Sophie-C. Hartisch: »Stern und Kosmos

In the organizer's words:

"Look at the sky" is how Rilke begins the XIth of his sonnets to Orpheus. This is what we do, placing mythological elements in the starry sky, which has become a fictional and epistemic space for us. Moreover, Rilke's appeal can be read in the context of his time as an expression of a heightened collective interest in stars and the cosmos. This is what Sophie-C. Hartisch in her comprehensive study Stern und Kosmos. In the decades around 1900, astronomy and astrology were booming and photography opened up a multifaceted outer space. The poetry of these years reflects the significance of this "stern connection" (Rilke). Where do we stand? Who are we in the face of space? Alongside Rainer Maria Rilke, Else Lasker-Schüler, Stefan George and Georg Trakl, for example, write under the spell of the stars. Salon presenter Matthias Vogel talks to Sophie-C. Hartisch about poetry and knowledge at the turn of the century. Hartisch.