January 2020

Since the beginning of time mankind has created images of the world it lives in. As early as the Stone Age people painted pictures of their surroundings on cave walls. Since then man has developed numerous scientific, philosophical and religious theories about the nature of the world. Individuals as well as societies took extreme risks to broaden their geographical horizons and to map the world even more accurately. To discover new worlds, they travelled long distances – even as far as into space. Until today they continue to develop new technologies to capture and depict the world in ever more differentiated ways. Worldviews can offer explanations of the world, they can provide reassurance, but they can also collide. Today only one thing appears to be certain: The singular use of the term "worldview" is outdated in an increasingly globalized and diversified world.

The Salon Sophie Charlotte 2020 therefore takes the plural form "Weltbilder/Worldviews" literally: It is dedicated to historical depictions of nature, to a wide range of world interpretations and models as well as current and future perspectives of the world. More than 100 scientists and artists will share their visionary approaches to the world with you. Hear from the austronaut Thomas Reiter about how the perspective on the world changes when viewed from space, listen to Nobel Prize winner Stefan Hell discuss how the new technology of nanoscopy surpasses the time-proven microscopic view of the world and debate with the winner of the German Book Prize Saša Stanišić about the connection between one's origin and one's worldview. While the Berlin Singakademie invites you to immerse yourself in its sound worlds and the author Judith Schalansky asks you to travel with her to remote islands, Jörg Thadeusz, Bibiana Beglau and Burghart Klaußner will take you on a journey into the underworld and back. And if you dare to put on virtual reality glasses you might just dive into entirely new worlds altogether.

Salon Sophie Charlotte 2020 "Weltbilder / Worldviews" is an event of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities with the participation of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Max Planck Society, the Union of the German Academies of Sciences and Humanities, Die Junge Akademie, the Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the German Academic Scholarship Foundation and the Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e. V., supported by the Gerda Henkel Foundation and the Fritz Thyssen Foundation.

Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities

Akademiegebäude am Gendarmenmarkt
Markgrafenstraße 38, 10117 Berlin

Free admission. No registration required.