Free­dom — An un­fi­nis­hed sto­ry: Re­flec­tions at the Deut­sches Hy­gie­ne-Mu­se­um

What does free­dom me­an to­day? At a time when peo­p­le in aut­ho­ri­ta­ri­an sta­tes are ris­king their li­ves to fight for fun­da­men­tal free­doms and at the sa­me time the­re is in­ten­se de­ba­te in de­mo­cra­tic so­cie­ties about the li­mits of in­di­vi­du­al free­dom, the Deut­sches Hy­gie­ne-Mu­se­um Dres­den is pre­sen­ting a high­ly to­pi­cal ex­hi­bi­ti­on. “Free­dom — An Un­fi­nis­hed Sto­ry” in­vi­tes vi­si­tors to ex­plo­re the dif­fe­rent facets and his­to­ri­cal de­ve­lo­p­ments of the con­cept of free­dom. The ex­hi­bi­ti­on tells of re­vo­lu­ti­ons sin­ce the 18th cen­tu­ry, fo­cu­ses on the free­dom mo­ve­ments in Pol­and, the Czech Re­pu­blic and East Ger­ma­ny be­fo­re and af­ter 1989, and sheds light on how free­dom is used — and al­so in­stru­men­ta­li­sed — po­li­ti­cal­ly to­day.

It be­co­mes clear that free­dom is al­ways a con­tes­ted good: while so­me see stric­ter cli­ma­te pro­tec­tion me­a­su­res as a rest­ric­tion, others see them as a ne­ces­sa­ry con­tri­bu­ti­on to the com­mon good. The­re are al­so par­al­lels and dif­fe­ren­ces bet­ween the free­dom mo­ve­ments, which can be ex­pe­ri­en­ced in the ex­hi­bi­ti­on — a cri­ti­cal look back that al­so asks what the ide­als of the past still me­an to us to­day. The ex­hi­bi­ti­on is a col­la­bo­ra­ti­on wi­th re­now­ned part­ners such as the Eu­ro­pean So­li­da­ri­ty Cent­re in Gdansk, the Na­tio­nal Gal­lery in Pra­gue and the Na­tio­nal Mu­se­um in Wro­cław. It not on­ly of­fers a his­to­ri­cal out­line, but al­so opens up a po­ly­pho­nic dia­lo­gue about the open, un­fi­nis­hed histo­ry of free­dom.