Women of Power - Prussia beyond Fritz and Wilhelm
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| 12 EUR, reduced 6 EUR |
| 12 years and older |
| German |
| Hall 1, Ground Floor |
The history of Prussia is usually told as a series of male biographies. However, the ruling Hohenzollerns were a dynasty, meaning that political power was passed down within the biological family. And that meant it couldn’t be done with men alone. Consequently, the female Hohenzollerns played a central role both in the development of Prussia and Berlin and as networkers for their family at other courts in Germany and Europe. In 19th and 20th century historiography, this was deliberately swept under the carpet because it did not fit in with Prussia’s masculine image. It is time to finally break with this image.
“One Hour of History” approaches this topic using the example of two women: Sophie of Brandenburg (1568-1622), who exercised governmental power for ten years as Electress of Saxony, and Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1715-1797), who fulfilled her role as Queen of Prussia under difficult conditions.
The following experts are invited:
Prof Dr Uta Piereth, Bayerische Schlösserverwaltung
Dr Christa Syrer, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich
Dr Alfred Hagemann, Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss
Steffi Orbach will moderate the discussion, with Dr Matthias von Hellfeld as co-moderator.
Participants
Prof Dr Uta Piereth, born in Freiburg im Breisgau in 1965, studied history, art history and Romance studies and obtained her doctorate in Freiburg, Poitiers, Bonn, Munich and Fribourg, Switzerland. She then embarked on a career in museums with a dual focus: as a curator, she developed concepts for various permanent exhibitions throughout Bavaria and implemented museum education programmes both conceptually and in practice. She has been a university lecturer since 2004. Since 2007, she has worked for the Bayerische Schlösserverwaltung, where her responsibilities included the new permanent exhibition ‘Paving the way for freedom and democracy – the 1948 Constitution Convention of Herrenchiemsee’ (2023) and the completely new museum development of Cadolzburg Castle (2017), from where the project ‘WIRKSAM. Frauennetzwerke der Hohenzollern’ originated and launched in July 2025.
Dr Christa Syrer is an art historian specialed in medieval and early modern architectural history. She studied in Heidelberg, Paris and Munich and has been working as a research assistant at Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität in Munich since 2014. In 2020, she completed her doctorate on the subject of princely widow’s residences in the early modern period. Her research focuses on courtly culture, the use and function of architecture, and architecture and the environment in the early modern period. She is involved in the exhibition and research project ‘WIRKSAM. Frauennetzwerke der Hohenzollern’, which was initiated by the Bayerische Schlösserverwaltung.
Alfred Hagemann is an art historian and head of the History of the Site Department at the Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss. His research focuses on the architectural and cultural history of the Berlin court in the 18th century, historical women’s studies and the state self-representation of the GDR.
Steffi Orbach was lucky enough to realise early on that she wanted to work as a journalist. After starting out in print journalism, she worked in various positions in radio and television before joining WDR as a trainee. She worked for ZDF’s children’s news programme “logo!” for several years, has been writing and broadcasting news for all WDR channels for more than 20 years and presents the media magazine “Töne, Texte, Bilder” (sounds, texts, images) on WDR 5. She was a presenter on Deutschlandfunk Nova’s daily programme for many years. Today she presents “Deutschland heute” (Germany today) on DLF and has hosted the podcast “Eine Stunde History” (One hour of history) since 2023.
Dr Matthias von Hellfeld, born in 1954, has been a freelance journalist and historian since 1978. He works as a presenter and editor at ARD and is currently the editor in charge of the magazine “One Hour of History” at Deutschlandfunk Nova. Von Hellfeld has contributed to numerous radio features and TV documentaries. He is also a lecturer at various universities and training academies and the author of more than 25 non-fiction books on European and German history. In 1984, he won the Carl von Ossietzky Award of the city of Oldenburg, was nominated for the German Radio Award in 2017, and received the German Podcast Award in 2019.
