Apocalypse and World Salvation

The lecture series invites renowned art, cultural, film and literary scholars, and is intended to shed light on the contrast between historical and contemporary apocalyptic scenarios to elucidate the political and social developments, insights, experiences and images fueling these forecasts of catastrophe.

In doing so, the lectures will show that disaster forecasting is anything but a new phenomenon; as Frank Kermode and others have been able to show, it is a narrative with a "sense of an ending". This is not only manifested in the Christian tradition since the Revelation of John, but also embedded in the signature of both the Middle Ages and modern times. Thus, not only at the first turn of the millennium, but also into the 16th century, very far-reaching fears of the “end of days” were widespread. Joachim von Fiores or Savonarola's models of history bear witness to this, as do Leonardo's stirring Flood drawings and Dürer's famous "Dream Face", in which the painter captured his own dark nightmare of a landscape overrun by dark torrential waters, only a few days after the bloodiest battle of the Peasant Wars. Historical examples such as the doomsday fears of artists and theologians of the Reformation were at that time fueled by experience of violence in the course of great social upheavals. Even in the 20th century, fantasies of the end of the world (in the wake of the nuclear threat or the second millennium) were not simply forgotten. A variety of examples will be discussed in lectures and subsequent panel discussions and these will examine whether our current apocalypses are merely the latest expression of a long series of world endings, or whether they represent a different form of de facto urgency.

Lectures are held online every Tuesday at 7.15 pm. You will find the link under the event.

You can participate in the lecture via the browser. Please use Chrome or Microsoft Edge for this. Alternatively, you can download the Microsoft Teams app and then also participate via Safari.

Events in detail:

1 TU 02.02.2021 | online | 7:15 pm
Prof. Dr. Jan Söffner (ZU)
Apokalyptische Gewalt (Johannes, Dante)

Event


2 TU 9.02.2021 | online | 7:15 pm
Prof. Dr. Karen van den Berg (ZU)
Traumgesichter der Apokalypse. Dürer, Leonardo und mögliche Weltenden

Event

3 TU 16.02.2021 | online | 7:15 pm
Dr. Joachim Landkammer (ZU) und Nikolai Geršak
»Näher, mein Gott, zu dir« und andere (Welt-)Untergangsmusik. Ein Vortrag mit Orgelmusik

Event

Link to recorded event


4 TU 23.02.2021 | online | 7:15 pm
Oliver Ressler (Wien)
No Future is cancelled (Lecture in english)

Event

5 TU 2.03.2021 | online | 7:15 pm
Prof. Dr. Maren Lehmann (ZU)
»Man muß es nehmen wie ein Camping-Wochenende«: Provisorien der Apokalypse, oder: Angst als praktisches Problem

Event


6 TU 9.03.2021 | online | 7:15 pm
Prof. Dr. Pinar Yoldas (San Diego)
Hollow Ocean: Eco-activism and Art (Lecture in english)

Event


7 TU 16.03.2021 | online | 7:15 pm
Michael Pawlyn (London)
Responding to a Planetary Emergency (Lecture in english)

Event

8 TU 23.03.2021 | online | 7:15 pm
Prof. Dr. Pierre Cassou-Noguès (Paris)
Apocalypse and Control (Lecture in english)

Event

9 TU 13.04.2021 | online | 7:15 pm
Dr. Philipp Kleinmichel (ZU)
Der Wert der Apokalypse: Ausblicke aus dem Hotel Abgrund

Event

10 TU 20.04.2021 | online | 7:15 pm
Dr. des. Esther Schomacher (ZU)
Apokalypse als Weltrettung oder Weltrettung als Apokalypse? Der Erste Weltkrieg, von Italien aus gesehen

Event

11 TU 27.04.2021 | online | 7:15 pm
Prof. Dr. Kirsten Kramer (Bielefeld)
Apokalypse und Anthropozän. Überlegungen zur Weltwahrnehmung in Lars von Triers Melancholia

Event

Link to online event