Agenda

The 1920s were a decade of economic progress and decline, cultural change and political instability in most European countries. The disastrous First World War was followed by the even more desastrous Spanish flew. The lust for life could be tasted in Paris, Berlin, Prague, London and other cities. At no point in the 20th century was the desire for change, culture and leisure more intense. The exhibition (Schall und Rauch. Die wilden Zwanziger) shows an impressive picture of this eventful period on the basis of many objects and images.

Humans have been fascinated by optical illusions for hundreds of years. Garden-shed inventors dupe their audience with trickery and deception. Inventions such as the peep box, praxinoscope and flip-book were groundbreaking stages in the process of developing static images into moving images. From the 1780s, panoramas set a milestone in the creation of illusionary worlds — the first mass media of their time. In today’s digital world, such visual wonders and optical illusions have lost none of their magic. virtual reality is not a modern invention.

Siegfried Wagner (1869-1930) was the only son of Richard and Cosima Wagner. He was born in the country manor Tribschen on Lake Lucerne. The exhibition focuses on his artistic abilities and his career as well as on the family circumstances. The parents only announced his birth one year later, because they had to marry to secure the family name Wagner. The permanent exhibition on the ground floor highlights the life and work of Richard Wagner.