Exhibition "Crossroads. The Hohenzollerns and the confessions, 1517 - 1740" in Köpenick Palace
Press release from 03/21/2017
Luther and the princes? The princes and Luther! The Hohenzollerns were among the most powerful imperial princes of the early modern period. How did they react when Luther, Zwingli and Calvin led them to the crossroads and asked the question: What do you believe in? Their decisions had an impact on their numerous subjects in Franconia, Brandenburg and Prussia.
"Crossroads. The Hohenzollerns and the Confessions, 1517 - 1740"
A special exhibition of the Secret State Archives of Prussian Cultural Heritage and the Museum of Decorative Arts of the National Museums in Berlin
Berlin, Köpenick Palace, 7 April - 9 July 1017
Using around 200 objects, the exhibition explores the role that the confessions played for one of the great European dynasties in the period between the Reformation and the Enlightenment. Unique written documents and high-calibre works of book, goldsmith and textile art, as well as the famous Thesendruck from 1517, provide new insights into an exciting chapter of European cultural history. The exhibits tell of the Hohenzollerns' relationships with the reformers, their religious beliefs and the effects of their confessional policies on their dominions. The reformed Köpenick Palace Church - otherwise only accessible during church services - is also open to exhibition visitors. It is the only authentic surviving site of the Hohenzollerns' confessional orientation in Berlin.
At the beginning of the 16th century, the Hohenzollerns were a dynasty active throughout Europe - just as present at the imperial court in Vienna and Prague as they were in the dominions of Franconia, the Margraviate of Brandenburg and (East) Prussia. This made them a "high-calibre political figure" of the Reformation era. In the following two centuries, they advanced to become the second major German power alongside the House of Austria and formed the head of the Protestant territories of the Old Empire. In between lay the introduction of the Reformation in the various Hohenzollern territories, the conversion of Elector Johann Sigismund to the Reformed faith in 1613, the failure of the 'second Reformation' in his dominion and the increased confessional pluralisation of Brandenburg-Prussia associated with the Edict of Potsdam (1685), which found expression in the deliberate integration of Pietism into Prussian political culture in the early 18th century.