Prague + Nuremberg: First Bavarian-Czech State Exhibition: Emperor Charles IV in Prague and Nuremberg

A premiere with an emperor: For the first time, the Free State of Bavaria and the Czech Republic are organizing a joint state exhibition under the auspices of the Minister President and the Prime Minister to be shown in Prague and in Nuremberg on the occasion of the 700th birthday of Emperor Charles IV (1316-1378). The life and impact of this important late medieval monarch will be presented at Wallenstein Riding School in Prague (May 15 – September 25, 2016) and at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg (October 20, 2016 – March 5, 2017).

Emperor with Sword and Quill

The 14th century was a period of crisis and upheaval. Plague ravaged large parts of Central Europe. Natural catastrophes and famine claimed many lives. At the same time, architecture, engineering, art, and culture experienced a revival, especially in the imperial and episcopal cities associated with Charles. Prague acquired the first university in Central Europe and evolved into a metropolis. The art of the Prague court influenced artistic style throughout the empire. Charles also patronized the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg, his second most frequent place of residence after Prague, substantially with endowments. His high level of education made him an emperor of the sword and the quill: He was the first monarch to write an autobiography.

Son of John of Luxemburg and Elisabeth of Bohemia, Charles was an important figure in the political game. Charles was able to win the pope’s backing as anti-king to Ludwig the Bavarian from the House of Wittelsbach and, thus, the struggle for the crown of the Holy Roman Empire. His coronation in Rome in 1355 signified the revival of emperorship in the Holy Roman Empire. And he created an epochal work: The Golden Bull of 1356 became a kind of imperial constitution and regulated the election of the King of the Romans by the electors for four and a half centuries.

As emperor, he relied less on military force than on diplomacy – and on substantial sums of money with which he bought the electors’ compliance. Rich silver deposits in Bohemia, encouragement of trade, and efficient governance and exploitation of his territories facilitated the success of this equally pious and calculating emperor.

He additionally pursued a policy of clever matrimonial alliances: The increase of his sphere of dynastic power always played the most important role in his four marriages as well as in his children’s marriages. The dowry of Anna of the Palatinate from the House of Wittelsbach established the foundation for Charles’s “New Bohemia” in the Upper Palatinate.

Controversial Monarch or Icon?

German historians long viewed Charles as the “father of Bohemia and stepfather of the empire” because he had pledged imperial estates on a large scale for his dynastic power politics, whereas Bohemians, especially Czechs, regard him as the “father of the fatherland” to this day. Both camps began nationalizing him in the 19th century, although he had seen himself as emperor by God’s grace rather than as a Czech or a German.

The Bavarian-Czech State Exhibition will take a new look at the many-sided monarch and his day with 150 exceptional works of art, charters, objects documenting cultural history and everyday life, and media installations. The concept is being developed by the National Gallery in Prague and the Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte in Augsburg in collaboration with scholars from the Centre for the History and Culture of East Central Europe (GWZO) in Leipzig, the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the German Historical Institute in Rome, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Charles University in Prague, and the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg.

2016-17 Bavarian-Czech State Exhibition “Charles IV”

National Gallery in Prague, Wallenstein Riding School

Valdštejnská 3, 118 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic

May 15 – September 25, 2016

Germanisches Nationalmuseum

Kartäusergasse 1, 90402 Nürnberg, Germany

October 20, 2016 – March 5, 2017

Organizers

Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte and National Gallery in Prague

in collaboration with the Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg and the Geisteswissenschaftlichen Zentrum Geschichte and Kultur Ostmitteleuropas Leipzig

Contact

Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte

Zeuggasse 7 – 86150 Augsburg – Germany

Phone +49 (0) 821 3295-0

Email pressestelle@hdbg.bayern.de

www.KARLIV.eu and www.hdbg.de