Hope – the second soul of the unfortunate? (2007)
Hope – the second soul of the unfortunate?
What is hope? A thought, a belief, a feeling? For Goethe, it is even more, almost a place, “the second soul of the unfortunate,” as he writes in “Maxims and Reflections.” For Heinrich Heine, hope is not necessary for action; he says: “I fight without hope that I will win.” Two writers, one a universal scholar, the other a freedom fighter, and two responses to the question: “What is hope?”
The exhibition project “Hope – the second soul of the unfortunate?” at the German Emigration Center has gathered numerous materials, biographies, and thus also answers. The idea for this project arose from the uniqueness of the museum: The German Emigration Center houses hundreds of life stories, all of which narrate hope for a better life. The focused view on the principle of hope inherent in all emigrants is the subject of this exhibition project. It not only showed the obvious, strong hope of the emigrants but also the quiet hope of dreamers and idealists, the survival hope of the persecuted and tortured, and the bitterness of hopelessness of those who have failed.
Throughout the house, exhibitions, presentations, and installations on the theme of hope could be found, complemented by numerous actions, events, and readings.