The Gleimhaus offers a variety of points of contact for an entertaining and eventful visit. The theme of friendship is always present, in the friendship letters, in the pictures in the Temple of Friendship or in the library, which was also dedicated to friends.
By public transport: Coming from the main railway station, please take tram line 1 in the direction of "Friedhof" and get off at "Hoher Weg". Walk up the stairs to the cathedral and you will find yourself directly in front of the Gleimhaus. Walk from the main railway station: approx. 25 min.
By bike: Covered parking spaces in front of the museum. An e-bike battery charging station (locker with 230-volt earthed socket - own charging cable required) is located at the Halberstadt Tourist Information Centre on Holzmarkt, approx. 350 m away.
By car: There are no parking spaces available at the Gleimhaus. Please park in the surrounding public car parks (subject to a charge) or in the CONTIPARK Halberstadt Zentrum multi-storey car park. Free large car park "Am Dom" (Unter den Weiden 11, 38820 Halberstadt) - approx. 5-10 min walk.
The permanent exhibition in the Gleimhaus invites visitors to immerse themselves in the life and work of the poet and collector Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim. It opens a window onto his important culture of friendship and letters as well as the literary history of the Enlightenment. In Gleim's "Freundschaftstempel" (Temple of Friendship) on the upper floor of the historic house, visitors encounter the great personalities of this era in a lively way - including greats such as Lessing, Herder, Klopstock, Nicolai and the remarkable poet Anna Louisa Karsch. The portraits of these thinkers and artists create a link to the Enlightenment and its world of ideas. The visit is made particularly interactive by an audio installation: selected portraits can be "brought to life" using voice control as they begin to talk about themselves and their time. This turns the exhibition into a place of living history, allowing visitors to experience the thoughts and dialogues of the Enlightenment era in a very special way.
What can cultural heritage achieve? And how can literary heritage be communicated? These and other questions are the focus of a special exhibition that will open on 30 November 2024 at 3 pm in the Gleimhaus. Entitled Inherited, idolised, forgotten? On the significance and transmission of literature as cultural heritage, the exhibition focuses on literature and looks at its language.
The Brothers Grimm's Children's and Household Tales, the Song of the Nibelungs and Goethe's literary legacy are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. But what makes these testimonies special and what distinguishes them from other treasures preserved in museums, libraries, archives or memorials? In the exhibition, the concept of cultural heritage is expanded and critically scrutinised.
The exhibition aims to bring the topic to life for all generations. It can be seen in the Gleimhaus until 29 December 2024. It was developed by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Literarischer Gesellschaften und Gedenkstätten (ALG).
The oldest statue of a poet in Germany is in Halberstadt: the statue of Anna Louisa Karsch by the Halberstadt sculptor J. C. Stubinitzky.
In 2005, the Halberstadt sculptor Daniel Priese was commissioned to recreate the lost head of the statue. Priese sensitively matched his model to the statue in terms of posture and characteristics and based his physiognomy on all known portraits of the poetess. The artist created a bust of Karschin based on the model for the new head and made casts of it in plaster and weatherproof white cement. The edition is limited to 10 pieces. The busts are approx. 45 cm high and can be purchased for €298 (plaster) or €328 (cement cast).
Bust of Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim
Norman Lodahl (born 1974), a native of Halberstadt, trained stonemason and graduate of the theatre sculpture course at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, has achieved as part of his final examination what was neglected during Gleim's lifetime: a portrait bust of the Halberstadt poet and collector. Lodahl worked on the basis of all the portraits of Gleim that had been made available to him by the Gleimhaus in the form of illustrations - from the early portraits by Gottfried Hempel and the physiognomically very specific depictions by Johann Heinrich Tischbein the Elder to the old-age portraits by Karl Christian Kehrer, Johann Friedrich August Tischbein and Georg Friedrich Adolph Schöner as well as graphic portraits, including a profile portrait and silhouettes. Lodahl shows us the sociable, cheerful, lively Gleim, the old Gleim, as he became a popular figure as 'Father Gleim'.
The mould allows only a few more editions to be produced. Orders can be placed through the Gleimhaus.
The Arbeitstagung Kultureller Gedächtnisorte KGO (Working Conference of Cultural Places of Remembrance KGO) is an association of currently 22 nationally significant cultural institutions from the new federal states. It was founded in Quedlinburg in 2003 as a result of the so-called Blaubuch (blue book).
The task of the Arbeitstagung Kultureller Gedächtnisorte is to promote and preserve the cultural heritage of the cultural institutions in the eastern German federal states, which are classified as "nationally significant" in the Blaubuch. The goal is to establish these museums, collections, archives, and memorials sustainably in the awareness of politics and the public.
With the installation of large reprinted portraits from the Gleimhaus, a circle is completed. Nature and culture meet in the Halberstadt Spiegelsberge. Gleim's superior, Ernst Ludwig Freiherr von Spiegel zum Desenberg, acquired and designed the Spiegelsberge landscape park. In a short film, you will meet the cathedral secretary Gleim, his niece Sophie Dorothea, the eloquent poetess Karsch, the Baron von Spiegel, and the beautiful Frau von Branconi.
For Gleim, friendship was a kind of intellectual and social motor that brought people together and contributed to the development and dissemination of knowledge and culture. His life and work are an outstanding example of the importance of friendship in 18th century German literature. Watch the introductory film to our exhibition.
Gleimhaus
Museum of the German Enlightenment
Domplatz 31
38820 Halberstadt
Tel: 03941 6871-0
E-mail: gleimhaus@halberstadt.de
