Totally real. The discovery of vividness

Models, experiments, manual skills and useful knowledge: These were the basic ingredients with which the educators and theologians August Hermann Francke and Christoph Semler founded pioneering schools in Halle around 1700, in which not only the intellect but also the senses of the children were comprehensively addressed. Visualization became the linchpin here, so to speak, in order to make the growing natural history and technical knowledge of the time »comprehensible« in the truest sense of the word by means of real things in a way that was true to life, enjoyable and to the glory of God. A pioneering idea that gave rise to a completely new type of school: the »Realschule«.

The exhibition, jointly developed by the Francke Foundations' Research Department and Custody Department, is dedicated to this early modern »STEM initiative« and also looks at our present day from a historical perspective: what is clarity, how does it come about and is it perhaps more important today than ever? Can nature and technology - in the face of increasingly complex knowledge, encapsulated smart devices and new virtual worlds - still be conveyed vividly at all?

Catalog of the annual exhibition

The well-illustrated catalog is dedicated to this unique vividness offensive and looks at early modern pioneers of the idea of vividness, historical teaching models and the teaching of manual skills in the first half of the 18th century.

Totally real. The discovery of vividness. Edited on behalf of the Francke Foundations by Tom Gärtig, Claus Veltmann and Holger Zaunstöck with the collaboration of Philipp Wille. Halle 2024 (Catalogs of the Francke Foundations, 41). pp. 224, ISBN 978-3-447-12158-3. 

Curators

Tom Gärtig, Claus Veltmann and Holger Zaunstöck with the collaboration of Philipp Wille

Scientific advice

Magdalena Novak and Stephan Schwan (Tübingen), Walter Stephani (Kiel), Christian Wiesmüller (Karlsruhe)

Online exhibition and films

Maria Junker, Sabrina Mögelin

Ausstellungsgestaltung und -realisierung

formikat GbR (Oliver Reinecke und Matthias Zänsler mit Henrike Kaiser), Halle