“'Fastnacht der Hölle”
“Fastnacht der Hölle”—this is how the writer Ernst Jünger describes his impressions of the First World War. Taking up this image, the exhibition places the immediate sensations of people—their experiences and perceptions—at the center during this first industrialized, global war.
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Five sensory stations form the introduction to the exhibition, simulating specific impressions through samples: what this war tasted like, how it smelled, how it felt, how it looked, and how it sounded. The core of the exhibition consists of three large display cases in which authentic, personal artifacts from the First World War are situated according to their contexts: the front line, the rear area, and the home front. Above the more than 400 objects, firsthand accounts recorded in letters and diaries appear as fleeting, weightless projections.
A calendar spanning from the first to the last day of the war frames the dimly lit space as a chronological band of light. The epilogue presents the consequences of the war that remain visible to this day and leads visitors out through a projection of the craters at the Somme.”
