15th Colloquium of the International Arnim Society

15th Colloquium of the International Arnim Society

From July 17 to 20, the International Arnim Society (IAG) held a colloquium on “Play and Playing in the Romantic Period”. It was organized by Prof. Dr. Christof Wingertszahn and Prof. Dr. Roswitha Burwick (IAG) together with the Schloss Wiepersdorf Cultural Foundation.

To date, the IAG has organized 15 colloquia on topics of Romanticism research in many cities. To “symphilosophize” in the home of the society's patron was a special experience for all participants, who came from the USA, Great Britain, Hungary and Germany. They were also given a guided tour of the castle, the park, the church and the library by Roswitha Karbaum. Art, wrote Achim von Arnim, can only be sought in play. Romantic literature is particularly characterized by play. The concept of play is used today in a variety of meanings, but in its oscillation between the recreational spaces that people create for themselves in their imagination and the pedagogical-functional positioning in social systems, it can also be considered historically profitable for the “Goethe era”. This became clear in the diverse contributions.

In a very well attended public evening lecture by Dr. Barbara Steingießer (Goethe-Museum Düsseldorf), the listeners and viewers learned how much attention was paid to a wide variety of games in the first German fashion and lifestyle magazine, the “Journal des Luxus und der Moden” (1786-1827). The academic contributions ranged from studies on the poetics of Achim von Arnim, Ludwig Tieck and Günderrode, identity games in Arnim's stories and interdisciplinary considerations on mathematical game theory to the doll automata of E. T. A. Hoffmann. Goethe's optical card game and the playing cards of the painter Philipp Otto Runge also received special attention. The colloquium took place in the formidable Bärwalde Hall, which was designed by the painter Achim von Arnim-Bärwalde. His playful approach to art, inspired and vividly portrayed by his great-grandniece, was a daily source of inspiration for all participants. The period covered ranged from the “traces of a missed rapprochement between the Enlightenment and Romanticism” to Hermann von Pückler-Muskau's journey to Hungary in 1839/40, where he and his companion Machbuba experienced the “play with distance” among Hungarian nobles. A conclusion? “Nehmt es nur nicht übel auf, / Denn die Welt hat ihren Lauf.” So ends Achim von Arnim's comedy “The Capitulation of Oggersheim”, which concludes with a feast. During an excursion to the Bärwalde ruins, the idea was raised of staging such little-known Arnim plays for the Schaubühne as open-air theater.

The presentations were held by Prof. Dr. Barbara Becker-Cantarino (Ohio State University), Prof. Dr. Roswitha Burwick (Scripps College Los Angeles), Dr. Christopher Burwick (Colby College Maine), Prof. Dr. Sheila Dickson (University of Glasgow), Dr. Hans Dierkes (Niederkassel), Prof. Dr. Lothar Ehrlich (ehemals Klassik Stiftung Weimar), Prof. Dr. Konrad Feilchenfeldt (LMU München), Dr. habil Dezső Gurka (Gál Ferenc Universität Szeged), Petra Heymach (Berlin), Dr. Renate Moering (ehemals Freies Deutsches Hochstift), Prof. Dr. Olaf L. Müller (Humboldt-Universität Berlin), Prof. Dr. Roger Paulin (University of Cambridge), and Prof. Dr. Christof Wingertszahn (Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf).