The literary landscape of Baden-Württemberg has gained a new attraction with the permanent exhibit: "Visit. Learn. Write." Maulbronn Monastery and Literature. In three parts, the exhibit demonstrates that Maulbronn, more than other monasteries, was a place for literature.
Documents related to Doctor Faust.
The "Visit" portion clearly explains how the image of Maulbronn was constructed and disseminated through literary texts. Through poems, stories and reports, students and visitors have made Maulbronn a memorial, thus creating its image as a place for spirituality, reflection and romantic imagination. The fact that the legendary Doctor Faust supposedly met his end here also contributed to the monastery's literary allure.
Hermann Kurz graffiti.
In 1556, after the Reformation, the Cistercian monastery was converted into an evangelical school, still in operation today. The "Learn" portion of the exhibit illustrates the importance of this school for the intellectual elite of Württemberg. With the push of a button, class schedules for famous students, like Johannes Kepler, Friedrich Hölderlin and Hermann Hesse, can be compared. The pressures of academia produced countless literary works, which are the subject of this exhibit. The most well-known is probably Hermann Hesse's "Beneath the Wheel".
The monks only brought one bible and a few liturgical texts with them when the monastery was founded in 1147. Over the centuries, through copying, translating and composing new texts, these modest beginnings grew into an entire library. Therefore, the "Write" portion of the exhibit deals with the medieval art of copying. The exhibit is also home to Hölderlin's early poetic experiments as well as the Maulbronn tradition of translation—from the Old Testament to Byron, Lamartine and Lenin.
Biographies and short films offer many details.
The exhibit covers more than eight centuries and lends a voice to approximately 50 writers. Each biography and its specific relevance to the city of Maulbronn can be researched further at a media station. Enjoyable short films introduce visitors to the lives of Maulbronn's two most famous authors: Friedrich Hölderlin and Hermann Hesse.
