Does the doorknob come alive? Two exhibitions on ETA Hoffmann

ESeeing you again after many years, unexpected and shocking: On New Year’s Eve at the reception of the Judicial Council, the man who only calls himself the “travelling enthusiast” suddenly meets his childhood sweetheart Julie again. The atmosphere is heated, a celebrated pianist is playing next door, only Julie’s face cannot be interpreted – her gaze appears tender one moment, almost poisonous the next, and when she leaves the room it is “as if the angelic, youthful, graceful face distorted into mocking mockery”.

In the course of the story “The Adventures of New Year’s Eve” the wandering narrator has to deal with doubles, with the shadowless Peter Schlemihl and a man without a mirror who once lost it to the beautiful Giulietta, who in turn resembles the transformed Julie. Identities become blurred, the narrator loses the ground under his feet, but above all the certainty about his own person, which he finally sees reflected as a distorted image: in a desperate stranger who unexpectedly lies in his own bed.

Three exhibitions, three focal points

How should one interpret that? “Uncanny Fantastic” is the title of the exhibition that has now opened in the Berlin State Library, in the newly created exhibition rooms of the “Stabi Kulturwerk”, and because these were only available late, this station overlaps with another in the Bamberg State Library, where such an exhibition has also been on view since the end of July – from November 24th, the Romantic Museum in Frankfurt will be another venue.

The three stations share the excellent catalogue, but they are not identical. This is not only due to the different rooms that are available in each case, but also to the different interests and focuses on site, although the premise is the same: Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann, whose 200th anniversary of death in June provided the occasion for the exhibition series regarded as a multi-talented personality, as a musician, draftsman, author and lawyer, dazzling where these skills merge, the author writes about music, the musician sets texts to music, the artist illustrates or the lawyer has to judge the criminal liability of subversive attitudes and finally finds himself accused of a text.

This view of Hoffmann is no longer particularly original. What distinguishes the Berlin exhibition, which is spread over three generously used rooms, is that it does not forget the basics and paints a vivid picture of life and work – the show is obviously also aimed at visitors who have not previously been particularly familiar with Hoffmann were familiar – nor the view of our time.