco marble work, reappear here in altered forms and materialities. The wallpapers, curtains, fabrics, seating furniture, and climbing structures are inhabited by dinosaurs, fantastical beings, termite mounds, and abstract elements. With their strange, funny, and perhaps a bit eerie shapes, they create an open framework for free play.

Kerstin Brätsch's practice is designed to allow and incorporate influences from outside. While she has previously collaborated with artists or artisans, she now does so in a completely different way with children: She invites the children to reshape and further develop the space according to their own ideas and visions, without the influence of the artist in unpredictable ways.

Mon, Wed, Thu, Fri 12:00–18:00
Sat, Sun 11:00–18:00
Tue closed

Ten Years of Meissen Porcelain Foundation
Exhibition at the Museum of the Meissen Porcelain Foundation, March 21, 2025 to February 22, 2026

Collecting fascinates. The Meissen Porcelain Foundation was founded at the end of 2014, and it began its work in 2015. It preserves the cultural heritage of Meissen porcelain. One of the foundation's tasks is the care of the historical collection of the Meissen porcelain manufactory.

Manufacturer founder Augustus the Strong referred to his passion for porcelain as “Maladie.” This literally means “disease,” but stands for his boundless longing for the precious white gold. This fascination is shared to this day by generations of collectors – and artists. Their porcelains showcase the invention, production, and collection of the white treasures. Porcelain craftsmen provide insight into their art. Happy collectors cherish their treasures. Artists play with the term porcelain and transform centuries-old tools into contemporary porcelain art.

The exhibition provides insight into the work of the foundation and showcases Meissen porcelains around the theme of collecting.

Ten Years of Meissen Porcelain Foundation
Exhibition at the Museum of the Meissen Porcelain Foundation, March 21, 2025 to February 22, 2026

Collecting fascinates. The Meissen Porcelain Foundation was founded at the end of 2014, and it began its work in 2015. It preserves the cultural heritage of Meissen porcelain. One of the foundation's tasks is the care of the historical collection of the Meissen porcelain manufactory.

Manufacturer founder Augustus the Strong referred to his passion for porcelain as “Maladie.” This literally means “disease,” but stands for his boundless longing for the precious white gold. This fascination is shared to this day by generations of collectors – and artists. Their porcelains showcase the invention, production, and collection of the white treasures. Porcelain craftsmen provide insight into their art. Happy collectors cherish their treasures. Artists play with the term porcelain and transform centuries-old tools into contemporary porcelain art.

The exhibition provides insight into the work of the foundation and showcases Meissen porcelains around the theme of collecting.

With the exhibition »The Story That Never Ends. The Collection of the ZKM«, the ZKM | Karlsruhe provides a comprehensive insight into its own collection, which, with around 12,000 works, is among the largest and most significant collections of media art in the world. The exhibition tells not only of the intertwined stories of art and technology but also of the challenges that fast-paced technological media bring to museums worldwide.

The history of media art from the 1950s to the present

Electrification and digitalization have changed the world. This transformation has not only affected our daily lives but has also impacted artistic creation. 

Since the beginning of the 20th century, artists have been using these rapidly evolving technologies and constantly expanding the expressive possibilities of art: The spectrum ranges from video, light, and sound works to motor-driven kinetic objects, as well as computer-based interactive installations or works created with the help of artificial intelligence. 

With about 100 works, »The Story That Never Ends« traces these developmental lines of the apparatus arts and their openness to the categories of space, time, and movement as well as interaction and participation – from the 1950s to the present. A selection of important key works that represent significant moments and milestones of media art illustrates the diversity and impact of these technological developments. Marie-Jo Lafontaine's monumental video sculpture »Les larmes d’acier« (1987), which ironizes the complex conceptual constellations of "man, machine, power, and sexuality," as well as Bill Viola's video-sound installation »Stations« (1994), which unites central aspects of his artistic work along with fundamental themes of human existence, or Jeffrey Shaw's »Virtual Sculpture« (1981), representing early experiments in augmented reality, form a small selection of examples here. 

At the same time, the exhibition also makes the socio-political context in which the works were created comprehensible, allowing for deductions and connections to the pressing questions of our time: Feminist works by earlier (media art) pioneers, such as pezoldo (aka Friederike Pezold), Lynn Hershman Leeson, Kirsten Geisler, or Rebecca Horn, are just as noteworthy as works reflecting the impacts of mass media like television (Nam June Paik, Wolf Vostell), the connection between technology and the military, borders and surveillance, or violence in the digital space (Paul Garrin, Hanna Haaslahti, David Rokeby) or natural ecosystems (Justine Emard, Claudia González Godoy). Artists repeatedly question the possibilities and effects of new media, rethink and redesign them, thus bringing forth new social and cultural narratives that shape the discourse about our relationship with technology. 

We perceive art, as the exhibition title suggests, as a story that will never end as long as there are people. The fact that we do not know what form it will take in the future is something it shares with technology. Our knowledge of the past and present influences how we shape the future and value what is yet to come.

The restoration of media art

„The Story That Never Ends“ not only refers to artistic development but also to the challenges museums face when collecting media artworks: Technical devices are not made for eternity, data carriers deteriorate, software standards become obsolete very quickly, and media formats are no longer readable after a few years. This means that works must continuously be monitored and technically updated by conservators. What impact does this have on art and our cultural memory? What skills do we need to develop to not only have a future but also a past?

The ZKM has an internationally recognized expertise in the conservation and restoration of media art. However, since these conservation and restoration activities mostly happen behind the scenes, »The Story That Never Ends« takes a radical step: The decision about which key works from the collection are shown in the exhibition has been entrusted to the conservators of the ZKM. In doing so, they bring hidden treasures to light that have, due to elaborate preservation measures, often not been publicly visible for decades. Since the works themselves do not necessarily reveal the complexity of their technology and the challenges of their preservation, the exhibition also provides an introduction to the history of technology and conservation strategies for this type of works.

The view from the past into the future

»The Story That Never Ends« thus not only tells the fascinating story of media art through the unique collection of the ZKM. It also highlights the fragility of our electrified and digitalized civilization. The exhibition allows for an in-depth insight into the art and technology history of the 20th and 21st centuries and shows how history sharpens the view of the present and stimulates the imagination of possible futures.

Wed to Fri: 10 am to 6 pm
Sat, Sun: 11 am to 6 pm

With »All Memory Is Theft«, the ZKM presents a comprehensive retrospective of the Belgian film and media artist Johan Grimonprez (*1962), whose work straddles the line between theory and practice, art and cinema, documentation and fiction.

„Who owns our imagination in a world where existence is shaken, and truth wanders like a shipwrecked refugee? Are they the storytellers who can keep contradictions at bay by slipping between the languages given to us and becoming time travelers of the imagination?“ (Johan Grimonprez)

Based on an archaeology of today's media landscape, Grimonprez combines fragments from films, television news, advertisements, cinema and amateur films, as well as the Internet, weaving new narratives that challenge our perception of reality. Grimonprez' works, which have been presented in the most significant museums worldwide and have been awarded numerous times at festivals, showcase how the manner of representation of actuality and imagination, of CNN and Hollywood, have become intertwined today. They thus emphasize the complexity of our media-shaped present, which is more susceptible to manipulations than ever in times of populism and conspiracy theories rampant on the Internet.

The exhibition presents Johan Grimonprez' works from the last 30 years in a multifaceted parcours, where moving images, archival materials, and quotes are intertextually woven together. The exhibition includes film installations, feature and short films, vlogs, storyboards, and drawings by the artist, spanning from his early works such as »Kobarweng or Where is your Helicopter« (1992) and his multi-channel installation “It will be alright if you come again (…)” (1994) through his documenta X contribution »dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y« from 1997 to his latest film »Soundtrack to a Coup d‘Etat« (2024), co-produced by the ZKM for the exhibition, which has been nominated for the Oscars® as Best Documentary – a fast-paced montage of archival material that deals with the independence of the Congo from Belgian colonial rule in 1960 and the assassination of the first freely elected Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, tracing the connections between jazz music, geopolitics, and colonial power dynamics during the Cold War.

Referring to Paul Virilio, Johan Grimonprez once stated that every technology also produces its own accident: „With the ship, one invented shipwreck; with flying, airplane crashes,“ said the French philosopher and media theorist. One could add that with the invention of virtual reality and AI, reality has gone awry. Thus, Grimonprez' works indicate not only that the media no longer need to catch up with reality today, but rather that it is reality that must now catch up with the media.

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