Thilo Westermann Atelier

FREUNDSCHAFT & VERHERRLICHUNG. ART AND POLITICS UNDER FREDERIK II. at Schloss Britz (through February 15, 2026)

The exhibition is dedicated to Ewald Fried­rich von Hertz­berg (1725–1795), Min­is­ter of State and own­er of the Britz es­tate, and to Bern­hard Rode (1725–1797), a his­tor­y paint­er from Ber­lin. In the sec­ond half of the 18th cen­tu­ry, dur­ing the reign of Fred­er­ick II, the pol­it­i­cian and the art­ist played key roles in shap­ing Prus­sia’s cul­tur­al land­scape. Their dual an­ni­ver­sa­ry of­fers a great op­por­tu­ni­ty to ex­am­ine their re­la­tion­ship, per­son­al­i­ties and as­so­ci­a­tion with Fred­er­ick II. After Fred­er­ick’s death, both con­tri­bu­ted to the ide­al­i­za­tion of the mon­arch—a nar­ra­tive that con­tin­ues to in­flu­ence his leg­a­cy to­day. They al­so col­lab­o­rat­ed on the re­de­sign of the Britz Man­or. Al­though the or­ig­i­nal fur­nish­ings have been lost, the in­te­ri­or has been brought back to life by nu­mer­ous loans.
The permanent ex­hib­i­tion also fea­tures three con­tem­po­rary art­is­tic inter­ven­tions that ex­plore var­i­ous fac­ets of the 18th cen­tu­ry. Deb­o­rah Jer­o­min pres­ents her re­search on his­tor­i­cal silk­worm cul­ti­va­tion, with a par­tic­u­lar fo­cus on pro­duc­tion in Britz under Hertz­berg. Paint­er Bo­do Rott of­fers a new in­ter­pre­ta­tion of Rode’s for­mer wall paint­ings in what was once the “gal­lery.” Thilo Wester­mann ex­am­ines the chi­noi­se­rie mo­tifs found in Britz, high­light­ing the cul­tur­al in­flu­enc­es and trade con­nec­tions with Asia that had been es­tab­lished du­ring the Ba­roque pe­ri­od.
(Text: Schloss Britz)