MiWuLa News TV: Dezember 2011 - Teil 1
Uploaded by MiWuLaTV on 13.12.2011
Transcript:
Welcome to the first part of the Christmas Edition of the MiWuLa News!
We'll take a look at a very special project
that we have secretly been working on for a few months.
The history of the world in a miniature format.
In the past years, we generated quite a buzz
with special exhibitions such as The Divided City and Utopia.
Since August 2011, we started on a new one.
Until the beginning of next year, all participating model makers
will have to use their full expertise.
Our chief model maker Gerhard Dauscher explains what this is all about:
We've spent several hours developing the subject matter
of the modules with historians in various meetings.
We thought long and hard about the time intervals of our modules,
how many there should be and what we want to show.
We are building eight modules.
We start very early, 5000 BC, with the emergence of the first settlements.
When mankind started to develop agriculture and farming.
We then make a great leap forward to the Middle Ages.
Then we take smaller steps with seven modules, every 150 years until 1945.
With these 8 modules we show the development of the last 1.000 years.
It's very important to us that life back then becomes clear and recognisable.
Not only everyday life - life in the family,
food, accommodation, working conditions, how people lived.
But also the political life, the life of the powerful, police, military,
all that will be shown in a historical background.
Our focus is on a town somewhere in the middle of Germany.
The town is at a river - that was always the origin of a settlement,
flowing water for supply, transport and commerce.
We determined a few things, such as a castle.
We then show its development over time,
from a defiant fort to a baroque castle and later to an academic high school.
Very important is also the progress from agriculture to craftmanship to the industrial age,
the last modules are then full with chimneys and large scale industry,
where we'll also show the down sides of those times.
What's important, what must be shown in a history of 1.000 years?
How is information acquired?
Because there weren't any photos back then, we use old paintings and pictures,
as well as countless writings.
We are also supported by the Federal Agency for Civic Education.
Historian Dr. Bamberger-Stemmann provides important help
and gives expert advice on many details.
We have to imagine the scene like this: It's a kind of human zoo.
That was the essence of this so-called "Völkerschau", here in Hamburg, too.
Direct contact is avoided.
This woman, who gets so close to this lion, is already the maximum.
She reaches out very far, and that's okay.
But no direct contact.
The colonial society views them as savages,
with whom communication is not possible.
That's the detachment we have to show.
Certain people do research on certain topics.
Someone investigates nourishment, tries to find out
how people ate in the last 1.000 years.
Someone investigates the military - how did it develop from module to module,
and how do we show that?
The development of bridges, automobiles or hand tools -
many themes require detailled research.
One example for a typical problem are windowpanes.
What were they like in the middle ages? Was glass already available?
How did they shut them in the wintertime?
As with the windows, there are hundreds of stories
that develop in each diorama.
An every single story needs to be adressed.
Over 80 buildings, made partially out of wood, are created for these eight modules.
Unfortunatley, we don't have any suppliers available for these buildings.
We have to build everything ourselves.
We start in the Middle Ages with half-timbered houses and simple architecture,
that then progresses over time.
Same with the industry, starting from a small craft enterprise,
a sawmill, that grows to an armaments manufacturer.
And the figurines?
There aren't any figures to buy for the time before the 19th century.
That will also swallow many hours
to paint the clothes of the figures with tweezers and tiny brushes.
Approximately 2.500 figures will fill the dioramas with life.
What excites me about this project, is that we make history come alive.
We show history, the way life was.
We're taking it out of dusty old books
and show scenes and put it all into perspective.
From the Young Stone Age to the 20th century, we are working hard
to make historical life clearly understandable in all its details.
There are about 20 people working on this project,
where we try to show everything vividly.
The first test flights of mankind,
or the destruction brought by the world wars, misery through severe illness,
or the joy and solidarity of early civilisation.
The architecture of the various eras will make clear
how much mankind has developed.
We won't give everything away, of course, also because
there will be a big TV documentary about the background of this exhibition.
Early next year, you can see for yourself
how the final result turned out -
in a new and unique special exhibition,
hand-made in the Miniatur Wunderland.
It will be open to our guests presumably in spring.
We'll take a look at a very special project
that we have secretly been working on for a few months.
The history of the world in a miniature format.
In the past years, we generated quite a buzz
with special exhibitions such as The Divided City and Utopia.
Since August 2011, we started on a new one.
Until the beginning of next year, all participating model makers
will have to use their full expertise.
Our chief model maker Gerhard Dauscher explains what this is all about:
We've spent several hours developing the subject matter
of the modules with historians in various meetings.
We thought long and hard about the time intervals of our modules,
how many there should be and what we want to show.
We are building eight modules.
We start very early, 5000 BC, with the emergence of the first settlements.
When mankind started to develop agriculture and farming.
We then make a great leap forward to the Middle Ages.
Then we take smaller steps with seven modules, every 150 years until 1945.
With these 8 modules we show the development of the last 1.000 years.
It's very important to us that life back then becomes clear and recognisable.
Not only everyday life - life in the family,
food, accommodation, working conditions, how people lived.
But also the political life, the life of the powerful, police, military,
all that will be shown in a historical background.
Our focus is on a town somewhere in the middle of Germany.
The town is at a river - that was always the origin of a settlement,
flowing water for supply, transport and commerce.
We determined a few things, such as a castle.
We then show its development over time,
from a defiant fort to a baroque castle and later to an academic high school.
Very important is also the progress from agriculture to craftmanship to the industrial age,
the last modules are then full with chimneys and large scale industry,
where we'll also show the down sides of those times.
What's important, what must be shown in a history of 1.000 years?
How is information acquired?
Because there weren't any photos back then, we use old paintings and pictures,
as well as countless writings.
We are also supported by the Federal Agency for Civic Education.
Historian Dr. Bamberger-Stemmann provides important help
and gives expert advice on many details.
We have to imagine the scene like this: It's a kind of human zoo.
That was the essence of this so-called "Völkerschau", here in Hamburg, too.
Direct contact is avoided.
This woman, who gets so close to this lion, is already the maximum.
She reaches out very far, and that's okay.
But no direct contact.
The colonial society views them as savages,
with whom communication is not possible.
That's the detachment we have to show.
Certain people do research on certain topics.
Someone investigates nourishment, tries to find out
how people ate in the last 1.000 years.
Someone investigates the military - how did it develop from module to module,
and how do we show that?
The development of bridges, automobiles or hand tools -
many themes require detailled research.
One example for a typical problem are windowpanes.
What were they like in the middle ages? Was glass already available?
How did they shut them in the wintertime?
As with the windows, there are hundreds of stories
that develop in each diorama.
An every single story needs to be adressed.
Over 80 buildings, made partially out of wood, are created for these eight modules.
Unfortunatley, we don't have any suppliers available for these buildings.
We have to build everything ourselves.
We start in the Middle Ages with half-timbered houses and simple architecture,
that then progresses over time.
Same with the industry, starting from a small craft enterprise,
a sawmill, that grows to an armaments manufacturer.
And the figurines?
There aren't any figures to buy for the time before the 19th century.
That will also swallow many hours
to paint the clothes of the figures with tweezers and tiny brushes.
Approximately 2.500 figures will fill the dioramas with life.
What excites me about this project, is that we make history come alive.
We show history, the way life was.
We're taking it out of dusty old books
and show scenes and put it all into perspective.
From the Young Stone Age to the 20th century, we are working hard
to make historical life clearly understandable in all its details.
There are about 20 people working on this project,
where we try to show everything vividly.
The first test flights of mankind,
or the destruction brought by the world wars, misery through severe illness,
or the joy and solidarity of early civilisation.
The architecture of the various eras will make clear
how much mankind has developed.
We won't give everything away, of course, also because
there will be a big TV documentary about the background of this exhibition.
Early next year, you can see for yourself
how the final result turned out -
in a new and unique special exhibition,
hand-made in the Miniatur Wunderland.
It will be open to our guests presumably in spring.