The Long Night of the Museums of Berlin

On January 28, 2012  Berlin will celebrate the 30th edition of The Long Night of Museums, an activity that starts at 18:00 and ends at 2:00 am of the next day. On this occasion, 70 Berlin museums open their doors and bring the public to culture in a different way. This year there will be a diverse and entertaining program for those who enjoy culture and for this purpose, a special bus service will run all night long between museums.

As usual, there will be poetry readings, dance activities, theater performances and concerts that complement this night where culture is the center of all activity. On this occasion, the celebrations will also take place in Brandenburg to commemorate the birth of Frederick the Great. Following this line of activities , on January 30  several collections that revolve around the figure of Frederick the Great will be presented.

Frederick the Great was born on January 24, 1712 in Berlin. Son of Frederick William I and Sophia Dorothea of ​​Hanover of the House of Hohenzollern, he became king of Prussia in 1740 and directed its destinies during 46 years.

In his youth, encouraged by his mother, he became interested and became an avid reader of French literature, maintaining  correspondence with the philosophers of the Enlightenment. This relationship with the intellectuals of his time in contrasted with the rejection of the discipline imposed by the Court and military traditions.

His homosexuality and the rejection to the brutality of his father, who ordered the beheading of his lover, Lt Hermann von Kate. and who forced him to witness the execution, and was then sent to jail during two years losing his nobility as as prince. Three years later, in 1730, he was obliged to marry Isabel Cristina of Brunswick, regaining his status as a prince.

In 1739 he published the book The Anti. Machiavelli, which bitterly criticized Machiavelli’s vision on the grounds that his thinking about moral lacked power and advocated that greater demands that are made on the ethics of the rulers. His disruptive view took him to keep in a  constant process of exchange of ideas with the philosophers of his day, among whom was Voltaire, who wrote an interesting poem about the orgasm to make him believe that passion and emotion of a Prussian could be as intense than that of  those of southern Europe.

His ruling framed by the enlightened despotism had him order several reforms such as the codification of Prussian law that indicated that the obligation to protect the weak in society, he abolished torture and established the independence of the judiciary. He was a great reformer, a lover of the arts and science by opening the Sanssouci Palace to philosophers, musicians and writers of his time.

For more information http://www.lange-nacht-der-museen.de/

Nancy Guzman

In order to have a great time visiting museums in January, rent apartments in Berlin and learn through art the transformations the world has experienced.

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Translated by: Marc
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