"Rendez-vous with history"

In history as well as in the present, rebellions move in the field of tension between political, economic and social domination and the resistance against it. The forms of rebellion also change, ranging from open violence to civil disobedience with an explicit renunciation of violence. As resistance against injustice, rebellion today often has the favour of the public on its side. Conversely, however, one can also ask the question: is governance always bad? Or what constitutes good governance, so that rebellions against it are not even necessary? The Weimar Rendez-vous 2020 explores these questions in radio programmes, an exhibition and a film.

To mark the opening of the festival, excerpts from the film "Der Dilpomat - Stéphane Hessel" (1995) will be shown on 6 November. The start is at 7 pm on the Stéphane-Hessel-Platz in Weimar. The 15-minute documentary film, which was produced for the "Weimarer Rendez-vous", uses the example of historical rebels and those living today to examine in an entertaining way how they became rebels, what makes them rebel and questions whether perhaps every society urgently needs exactly these people. Even if they are uncomfortable and quarrelsome. Or precisely because they are inconvenient and quarrelsome.

On 6 November, an exhibition will also be launched in public space. On 11 steles, 15 biographies of selected "rebels and rulers" will be presented, whose lives led them to and through Weimar. All these people were strong characters who lived, fought and struggled for their ideals and convictions. Some of them subtly artistic like Gabriele Reuter, Hoffmann von Fallersleben or Johannes Daniel Falk, others through civil disobedience like Pastor Alexander Wessel or Kurt Nehrling, and still others through open revolt like Rosa Luxemburg. A QR code on the stele makes further documents accessible. Thus, original sound recordings and re-enacted excerpts from letters as well as photographs provide insights into the ideals and biographies of the men and women and explain the motives for their "rebellion" and/or their form of government. After the end of the exhibition in Weimar, the biographies are also accessible on the Weimar Rendez-vous homepage. The locations can be found in the overview flyer. There you will also find the dates of the discussions, which will be broadcast until 26 November on Radio F.R.E.I. and Radio Lotte.