KunstBewusst – Tulpenfieber – Als eine Blume den ersten Börsencrash auslöste. Mit Dr. Christoph Driessen

In the organizer's words:

What is it all about?

In the fall of 1636, the equivalent of entire houses was offered for individual tulip bulbs in Holland. And this was despite the fact that the bulbs were still buried in the ground at this time of year!

However, before they could grow into flowers, the market suddenly collapsed at the beginning of February. The tulpomania, the great tulip speculation, had come to an end. The seemingly crazy event still fascinates people today, providing material for Hollywood films and TV series and serving as a cautionary tale for stockbrokers. The irrationality and greed for profit of the traders is always emphasized. But what was really going on back then, in the Holland of the "Golden Age", in the richest part of the Republic of the United Netherlands?

In recent years, the state of research has changed and expanded thanks to extensive archival studies, so that it is now possible to convincingly trace how the bizarre tulip craze came about. Were the tulip traders really as "crazy" and irresponsible as is always claimed, and was the damage caused by the crash really as devastating as described in countless popular science books? We immerse ourselves in the world of the super-rich of the 17th century, but we also get to know the protagonists of a "botanical revolution" that took place in Europe during the Age of Discovery. Original artifacts from the period, reconstructed models, pamphlets and numerous paintings by the great Dutch masters complete the picture.

You can look forward to an informative, entertaining and exciting themed evening.

Who is our guest?

Dr. Christoph Driessen is a journalist and historian and was a correspondent in The Hague, London and New York for many years. Today he heads the office of the German Press Agency in Cologne. His books "Geschichte der Niederlande - Von der Seemacht zum Trendland" and "Geschichte Belgiens - Die gespaltene Nation" have gone through numerous editions. He has been interested in tulpomania for decades: In his dissertation in 1991, he examined the pamphlet literature on the wave of speculation.

Price information:

Free of charge for members of freunde. Guests pay €4, students €2.