The University Library’s Schopenhauer Studio: An exhibition space open to the university
Did you know the University Library’s large building on Bockenheim Campus houses a hidden studio? On entering the premises’ large foyer, the visitor’s gaze initially wanders elsewhere, but you can find the Schopenhauer Studio on the ground floor by keeping to the left directly after entering. The University Library first opened the studio on October 22, 2019, to serve the university as a new communications and exhibition room, which – right from the outset – focused on work with Goethe University’s collections, objects and archives. The aim was, and remains, to showcase the questions and challenges associated with the artefacts in our cultural and academic heritage. A fact unbeknownst to many: Already during the planning stages of the library – which opened at Frankfurt’s Bockenheimer Warte in April 1965 – architect Ferdinand Kramer had earmarked this room as an exhibition space. However, given the short supply of space, it ended up being used for other purposes for more than four decades.
More than Schopenhauer
In 2019, the room finally returned to its origins. Bernhard Wirth, in charge of the University Library’s educational section and its provenance research project, puts it like this: “Kramer’s idea of a library as a ‘workshop of the spirit’ comes to life and becomes tangible in the Schopenhauer Studio.”
The studio’s name might suggest that Schopenhauer’s archive is kept there, but that is no longer the case – today the archive is kept in a different part of the library. The studio’s first exhibition, however, was dedicated to Schopenhauer: “SELBST DENKEN – 200 Jahre Arthur Schopenhauers ‚Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung’” (“THINKING FOR YOURSELF – 200 years of Arthur Schopenhauer’s ‘The World as Will and Representation’”), which ran from October 2019 to January 2020.
At the behest of the University Library, the studio’s first exhibition was thus dedicated to a major collection. Since its founding five years ago, the studio’s conceptual orientation has definitely changed, says Judith Blume, Goethe University’s collections coordinator: “While the initial focus very much rested on objects held by the library and the university, and also included the question of how a cultural or scientific memory arises, today the room has become an exhibition space for the university’s teaching and research projects. Of course, these can and often are linked to the collections, but that does not have to always be the case.” On the other hand, any potential exhibition must have a connection with a teaching or research project. Opening up this exhibition room for all of Goethe University is also an integral part of the University Library’s mission, which explains the concept of “space” in the following manner: “We understand a library to be a physical, digital and hybrid space, a place of individual and shared learning and reading, working and researching. It is a place of diversity, communication and meetings, as well as of transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary academic dialog. In addition to fostering the transfer of knowledge and supporting individual development, it is a place where users can experiment with key skills for the future.” *
Space for experimentation – also for exhibition novices
One of the numerous exhibitions held since “THINKING FOR YOURSELF” that best illustrates the room’s new concept is “Reality Checkpoint. Clemens J. Setz gelesen” (“Reality Checkpoint. Having read Clemens J. Setz”). In 2023, Austrian writer Clemens J. Setz was the guest lecturer delivering the traditional Frankfurt Poetics Lectures. While Setz was giving lectures and seminars at Goethe University, a group of students curated the exhibition and probed ways of reading both the absurd and the incredibly familiar in his texts. Alongside selected texts and quotes, the exhibition featured a listening station, a digital wiki, a YouTube playlist of the author that was created specifically for the exhibition, a painting, as well as manuscript pages by Clemens J. Setz. “Students and teaching staff with various levels of exhibition experience are welcome to try out ideas in the Schopenhauer Studio. Of course, we also have specific quality standards, but this place really is one for experimenting, one where things can and should be tried out.” Jessica Zülch, the University Library’s events coordinator, adds: “The equipment in the room is very flexible and can be assembled in a modular manner. The media technology can also be tailored very individually to suit a particular exhibition. This means the exhibition space can look entirely different each time anew.”
In a lively part of town
The Schopenhauer Studio is managed by a special working group – a planning and implementation unit, if you will – which includes members from all different University Library organizational structures. “Since there are only six of us in the core team, our resources are naturally limited. The working group offers exhibitors expertise and advice with respect to organization as well as curating. The studio is no mere exhibition room, but designed to be a communication room available for lectures and workshops. “Contrary to exhibitions, such events need not necessarily have a connection with the university. Last year, for instance, we hosted three lectures in cooperation with Frankfurt’s Physikalischer Verein (physics society), which celebrated its 200th anniversary. That worked very well. The response was incredible, with many people inquiring afterward about using our space for other events,” says Wirth. Zülch stresses the studio’s convenient location: “The lectures in the Schopenhauer Studio are also explicitly aimed at the public in Frankfurt. The University Library is located in Bockenheim, right in the heart of a lively district, with excellent local public transportation. That actually constitutes an advantage over events held on Westend Campus.”
As UniReport’s interview came to an end, Blume pointed out, “We’re happy about every inquiry. Even if we can’t realize every exhibition or lecture project, and already have quite a few events planned for 2025 and 2026, we try our best to make things possible. We want to make the studio readily available to those who have little or no experience with exhibitions.”
* University Library Johann Christian Senckenberg’s Mission Statement, p. 3. (in German)
The Schopenhauer Studio
The University Library’s multifunctional communication and exhibition room offers a setting for presenting research and teaching projects at Goethe University. Its modern, modular equipment allows for a variety of uses for exhibitions of different sizes, lectures, workshops and other types of events.
Facility
Area: 180 sq m
Display stands for up to 100 objects
Seating for up to 70 guests
Seminar and workshop equipment
Media technology (55-inch monitor incl. sound system, touchscreens, projector, listening station, etc.)
Services
Flexible and modern infrastructure
Support for planning and implementation
Support for publicity work and event management
Guided tours with our experts on the collections can be arranged on request (e.g. on Arthur Schopenhauer, Ferdinand Kramer)
Further information on the Schopenhauer Studio →
