Collections made available by the Johann Gottfried Herder Museum in Morąg and a unique bilingual (Polish-German) board display – this is what can be seen at the exhibition in the Main Library of the University of Gdańsk, whose vernissage opened the Herder Year celebrations, from October 2 to December 18, 2023.
On 02.10.2023 at 10.00 a.m., the University of Gdańsk Main Library hosted the opening of the exhibition 'Remembrance of Johann Gottfried Herder. An international exhibition on the occasion of the Herder Year'.
The exhibition's organiser is the Johann Gottfried Herder Foundation, run by the Director of the Institute of Germanic Philology of the University of Gdańsk, prof. dr hab. Mirosław Ossowski. The vernissage opens the celebrations of the Herder Year, organised on the occasion of the upcoming 280th anniversary of the birth and 220th anniversary of the death of Johann Herder – an outstanding writer, thinker, and philosopher of culture, author of aesthetic and philosophical texts.
Honorary Patronage is held by the Rector of the University of Gdansk, prof. dr. hab. Piotr Stepnowski, and the Consul General of Germany in Gdańsk, Cornelia Pieper. The opening ceremony of the exhibition was honoured by the presence of the Minister of Economy, Transport, Agriculture and Viticulture of the Land of Rheinland-Pfalz in Germany, Daniela Schmitt. It was also attended by the Manager of the Museum in Morąg and, at the same time, the curator of the Polish part of the exhibition, Angelika Rejs. Also present were the Director of the East Prussian Cultural Centre in Ellingen, Gunter Dehnert, and former Director Wolfgang Freyberg.
The exhibition features exhibits made available by the Johann Gottfried Herder Museum in Morąg, a branch of the Museum of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn. They are intended to show the forms of commemorating Herder in Morąg, the history of establishing a museum named after him in the local town hall, creating a permanent exhibition in the Dohn Palace, and the erection of a thinker’s monument.
In addition to the Morąg artefacts, a bilingual Polish-German board display on Herder, developed by the East Prussian Cultural Centre in Ellingen, Bavaria, was shown.
The exhibition in the Main Library opened the Herder Year, organised at the University of Gdańsk in the academic year 2023/2024, which will include guest lectures by foreign scholars at the Faculty of Philology on the role of German literature and culture in Central and Eastern Europe.
At the end of the Herder Year, a meeting of former DAAD scholarship holders from UG and Pomerania is planned, which will also be attended by scholars from Germany. Detailed information about guest lectures and other events will be posted on the Institute of Germanic Philology website.
