1740 and All That

The German Historical Museum in Berlin, the modern building part of which is just behind a baroque building founded by F1, is currently running an exhibition titled "What is Enlightenment? Questions to the 18th Century". Said exhibition features various entries of Frederician interest (and much more of general interest, but I was pressed for time and had to be selective.)



The sole lady in this collection of busts of Enlightenment philosophes is NOT Émilie but the first German to achieve a doctorate for philosophy, which she did in 1794. Men showing up in this community include Voltaire, Diderot, Moses Mendelssohn and as the sole American Benjamin Franklin:



Émilie and Algarotti share a display devoted to their respective efforts for Newton:




Algarotti's "Newton for Ladies":



Émilie and the first edition of her translation of Newton's Principia:



The Anti-Machiavel by Fritz - in a German translation. Published in 1741, meaning directly after Fritz invaded Silesia. Note this translation was published in Göttingen, meaning, in the electorate Hannover. (In fact G2 had directly financed the foundation of the University of Göttingen, which was named after him (Georg-Augustus-Universität). As opposed to later, England was on Mt's side in the first Silesian War.)





And here are some pages from the actual manuscript, complete with Voltairian beta-reading remarks:





Fritz and Voltaire also made it into Porcellain figurines (not Saxonian ones, Prussian ones from the Royal Porcellain Manufacturer) (note there's a dog as well):





The exhibition points out that enlightened London and the Netherlands, otherwise praised for their relative freedom of the press, also had ghastly punishments for homosexuality. Meanwhile in France: the Code Napoleon was the first to decriminalize male homosexuality. (This kept being the case which is why Oscar Wilde et al went to France.)



Another part of the exhibition is devoted to the fact followers of the Enlightenment did have a double standard when it came to the freedom of non-white people. The most famous case in point being illustrated by the doubling of the first German translation of the Declaration of Independence and an excerpt of Jefferson's household books with a list of his slaves.




But the exhibition doesn't limit itself to cheap overseas shots, and looks in its own backyard as well, to wit, the case of Angelo Soliman, who was among others the slave of the Prince Lobkowitz, and can be seen here as part of Lobkowitz' visit to Gian Gastone:





Émilie fan and woman of the Enlightenment in her own right Luise Gottsched:






Haven't made it to Salon yet, but were very cool: Berlin's Jewish Salonnieres in the late 18th and early 19th century, including Rahel Varnhagen (her husband wrote a couple of biographies that provided us with source material) and Henriette Herz (started out as a daughter of Moses Mendelssohn, converted):



And that's just a small selection of a very good exhibition, the website of which is here.