Special exhibition Archive - Hanf Museum

Archive for the ‘Special exhibition’ Category

Hemp Museum starts “100 Years Wolfgang Neuss”

Sunday, December 4th, 2022

No other celebrity committed himself so early, so intensively, so credibly to the legalization of cannabis as Wolfgang Neuss. The Hemp Museum ushered in a “New Year” on Saturday in honor of its upcoming 100th birthday.

Wolfgang Neuss 1985 (Foto: Werner Bethsold)

Hans Wolfgang Otto Neuss ran away from home at the age of 15 because he wanted to be a clown. Before the journeyman butcher could become “Germany’s sharpest tongue” (Richard von Weizäcker) and an icon of the German legalization movement, the “Wolfgang caterpillar” (Neuss over Neuss) had to metamorphose multiple times.

Forced to do military service on the Eastern Front by the Hitler regime, Neuss shot off the index finger on his left hand and became a pacifist. In the young Federal Republic, he became a sought-after star in film and television. The prosperity thus acquired was soon evident in the bon vivant. But the next transformation was long overdue.
Wolfgang Neuss wrote, shot, acted and set to music his own film productions, which were completely different from the homeland ham of the 50s. With strips like “We Cellar Children” and “Comrade Münchhausen” Neuss not only reinvented himself but also a genre of West German film culture – the political comedy. In doing so, he inspired a generation of authors such as Wolfgang Menge and Helmut Dietl.

From the man with the drum to the town Indian

The friends that Neuss had found in the political joke in the 1950s together with his congenial stage partner Wolfgang Müller and at the Berlin cabaret Die Stachelschweine were not only lived out in films. In the 1960s, “The Man with the Timpani” was considered one of the best German cabaret artists. Celebrities cavorted in the audience during his solos. Neuss got to know Wolf Biermann and Rudi Dutschke, among others. By the end of the decade, the movie-goers’ darling had become a bourgeois terror and revolutionary. Acting offers and stage appearances became rarer, Neuss only made headlines with an application for social assistance and a charge of possession of 35.8g of hashish and several LSD trips.

Just when the Federal Republic of Germany threatened to forget him, Wolfgang Neuss reinvented himself. Toothless and with long hair, the “Stadtindianer” (Werner Pieper) commented on the world from the couch at home or in the cabaret. “Neuss vom Tage” brought him the German cabaret prize in 1983, a column in Stern and a comeback that hardly anyone would have believed the almost 60-year-old could do. The highlight of the year was undoubtedly an appearance on the SFB program Today on December 5th, where he met Richard Weizäcker, the mayor of Berlin at the time.
As successful as the celebrity Wolfgang Neuss was in the 80s, the person was stricken. Neuss suffered from cancer and smoked large amounts of hashish to relieve the pain. His saying so publicly led to another house search in 1984 and another conviction for drug possession.

 Today I'm not making supper. Today I'm thinking.
 Wolfgang Neuss

With a performance on his 65th birthday, Wolfgang Neuss finally said goodbye to his audience. He died six months later on May 5, 1989.

Special exhibition “100 Years Wolfgang Neuss”

“Wolfgang Neuss is dead, let’s talk about world literature” wrote Matthias Beltz in his obituary for the man with the drum. The Hemp Museum prefers to talk about him and is now devoting a series of special exhibitions to Wolfgang Neuss on the occasion of his hundredth year. At the start of the new year, the museum invites you to follow Wolfgang Neuss’ life in contemporary statements on the “Berlin abomination” (picture). In addition, it allows “Zwerg Mundwerk” (FAZ) to have their say in selected texts.

6.12. Birthday and “day of open door” of Hanf Museum Berlin

Wednesday, November 30th, 2016

At Decembre 6th Hanf Museum Berlin (Hemp Museum) will celebrate the 22nd jubilee. Extact on this day before 22 years the Hanf Museum opened its doors and brought another interesting exhibition into Berlin. In the permanent exhibition locals and tourists get to know everything about the plant Cannabis. All the usages, from fibre to shives, the seeds and oil as well as the medical use is shown here.

This is all done only by private initiative and without any public financing – only with your help!

This will be celebrated and we invite friends of the house and friends of Cannabis, activists and supporters alltogether to our “day of the open door”.

In daytime there will be free entry to the Hanf Museum. Our staff will show you the exhibition and will be ready for your questions.
At the evening, there will be a small catering with bread made with hemp seeds and hemp flour. The special highlight of this evening will be six sorts of Hemp tea to taste.

We are looking forward to meet you in the museum,
yours the Hanf Museum team

Tu nix ohne Liebe… Nikolaus ist Museumsgeburtstag

Wednesday, November 13th, 2013

Sonderausstellung im Hanf Museum Berlin läßt das Leben von Wolfgang Neuss Revue passieren. Der deutsche Schauspieler und Kabarettist wäre am 3. Dezember 90 Jahre alt geworden.

In der Vorweihnachtszeit gibt es gleich zwei gute Gründe für einen Besuch in Deutschlands einzigem Museum über die Pflanze Cannabis. Ab dem 3. Dezember gedenkt das Berliner Hanf Museum in einer Sonderausstellung Wolfgang Neuss, der an diesem Tag 90 Jahre alt geworden wäre. Das bewegte Leben des Schauspielers, Musikers und Kabarettisten wird dazu auf drei Ebenen nachvollzogen – biografisch, mit Zitaten aus seinem umfangreichen Werk sowie mittels Erinnerungen neussscher Zeitgenossen.
Die BesucherInnen sollen so die Möglichkeit erhalten, den Weg nachzuvollziehen, der Neuss vom Pimpf und “Mann mit der Pauke” zum “Orakel von Berlin” und “zahnloser Späthippie” führte. Ziel der Ausstellung ist es dabei nicht, dem Sockel des schon zu Lebzeiten zur Legende verklärten Neuss eine weitere Stufe hinzu zu fügen. Brüchen im Leben des ehemaligen “Scheusals von Berlin” widmet sich Tu nix ohne Liebe… ebenso wie seinen Erfolgen.

Drei Tage nach Ausstellungseröffnung am Freitag 6. Dezember wird Wolfgangs Neunzigster dann gebührend nachgefeiert. Schliesslich hat auch das Museum Grund zur Freude, nimmt es doch an diesem Tag das 20. Jahr seines Bestehens in Angriff. Die beiden Jubiläen verschmiltzt das Museum mit dem Nikolausfest zu einem Freudentag für alle Sinne.
(more…)