Our politics are increasingly driven by emotions, so it would seem. We are living in an age of permanent agitation. Facts are being called into question by perceived truths. Radicals of every description are attracting more and more attention with simple answers to complex questions. The political center often does not know how to deal with heated emotions. It is characterized by the political culture of the old Federal Republic, where the need for sobriety prevailed.

This is where the exhibition entitled The Power of Emotions. Germany 19 | 19 comes in, which has been created by Ute and Bettina Frevert for the "Remembrance, Responsibility and Future" Foundation (EVZ) and the Federal Foundation for the Study of Communist Dictatorship in East Germany. The exhibition takes an emotional-historical perspective to look back at the last 100 years and illustrates the political and social impact of fear, hope, love and rage.

The Power of Emotions. Germany 19 | 19 takes present-day manifestations of 20 emotions as a starting point and shows how these have developed during the 20th century: conjunctures, change and continuities. In the 2019 year of remembrance, the exhibition will demonstrate continuities and gaps in the emotions that have shaped the last 100 years, the intensity of which is now presenting a challenge for politics and society.

Image © Regina Schmeken