Controversy. People, media, mechanisms in the 18th century and today

People argue a lot and extensively about arguing. What are the limits of what can be said - where does constructive discussion end and where do personal insults and put-downs begin? In 2023, the Francke Foundations dedicated their annual exhibition to the difficult and socially central topic of controversy and gave it historical depth. The curatorial team led by Prof. Dr. Holger Zaunstöck and Claudia Weiß used selected exhibits and interactive stations to relate the arguing of the present to the arguing of the century of Enlightenment.

What our time today and the past have in common is that the limits of what can be said are not fixed, but must always be determined in cooperation. We humans are responsible for how we treat each other. This was the starting point for the exhibition, which explored the mechanisms of disputes using specific cases of conflict, the media used and the people involved or affected. The panorama ranged from historical images of the »dispute over pants« between the sexes to bitterly disputing scholars and Frederick II of Prussia, as well as sound conflicts in opera and rap, disparagement in talk shows and social media and the soccer stadium as an arena for disputes.

The occasion for the exhibition was the 300th anniversary of Christian Wolff's expulsion from Halle and the underlying debate between the philosopher and the pietist-influenced Faculty of Theology at the University of Halle.

Accompanying scientific catalog:

Controversy. People, media, mechanisms in the 18th century and today. Published on behalf of the Francke Foundations by Claudia Weiß and Holger Zaunstöck. Halle 2023 (Catalogs of the Francke Foundations, 39). pp. 200, ISBN 978-3-447-11977-1

With an introduction by curators Prof. Dr. Holger Zaunstöck and Claudia Weiß as well as Prof. Dr. Gerd Schwerhof on the concept of invectivity and contributions by the highly specialized interdisciplinary team of experts on the exhibition from the fields of history, media and literary studies as well as media linguistics and art history:

Part 1: Controversy in the 18th century

Lea Hagedorn: Contentious images in the 18th century. Forms-places-boundaries
Stefan Borchers: The controversy surrounding Christian Wolff
Andreas Pečar: The princely courts as arenas of enlightened dispute culture? Voltaire and Frederick II of Prussia

Part 2: Dispute in the present and contemporary history

Leef Hansen and Franziska Heller: »When two fight, the third is happy«? Screens as media arenas, disputes as spectacle and the positioning of viewers
Anna Schürmer: Acoustic cultures of dispute. From musical dissonances to the auditory level of social dissent
Simon Meier-Vieracker: The soccer stadium as an arena of controversy

The curatorial team:

Dr. Stefan Borchers (Berlin)
Dr. Lea Hagedorn (Berlin)
Florian Halbauer (Halle)
Leef Hansen (Halle)
Prof. Dr. Franziska Heller (Halle)
Prof. Dr. Simon Meier-Vieracker (Dresden)
Prof. Dr. Andreas Pečar (Halle)
Dr. Anna Schürmer (Halle)
Prof. Dr. Gerd Schwerhoff (Dresden)
Claudia Weiß (Halle)
Prof. Dr. Holger Zaunstöck (Halle)

Exhibition design: formikat GbR, Halle