„Nichts blieb als nur weißer Schnee...“ Winter in Ostpreußen

In the organizer's words:

The East Prussian winters were long and cold. Ice and snow shaped nature and life for up to six months. When the vast landscape was covered in a thick layer of snow and ice, a different, often depriving everyday life began. During this inhospitable time, work shifted indoors, with people spinning, weaving, repairing and mending. At the same time, the icy water surfaces and snow-covered fields, slopes and hills were an invitation to adventure on runners, sledges and skis.
To this day, winter in East Prussia is firmly anchored in the collective memory. Numerous artists have captured it in their atmospheric landscape and cityscapes as well as animal and hunting scenes, and numerous books commemorate this cold and at the same time picturesque time.

In the current special exhibition at the East Prussian State Museum, we present the haunting works of artists such as Eduard Bischoff, Reinhold Feussner and Daniel Staschus. Using typical objects - from the ice axe to the spinning wheel, from the muff to the sledge - the sometimes arduous everyday life is also shown. The impressions are rounded off with historical interviews in which East Prussians talk about their experiences, impressions and memories of winter.