“The nationalistic terror will most likely last longer than I can bear to endure. Minds, into which it is not easy to bring anything reasonable anyway, are crammed with the most shoddy foolishness. Every head is an Augean stable, I fear that Hercules, wanting to clear the air, will run out of steam. Cattle dung is, in a way, no dung compared to ideological folly.”
Ernst Barlach, 26 January 1933
Welcome
ART IN THE MIDST OF GREENERY
The Ernst Barlach Haus, which opened in 1962 as a private museum, is located in Jenischpark, one of the most beautiful landscape gardens in Hamburg. Attractively embedded in the spacious site on the banks of the River Elbe, the modern, light-flooded museum building houses a unique collection. Numerous key works by the expressionist sculptor, graphic artist and writer Ernst Barlach (1870–1938) are on view here, among them nearly a third of his precious wood sculptures.
In addition to various presentations of the collection and temporary exhibitions of Classical Modern and contemporary art, the Ernst Barlach Haus also offers a diverse programme: guided tours, talks, lectures and the concert series Klang & Form.
“The word ‘alien' is hurled at me – I seize it and examine it against the light. And behold, it is an ugly word, may it be confidently called a cacophony! Without further ado, I must confess that I do not know what 'race-appropriate' or 'alien' is. From which century, from which past are we supposed to be lectured, say from the last one?”
Ernst Barlach, c. 1933/34