Beate Haupt
Encounter with Moses
Matinees at the Kunstverein
06.09.–18.10.2026
Exhibition
Beate Haupt
Encounter with Moses
For her exhibition in the Old Synagogue, Beate Haupt, an artist who lives and works in Braunschweig and was born in Wolfenbüttel in 1966, has created a series of works entitled Encounter with Moses. It developed from an image that had been in her mind for years and that had originated while swimming in the Mediterranean: a young man with long hair standing in water. A slight chest blurred the clear attribution to gender. A modern man, yet as if from an old painting, glistening, enveloped in the pale light purple of the water. She wants to show this man, a Moses of today, strong and weak at the same time, struggling with the water, looking around fearfully, striding proudly into the floods, blowing the water away, swimming, drifting. Beate Haupt deliberately leaves no room for the biblical story of parting the waters and walking through them. She wants to show a more everyday story – as it happens today, all over the world.
08.11.–20.12.2026
Exhibition
Daniel Wagenblast
Man and Space
Daniel Wagenblast, born in Schwäbisch Gmünd in 1963, is a master craftsman when it comes to working with wood. Since studying at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart, his theme has been humanity in relation to the world – be it pistols, animals, the globe, a car or a church, a tank, a house, a man or a woman. All these actors in Wagenblast’s sculptures tell stories of shifts in scale and wondrous relationships between the world and people and their things: humans as seekers, watchers, dreamers on the brink of the abyss, or heroes conquering the world. A complex world, an entire cosmos, is created with simple means. His figures are rather prototypical and, not unusually, based on the artist himself. The deliberately rough surface takes away much of any illusionistic impression – it is the artist’s reality that we encounter in the works, which, at a distance from the reality we perceive, immediately becomes the truth.
15.11.2026, 12 pm
Book Presentation
Jürgen Hartmann and Prof. Dr. Andreas Beaugrand
The Synagogues in Oerlinghausen. Jewish History, Remembrance and Contemporary Art
The ‘comprehensive book’ on the history of the synagogues in Oerlinghausen is nearing completion:
Andreas Beaugrand, Jürgen Hartmann (eds.): The Synagogues in Oerlinghausen. Jewish History, Remembrance and Contemporary Art, Bielefeld (KunstSinn Verlag) 2027
At the matinee event at the Kunstverein, the authors and editors will present the lavishly designed new book by graphic designers Pauline Seidlich (Düsseldorf) and Frederike Schulte (Leipzig) – just over a week after the anniversary of the November pogroms of 9–10 November 1938, which saw acts of violence against the Jewish population in the German Reich orchestrated and organised by the National Socialists.
The various synagogues of Oerlinghausen are the focus of this publication. Through an examination of their origins, architectural alterations and use, it tells the story of a place where Jewish life was a visible presence for some 250 years – both in everyday life and in the townscape. The book is based on newly uncovered archival sources, including community accounts and administrative records that have scarcely been analysed to date. These sources make it possible, for the first time, to trace the history of the synagogues in Oerlinghausen since the 18th century in a largely comprehensive manner.
Furthermore, this publication examines the context in which these synagogues were built and existed. Issues of integration and exclusion, rising anti-Semitism and government regulations had a direct impact on their history. Ultimately, the key question is why this synagogue – unlike many others – largely survived the Nazi era structurally and has been preserved to this day as a testament to Oerlinghausen’s Jewish history.
In view of the increasing electoral success of far-right politicians, such as in Saxony-Anhalt, it is essential to put a stop to these reactionary ideologies and to stand up for tolerance, freedom and democracy.
06.09.–18.10.2026
Exhibition
Beate Haupt
Encounter with Moses
For her exhibition in the Old Synagogue, Beate Haupt, an artist who lives and works in Braunschweig and was born in Wolfenbüttel in 1966, has created a series of works entitled Encounter with Moses. It developed from an image that had been in her mind for years and that had originated while swimming in the Mediterranean: a young man with long hair standing in water. A slight chest blurred the clear attribution to gender. A modern man, yet as if from an old painting, glistening, enveloped in the pale light purple of the water. She wants to show this man, a Moses of today, strong and weak at the same time, struggling with the water, looking around fearfully, striding proudly into the floods, blowing the water away, swimming, drifting. Beate Haupt deliberately leaves no room for the biblical story of parting the waters and walking through them. She wants to show a more everyday story – as it happens today, all over the world.
08.11.–20.12.2026
Exhibition
Daniel Wagenblast
Man and Space
Daniel Wagenblast, born in Schwäbisch Gmünd in 1963, is a master craftsman when it comes to working with wood. Since studying at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart, his theme has been humanity in relation to the world – be it pistols, animals, the globe, a car or a church, a tank, a house, a man or a woman. All these actors in Wagenblast’s sculptures tell stories of shifts in scale and wondrous relationships between the world and people and their things: humans as seekers, watchers, dreamers on the brink of the abyss, or heroes conquering the world. A complex world, an entire cosmos, is created with simple means. His figures are rather prototypical and, not unusually, based on the artist himself. The deliberately rough surface takes away much of any illusionistic impression – it is the artist’s reality that we encounter in the works, which, at a distance from the reality we perceive, immediately becomes the truth.
15.11.2026, 12 pm
Book Presentation
Jürgen Hartmann and Prof. Dr. Andreas Beaugrand
The Synagogues in Oerlinghausen. Jewish History, Remembrance and Contemporary Art
The ‘comprehensive book’ on the history of the synagogues in Oerlinghausen is nearing completion:
Andreas Beaugrand, Jürgen Hartmann (eds.): The Synagogues in Oerlinghausen. Jewish History, Remembrance and Contemporary Art, Bielefeld (KunstSinn Verlag) 2027
At the matinee event at the Kunstverein, the authors and editors will present the lavishly designed new book by graphic designers Pauline Seidlich (Düsseldorf) and Frederike Schulte (Leipzig) – just over a week after the anniversary of the November pogroms of 9–10 November 1938, which saw acts of violence against the Jewish population in the German Reich orchestrated and organised by the National Socialists.
The various synagogues of Oerlinghausen are the focus of this publication. Through an examination of their origins, architectural alterations and use, it tells the story of a place where Jewish life was a visible presence for some 250 years – both in everyday life and in the townscape. The book is based on newly uncovered archival sources, including community accounts and administrative records that have scarcely been analysed to date. These sources make it possible, for the first time, to trace the history of the synagogues in Oerlinghausen since the 18th century in a largely comprehensive manner.
Furthermore, this publication examines the context in which these synagogues were built and existed. Issues of integration and exclusion, rising anti-Semitism and government regulations had a direct impact on their history. Ultimately, the key question is why this synagogue – unlike many others – largely survived the Nazi era structurally and has been preserved to this day as a testament to Oerlinghausen’s Jewish history.
In view of the increasing electoral success of far-right politicians, such as in Saxony-Anhalt, it is essential to put a stop to these reactionary ideologies and to stand up for tolerance, freedom and democracy.
The History of the Synagogue in Oerlinghausen
On his own website, Jürgen Hartmann draws on numerous historical sources to provide a compelling account of the latest findings on the history of the synagogue in Oerlinghausen — from 1894 to the present day.
