Greifswald: The hype about Caspar David Friedrich and the consequences | NDR.de – News

Status: 05.09.2024 12:46

The 250th birthday of Caspar David Friedrich is attracting thousands of visitors to his birthplace, Greifswald. They are exploring the world of the romantic painter. It is already clear what will remain of an anniversary year that is not yet over.

by Juliane Voigt

Caspar David Friedrich's anniversaries have always sparked enthusiasm. That was the case in 1974 and it will be the case in 2024 for his 250th birthday. At the beginning of the anniversary year in January 2024, author Florian Illies had already called out to the people of Greifswald in St. Nikolai Cathedral in a bon mot: “And at the end of this year you will be able to say: Toni is Kroos, but Friedrich is bigger!” His birthplace, Greifswald, is mentioned loud and clear at all major Caspar David Friedrich exhibitions in Hamburg, Berlin and Dresden – advertising for Greifswald and Western Pomerania par excellence. The Pomeranian State Museum broke visitor records, with 51,000 guests coming in the first eight months of this year.

A window with magical light in Greifswald Cathedral

One of the lasting things from the anniversary year is the window by Olafur Eliasson in the east gable of Greifswald Cathedral, which was inaugurated in April. The internationally renowned light artist designed the window in honor of Frederick – based on a painting by the romantic painter: “Hutten's Grave”. When the sun shines through, a warm, almost magical light falls into the church, ranging from light blue to dark red.

Caspar David Friedrich touches – even young audiences

The organizing team, which spent six years preparing for the anniversary, had certainly thought of young people too. At the opening event, electronic music by Christian Löffler and a light show set the tone. At the Pomeranian State Museum, at the end of the year, an entire generation of schoolchildren will have visited the world of Caspar David Friedrich and seen his paintings. Friedrich is touching – and that too, as curator Birte Frenssen has observed time and again. “People always get very quiet in front of the Friedrich paintings, even school classes, even when things are really wild. He still manages to appeal to people today just as he did 250 years ago. And the students notice that he is thinking about where he is going.” Am I going, where am I standing right now, how do I go into the future, that there is something there, a heaven that I am going into.

Through meticulous work, it has not only been possible to show the famous “chalk cliffs” from Winterthur in Switzerland in Greifswald on their tour of Germany. The intensive study of Caspar David Friedrich's sketchbooks and letters also shows him in a different light; he was not just an unsociable, misanthropic grump. Friedrich was a family man who, from Dresden, always longed for his family in Greifswald and for the landscapes around Greifswald and on Rügen. Friedrich has become approachable.

Friedrich International – Greifswald International

Caspar David Friedrich has always been internationally regarded as the painter of German Romanticism. This is also demonstrated by many visitors who come to Greifswald from abroad. Next year there will be a major exhibition in New York. And they now know that if you want to know something about Caspar David Friedrich and his family, for example, you have to ask in Greifswald. The phone has already rung several times in the Pomeranian State Museum. The painting “Neubrandenburg” will fly across the pond from the Greifswald Museum's collection.

Sky and sea remain – they really exist

Caspar David Friedrich is often referred to as a “light painter”. This has to do with the way he painted his skies; he painted clouds and lighting moods with great care. He was also the first painter who dared to mix sacred violet into the color gradients of the sunrises. And many visitors took this home with them: they saw the sky that they admired in the romantic painter’s pictures such as the “Chalk Cliffs on Rügen” again outside at some point. This was an experience that the director of the Pomeranian State Museum, Ruth Slenczka, also had when she came to Greifswald. “It’s been the same for me anyway: since I’ve been here in Western Pomerania, I’ve realized that this Friedrich sky and this Friedrich sea really look like they do here. That too is something very special here in this region, where you can really discover it. And to have the picture here and to have both so close together.

Exhibition “Hometown” opens in October

This year there will be a major exhibition in the Pomeranian State Museum entitled “Hometown”. It begins on October 16, 2024 and ends on January 5, 2025. The painting “The Meadows of Greifswald” is coming from Hamburg to Western Pomerania. And “The Port of Greifswald” from Berlin. It looks like a lot of things have been done right in Greifswald for the anniversary year – by many of its supporters, by the way. You can hear what is still to come and what is going to remain in the new episode of “MV in Focus”.