"Literature Meets Science": Exciting Encounters at the German Maritime Museum

On the occasion of the special exhibition RAUM FÜR VERMUTUNGEN, the German Maritime Museum / Leibniz Institute for Maritime History invites well-known authors on three evenings to talk with researchers about an exhibit from the exhibition.

A clash of facts and fantasy is the principle of the show RAUM FÜR VERMUTUNGEN, which can be seen at the German Maritime Museum until April 17, 2022. Well-known authors have dedicated themselves to exhibits from the collections of the German Maritime Museum, the Bremen State Archaeology, the Unterweser Maritime Museum, the Focke Museum and the Speicher XI Port Museum. The objects inspired them to write crime stories, fairy tales or poems in short format. The texts focus on, among other things, a bottle of seaweed, an emerald ring, a ship component, a taxidermy of a lumpfish, and a rusted gun from the bottom of the sea. The exhibited objects were all found in the Weser area or have a connection to shipping. The fantasy is contrasted with the scientific knowledge about the exhibits, some of which is sparse and some abundant, which is also presented in the exhibition.  

Museum guests can experience this meeting of literature and science live at the German Maritime Museum on three evenings.  In the lecture and reading series "Literature Meets Science", three well-known authors, whose texts are also represented in the exhibition, will meet researchers who have contributed the respective scientific part to the object. Guests can visit the exhibition from 6 p.m. for an entrance fee of 10 euros; the reading and discussion start at 7 p.m. in the Cog Hall. Due to the limited number of places is asked for registration up to the day before the meeting under buchung@dsm.museum or 0471 48 20 78 44. The evenings take place in cooperation with the Bremen bookstore Logbuch.

A whale shoulder ball joint is evidence of Bremen's whaling tradition. Author Michael Augustin wrote about the spherical bone find from the 17th century the Low German soccer episode "De Kickkogel", the archaeozoologist Hans Christian Küchelmann from the German Maritime Museum will present the facts surrounding the exhibit on Thursday, December 9, 2021, starting at 7 pm. In addition, Küchelmann will provide insights into his work with millennia-old boils. Augustin, in turn, will present some of his books.

Author Anna Lott and Dr. Dieter Bischop of the Bremen State Archaeology Department will exchange literary and scientific ideas about an emerald ring recovered from the banks of the Weser River in 2004 through conversation and reading on Thursday, January 20, 2022, beginning at 7 p.m. The valuable exhibit is more than 800 years old, survived the fire of a merchant's house on the Schlachte in Bremen undamaged and was literally recovered there from rubble and ashes.

The author Moritz Rinke and the Bremen state archaeologist Dr. Dieter Bischop will present the curious story of a Roman casserole on Thursday, March 10, 2022, starting at 7 pm: Made around the birth of Christ, it was found around 1885 during work on the Weser River. The wife of the finder used the ancient casserole for 30 years before it was discovered as a museum exhibit.