January 2003 - Nr. 1
Berlin Exhibit Bids Guests to the Banquet Table
TWIG - Sober restraint is in evidence at office Christmas parties and family celebrations in Germany and much of the rest of Europe this year. But there are no signs of belt-tightening at "Dining in Public - European Banquet Ceremony 1300-1900," an exhibit recently opened at Berlin’s Kronprinzenpalais (crown prince’s palace). As the Süddeutsche Zeitung reports, the exhibit, on through March 11, 2003, will satisfy just about anyone’s appetite for lavish dining and fine display. It offers a glimpse into the opulent world of meals at court: silverware and sideboards, goblets, salt cellars, carving implements, table-top fountains and terrines, all used to impress a public that looked to visual symbols for indications of power.
The displays have an appropriate setting in the Kronprinzenpalais, which serves as the German Historical Museum’s temporary but elegant headquarters until renovations are completed in 2004. Hans Ottomeyer, the museum’s director, and exhibit curator Michaela Völkel have succeeded in assembling a host of objects drawn from collections and museums throughout Europe. A resplendent silver-gilt service that once belonged to Napoleon I, for instance, contains 4,500 individual pieces and is one of the few complete empire period sets extant. Commissioned by Napoleon in 1808, the set fell into Austrian hands in 1915 and was used by the Habsburg family for festive banquets until the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire a few years later.
The focus of this exhibit is on what Ottomeyer calls the reconstruction of a "nonverbal form of communication" at European courts. From the late Middle Ages to the 19th century, all European royal houses maintained the tradition of holding a public meal for the ruler in the presence of the court. Such meals followed strict protocols and rigid orders of ceremony. This was a symbolic act of political identification, which can even be interpreted as a secular form of communion, Ottomeyer says. Although this act of state has been largely ignored by historical and cultural accounts, it has left a wealth of impressive pictorial evidence and splendid artifacts.
While nourishment was clearly a secondary concern at meals where war and peace were often on the table, there were exceptions. The last time the Habsburgs entertained lavishly using the Napolean tableware was in Budapest in 1916, when Karl Franz Joseph was crowned king of Hungary. The Berlin exhibit concludes with a photograph - and a menu - from that occasion. Among the nearly two dozen delicacies served were spit-roasted duck breast, "cloaked" pheasant, partridge gelée, loin of Hortobágy pork, trout from the Tatras mountain region, fruit aspic, cakes and bonbons. However, ambitious cooks will be disappointed to learn that the exhibit does not include any recipes.
