Exhibition Announcement: CAROUSEL — VERNON I GROUP‑M I 1945 — 1952.

On Decem­ber 3 and 4, 1946, a group of 38 engi­neers led by Markus von Kien­lin left May­bach Motoren­bau, which was destroyed in the Sec­ond World War, behind them to set off for Ver­non in France. They could not pos­si­bly pre­dict what the future would hold for them. The mem­bers of „Group M,“ as the May­bach employ­ees in Ver­non called them­selves at the time, hoped to put the trau­mat­ic expe­ri­ences of war and destruc­tion behind them. The men were unex­pect­ed­ly offered a rare oppor­tu­ni­ty to make a liv­ing for them­selves and their fam­i­lies amidst the tur­moil of the post-war peri­od, a time of great social and eco­nom­ic hard­ship. Karl May­bach’s declared aim at the time was to ensure the entre­pre­neur­ial sur­vival and com­plete dis­man­tling of May­bach Motoren­bau GmbH — and thus, tan­ta­mount to lay­ing the foun­da­tions for the May­bach employ­ees in Friedrichshafen to rebuild May­bach Motoren­bau GmbH and like­wise the town of Friedrichshafen.

The Wil­helm and Karl May­bach Foun­da­tion, in coöper­a­tion with the Karl May­bach Gym­na­si­um and the ‚Fre­un­deskreis May­bach Muse­um e.V.’, is ded­i­cat­ing an exhi­bi­tion to this top­ic that is extra­or­di­nary in sev­er­al respects. The start­ing point of the exhi­bi­tion is a black and white pho­to­graph of a carousel, tak­en in Ver­non in the sum­mer of 1947 — see pho­to. The pho­to­graph impres­sive­ly doc­u­ments the ambiva­lent state of mind of Euro­pean post-war soci­ety. The peo­ple, all war sur­vivors, find them­selves in a con­stant inter­play between a redis­cov­ered joy of life turned towards the future and the con­stant flick­er­ing of the trau­mat­ic images of their war-mem­o­ries from the past. The carousel is emblem­at­ic of the liv­ing envi­ron­ment and every­day life in the years after 1945 and tells of the ups and downs of life for the peo­ple of the so-called “Stunde Null” (zero hour).

The exhi­bi­tion instal­la­tion „Carousel — Ver­non I Gruppe M I 1946 – 1952“ (work­ing title) will attempt to con­vey the emo­tion­al and spir­i­tu­al world of post-war soci­ety described here. To this end, the exhi­bi­tion for­mat large­ly aban­dons the usu­al muse­um approach­es and clas­sic pre­sen­ta­tion habits in favor of a direct, phys­i­cal expe­ri­ence of his­tor­i­cal events. Three infor­ma­tion lev­els approach the sub­ject inter­ac­tive­ly and encour­age the use of the instal­la­tion, with con­crete instruc­tions for action. Exhi­bi­tion vis­i­tors thus become exhi­bi­tion par­tic­i­pants who are active­ly involved in the scene and at the same time are an inte­gral part of it. The exhi­bi­tion par­tic­i­pants own bod­i­ly per­cep­tions and sen­sa­tions will help to con­tribute sig­nif­i­cant­ly to the under­stand­ing of the con­tents. At the cen­ter of the instal­la­tion is a rein­ter­pre­ta­tion and new con­struc­tion of the carousel from Ver­non. The carousel is to be dri­ven inde­pen­dent­ly by the exhi­bi­tion users, who will also be able to ride on it them­selves. This will bring the exhi­bi­tion unit to life. The social inte­gra­tion and the com­mon exchange about the exhi­bi­tion con­tents are to be pro­mot­ed through this expe­ri­ence. At the same time, the pas­sen­gers on the carousel will be able to direct­ly expe­ri­ence the sen­so­ry per­cep­tion and emo­tion­al state of peo­ple in the post-war peri­od through their own phys­i­cal expe­ri­ence. Because the sink­ing feel­ing in the pit of the stom­ach that aris­es dur­ing the ride on the carousel is iden­ti­cal then as it is today and can be equat­ed with the bod­i­ly sen­sa­tion that occurs in sit­u­a­tions of, for exam­ple joy, fear, eupho­ria and fear of the unknown. This is the emo­tion­al world in which peo­ple found them­selves for a long time after the end of the war: In the con­stant ups and downs of their own feel­ings and sensations.

The exis­ten­tial expe­ri­ences of death and sur­vival, oppres­sion and lib­er­a­tion, suf­fer­ing and hope as well as destruc­tion and recon­struc­tion are inex­tri­ca­bly linked to the Sec­ond World War and the post-war peri­od. Con­tem­po­rary wit­ness­es, for exam­ple from Friedrichshafen on Lake Con­stance (Ger­many) or from Ver­non in France as well as from the many oth­er war-torn places in Europe, asked about their mem­o­ries of the post­war peri­od, most­ly tell about iden­ti­cal every­day images. For exam­ple, about the sur­re­al life in the rub­ble land­scapes of the bombed-out cities, or about the painful hunger and mea­ger meals as well as the seem­ing­ly nev­er-end­ing win­ter cold. The gloomy reports are often bright­ened up with anec­dotes of those hope­ful moments that gave peo­ple new courage and con­fi­dence. For exam­ple, the return of sur­viv­ing refugees and sol­diers to their fam­i­lies, the chil­dren’s play with the few, often impro­vised toys, and the social con­tacts with the lib­er­a­tors, the sol­diers of the Allied armies.

In the back­ground of the walk-through instal­la­tion, a large-for­mat pho­to back­drop rein­forces the effect of the carousel on the view­er and user. Icon­ic images depict­ing var­i­ous events in con­tem­po­rary his­to­ry are pre­sent­ed here, cre­at­ing anoth­er lev­el of infor­ma­tion and medi­a­tion. Final­ly, a floor graph­ic serves to present the his­tor­i­cal con­text. The graph­ic is com­posed of sev­er­al con­cen­tric cir­cles that extend more or less wide­ly around the carousel into the out­er areas of the exhi­bi­tion space. Here, the pre­his­to­ry can be retraced and the rea­sons can be sketched why the „M Group,“ Karl May­bach and ulti­mate­ly May­bach Motoren­bau as a com­pa­ny were tem­porar­i­ly locat­ed in Vernon.

The con­cep­tion, the con­tents and the struc­tur­al real­iza­tion of the exhi­bi­tion will be devel­oped and exe­cut­ed in var­i­ous work­shops togeth­er with stu­dents of the Karl May­bach Gym­na­si­um. Accom­pa­nied by his­to­ri­ans and his­to­ry teach­ers, the his­tor­i­cal back­ground is dis­cussed in detail, orig­i­nal sources and pho­to­graph­ic mate­r­i­al are viewed, and lit­er­a­ture is stud­ied exten­sive­ly. The con­tem­po­rary tes­ti­monies and mate­ri­als come from the muse­um col­lec­tions of the Fre­un­deskreis May­bach Muse­um e.V., the Friedrichshafen munic­i­pal archives and oth­er archives, as well as from pri­vate indi­vid­u­als asso­ci­at­ed with the Wil­helm and Karl May­bach Foun­da­tion. In fur­ther work­shops, the carousel and the exhi­bi­tion walls are to be built and the exhi­bi­tion poster joint­ly designed. The aim is also to inter­view con­tem­po­rary wit­ness­es and to incor­po­rate the expect­ed research results into the exhi­bi­tion pre­sen­ta­tion. Cur­rent­ly, the Wil­helm and Karl May­bach Foun­da­tion is look­ing for a suit­able venue for the exper­i­men­tal exhi­bi­tion. How­ev­er, a first pre­sen­ta­tion date has already been set: on May 12, 2023, a mod­el of the carousel as well as the exhi­bi­tion poster will be pre­sent­ed togeth­er with stu­dents from the Karl May­bach Gym­na­si­um at their own booth at the „7^th Long Night of Tech­nol­o­gy and Inno­va­tion“ at the ZF Forum. The entire exhi­bi­tion is then expect­ed to be on dis­play in Friedrichshafen on Lake Con­stance in the Fall of 2023.

As you can see, we have set our sights high in order to real­ize a live­ly, inno­v­a­tive and sus­tain­able exhi­bi­tion. So far, the exhi­bi­tion has been sup­port­ed by the Wil­helm and Karl May­bach Foun­da­tion and its part­ners, the Karl May­bach Gym­na­si­um Friedrichshafen, the Fre­un­deskreis May­bach Muse­um e.V., and „Potzblitz!“, a project of the Zep­pelin Foun­da­tion Friedrichshafen and the city of Friedrichshafen.