Europe in a river - the many functions of the Rhine
The Bundeskunsthalle museum in Bonn has organized the first biographical exhibition devoted to the Rhine. The river's 2,000 years of cultural history are explored through some 300 exhibits.
Image: Kunstmuseum Base
The artistic perspective
Carriages and rafts travel along the Rhine near the city of Koblenz, overlooked by the Ehrenbreitstein fortress. Johann Adolf Lasinsky painted this busy scenery in 1828. An exhibition in Bonn, at the Bundeskunsthalle museum, explores the different artistic renditions of the Rhine - the lifeline of Europe.
Image: LVR-LandesMuseum Bonn
Impressive twists
This picture of the Middle Rhine from an aerial perspective shows the imposing curves of this waterway, one of the busiest in the world. From its source in Switzerland, it covers some 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) before pouring into the North Sea in the Netherlands.
Image: Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle
A river filled with treasures
Celts, Romans and Germans all found gold in the Rhine. At the beginning of the 19th century, these ducat coins were issued from the Rhine's gold by the Grand Dukes of Baden. The Rhine still washes up gold to this day - an estimated 200 kilograms (440 pounds) a year. Treasure hunters also keep fantasizing about the legendary Nibelungs' treasure, said to be buried in the river.
Image: Deutsche Bundesbank
Light play
The great English landscape painter William Turner (1775-1851) was also inspired by the Rhine's romantic backdrops. In his paintings he let rocks, castles and ships bathe in flickering light and color effects. He was one of the most important contributors to Rhine Romanticism.
Image: Depositum Sturzenegger-Stiftung
The Rhine as a border
World War I had ended. In 1918, the photographer Willy Römer captured these French soldiers overlooking the Deutsches Eck, or German Corner, where the Rhine and Moselle Rivers converge in Koblenz. The Rhine was a hard-fought dividing line between France and Germany at the time.
Image: bpk
Mythology in the river
The German artist Anselm Kiefer has dealt with biblical and Germanic mythology in his works. This 1982 piece, "Faith, Hope, Love and Father, Son, Holy Spirit," builds in elements of the Rheinaue leisure park. It is also part of the exhibition.
Image: Anselm Kiefer
Where Siegfried defeated the dragon
One of the most famous locations along the Rhine is the Drachenfels near Bonn. According to the Nibelungs' legend, this is where Siegfried fought the dragon that was guarding the princess. Siegfried defeated it and brought the liberated princess back to her parents in Worms. The landscape painter Caspar Johann Nepomuk Scheuren was also inspired by the site, painting this work in 1851.
Jodocus Schlappal was a Cologne illustrator and lithographer. In 1825, he documented a Carnival parade held in his native city on the Rhine. Parading revelers, decorated horses and parade floats traditionally mocking figures of power are all part of the picture.
Image: Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln
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Robert Schumann's Rhine Symphony welcomes visitors who can go on to discover the biography of the river through a chronological tour going through the 2,000-year-long cultural history of the water current which flows over 1,200 kilometers (nearly 750 miles) and through nine countries before reaching the North Sea in the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta.
Today, the Rhine is one of the busiest waterways in the world. If it could talk, it would definitely have many stories to tell.
They were transmitted through such great painters as the Dutchman Salomon van Ruysdael (around 1600-1670), the Brit William Turner (1775-1851) and French author Victor Huge (1802-1885) and contemporary star photographer Andreas Gursky.
Andreas Gursky's perspective on the RhineImage: DW/S. Dege
The artistic perspective on the Rhine is at least as interesting as considerations on its function as a transport route. "The river has always been a conveyor of goods and ideas," says curator Marie Louise Gräfin von Plessen.
The exhibition jointly held at the Bundeskunsthalle and the Landesmuseum in Bonn is divided into 12 different chapters.
The different roles of the Romantic Rhine
The centuries of work it took to allow navigation on those waters is one of the topics explored in the show. Another section focuses on the important houses of worship and pilgrimage sites set up along the river between Chur in Switzerland, Cologne in Germany and Utrecht in Holland.
Moritz von Schwind painted 'Father Rhine' in 1848Image: Raczyński-Stiftung am Nationalmuseum in Poznań
The Rhine also served as a military border, for example for the Romans, or between France and Germany after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.
It tells the story of industrialization in Central Europe as well.
Romanticism in the 19th century led many painters, poets and singers to celebrate the beauty of the Rhine valley - and attracted many tourists.
"We want to focus on the transnational history of Europe," explains exhibition organizer Plessen. Demonstrating this idea very well, the show concludes with pictures of the Europort in Rotterdam, the major port where mountains of colored containers pile up: "Here the Rhine becomes global; the exhibition reaches present day here."
