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Germany: "Tempo. Tempo! Tempo?" Exhibition for speed

2023-08-06 09:00:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Germany: "Tempo. Tempo! Tempo?" Exhibition for speed

Autobahns in Germany have no speed limit, only in certain segments the speed must be reduced to the rate indicated by the signs

In Germany, speed has great value. The Germans have no time to waste, both the highways and the vending machines show this. Even the language itself says that there is a lack of time to not take the right path, as the word "Verschlimmbesserung" shows for example. This word describes the situation when, as someone who starts with good intentions, you try to improve something, but in the end you have done it at all. even worse.

Why waste time wasting many words, when a single word is enough to say it all?

Image from the speed exhibit: TEMPO. TEMPO! TEMPO?

When in 1886 the German engineer Carl Benz registered the patent for the "automobile driven by a gas engine", he argued for the production of automobiles, a process that has not stopped since then until now: In Germany, the largest economy of Europe, 800,000 people are employed in the automobile industry today.

Speeding up and speeding down - this is what the exhibition "Tempo. Tempo! Tempo? The story of a speed" is about, which is shown simultaneously in three museums in the German state of Lower Saxony.

The art museum at Derneburg Castle presents the theme of Tempo in contemporary art. In the largest European museum of old cars, the Oldtimer Museum in Einbeck, it is about technical development, while the Land Museum in Hanover focuses on the history of the nature and culture of speed.

The race of mankind

The exhibition has been prepared for a year, Stephan Richter, spokesman for the PS-Speicher Automobile Museum in Einbeck, tells Deutsche Wellen. "Each museum sheds light on the subject of speed according to a certain specificity. In the SP-Speicher museum we deal with the technical side, the Art Museum in Derneburg looks at the artistic side and the Hanover Museum the archaeological and ethnological side, related to the history of speed and the importance that there is that for man."

As the title indicates with a period, an exclamation point and a question mark about three places of the exhibition, which cast three different views, Richter explains the idea behind the project. The exhibition does not only show cars and motorcycles, but also takes an unconventional look at this topic. The theory of evolution and new media also play a big role here, because in the end the race takes place to go from A to B, and not not to go.

Movements used to be done by consensus, but man is constantly trying to increase speed or gain time by racing against time.

The world's fastest companions

The Derbeburg Castle Art Museum presents contemporary works by artists from the fields of sculpture, painting and installations, dealing with the concept of speed among others, according to the theory of evolution and the technical side.

The Land Museum in Hanover looks at speed from the perspective of natural history and art history. The exhibition at Einbeck focuses mainly on technique.

Visitors to the exhibition are greeted here by a device that moves at a very high speed: the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter aircraft from the US, which has managed to reach speeds twice the speed of sound. You can also see a Bugatti Veyron, which reached a record speed of 431,072 kilometers per hour in 2010.

Speeding: First fine ever issued

What can be seen at the exhibition is the concept car, VW Nardo. This car has been the dream of the Wolfsburg automakers to produce their own super sports car, but the car ended up in a museum instead of going into production. Alongside these tempo objects, the exhibition also shows interesting bits of history, for example the first fine thought to have been issued in Germany, for exceeding the speed limit.

"This is just a paper bag," says Stephan Richter of the SP museum. "But it is the oldest fine given in Germany for increasing the speed limit in 1894. It is seen by the public for the first time in our exhibition. At that time there were no road signs or opportunities to measure speed . Automobiles were just starting to reach 30 kilometers per hour at that time, so not very fast. But it is said that the automobile was passing near a restaurant and the curtains began to shake, indicating that it was traveling at a speed of great."

TEMPO exhibition logo. TEMPO! TEMPO? in Lower Saxony

The exhibition does not only deal with Germany's relationship with speed. Images from California highways, artworks from Bahrain and NASA astronauts' Shuttle Ejection Escape Suits are part of the three exhibits, as are reindeer sleds from Lapland.

The exhibition "Tempo. Tempo! Tempo? A story of speed" opened in Hanover, Einbeck and Derbeburg in June and will close on February 4, 2024/ DW