Naturkunden-Lesung mit Lothar Müller: „Spinnen. Ein Porträt.“

In the organizer's words:

The spider, this eight-legged, hairy creature that has lived in caves and on trees for more than 300 million years, has taken up residence deep in our real and imaginary cellars and attics - and not least in our unconscious.

In his richly associative portrait,Lothar Müller weaves a dense web of illuminating and obscure interpretations of these strange yet omnipresent animals: From Kierkegaard, who speculates with them about existence, to Spiderman, who nevertheless never becomes a spider, from Marx, who develops his labor theory of value with a view to the "Spinning Jenny", the first spinning machine, to the Arachne myth as the origin of narrative as resistance, to the artist Louise Bourgeois, who turns them into great protectors in giant sculptures. When Müller looks at Maria Sybilla Merian's discovery of the tarantula, which was not taken seriously for a long time, we also learn a lot about male prejudices in science.

Lothar Müller, born in Dortmund in 1954, is a journalist and literary scholar. He writes for the feature section of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, magazines and Deutschlandfunk. He has been an honorary professor at the Humboldt University in Berlin since 2010. He has been awarded the Johann Heinrich Merck Prize and the Heinrich Mann Prize, among others.

In the "Naturkunden" series edited by Judith Schalansky, authors write knowledgeably and passionately about animals and plants, fungi and celestial bodies.

We are presenting selected books from the series and the Natural History Museum in the west wing of Schloss Benrath is the ideal venue and cooperation partner.

The events will be moderated by Michael Serrer (Literaturbüro NRW