Krefelder Treppenwitz. A humorous series of events from April to September.

100 years of Bauhaus. Krefeld celebrates architectural culture

A hundred years of Bauhaus. The year 2019 is marked by this anniversary in many places. And it goes without saying that Krefeld is also present with numerous projects and exhibitions. For the city is historically closely linked to the Bauhaus movement. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Lily Reich, Johannes Itten and Georg Muche lived and worked here. The famous houses Esters and Lange, which Ludwig Mies van der Rohe designed and built at the end of the 1920s. They are located here and are used as exhibition venues. The Krefeld Kaiser Wilhelm Museum is also focusing on the Bauhaus movement this year.

In short, Krefeld has declared the “Year of Building Culture”, and the “Treppenwitz” (=irony of history) series of events also aims to bring architecture to life in a special way. The event will actually take place in a total of six very different stairwells in the city, which, however, do not have to stand primarily for the theme “Bauhaus”. Rather, highly individual representatives of “Stairwells” have been selected.

Change of perspective: Take a very close look at the stairwell

The staircase is often experienced by the user as a mere “passageway”, quasi a means to an end, even though the staircase itself is anything but merely functional. Rather, it is a central design element. Often it is representative, sometimes even fearsome and defiant, or inviting, sometimes oppressively narrow or generous and wide, dull and functional. All in the spirit of the buildings for which it was designed and built.

The series of events “Krefelder Perspektivwechsel” (=Krefeld change of perspective) has selected six stairwells in some of the most controversially discussed buildings. And it presents the respective architecture with a wink. After a historical tour and an architectural introduction, there is comedy, poetry, music, cabaret, improvisation theatre and poetry slam. The stucco staircase in the Krefeld district court, the never used escalator staircase in the Behnisch Haus. Or the once majestic and now modernist staircase in the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, the emphatically functional and simple town house (“Eiermannbau”). And the winding staircase in the classicist town hall and the sunny-tropical staircase of the Kurt-Tucholsky comprehensive school. On these stairs and steps you can read, recite and improvise, make music and play, much for the pleasure of the audience, who can entertain themselves well and learn something in the process. So a fine combination.

And what’s the “Treppenwitz” in it now?

First of all a very pretty play on words, namely the combination of “Treppe” (=staircase) and “Witz” (=joke), in the spirit of the Krefeld organisers. And the curious term actually exists. A “stair joke” is – in the original sense of joke – a witty thought that occurs to someone a moment too late (“when going out on the stairs”). And who can thus no longer be brought forward for the discussion round or discussion in the room. Because there you are, unfortunately, already out the door again.

Friedrich Nietzsche compares the situation with the “happiness on the stairs” that he had shaped. What this is, he himself describes in the second volume of his reflections “Human and All-too-human”. He puts it very eloquently as follows: “How the wit of some people does not keep pace with the opportunity, so that the opportunity is already through the door, while the wit is still on the stairs. And then – quasi from the column “Useless, however kind of interesting information” – there is indeed another curiosity, namely a bestseller (yes really, no joke!) from 1882 by William Lewis Hertslet, “Der Treppenwitz der Weltgeschichte (=irony of history). Historical Errors, Attitudes, and Inventions”. The theme of this work is the general human peculiarity of subsequently anecdotally decorating historical events. In his book Hertslet exposes such anecdotes.

The next Treppenwitz date? “Moving escalator theatre” in the Behnisch-Haus.

Just get involved, on the “Krefelder Treppenwitz”. The next opportunity is on May 10 and 11, 2019. When the improvisation studio “Müllerschön” of the Krefelder KRESCHtheater (see also blog post “How about going to the theatre?”), on the “dead escalator” of the Behnisch-Haus, shows what can happen on an escalator that never even rolled a meter. The eloquent moderator is Silvia Westenfelder, and the show is musically congenially accompanied by Sebastian Fuhrmann. Here Franz Kafka’s “Standing Storm Run” (a wonderful vivid image that I love and that really fits here!) becomes an improvisation.

By the way, the show is on stage inside, on the stairs, and looking from outside, on the street. Just lie down in one of the provided deck chairs and enjoy the spectacle with a lemonade. Admission is free.

May 10 and 11,.2019. Architectural introduction each at 20.00 o’clock. Performances “Müllerschön” at 21.00 o’clock, 21.45 o’clock and 22.30 o’clock.