Relief, fear and hope. Tribute to victims of WWII in the Chapel at Špilberk

23 April – 6 September 2015 – Almond  Trees Blossomed In Old Brno – an installation with video mapping features

The Museum of the City of Brno is preparing an exhibition titled "Almond  Trees Blossomed In Old Brno" in the Baroque Chapel at Špilberk Castle.

"In the garden of the Old Brno monastery, on the southern slope, almond trees blossomed this week. Three tall trees are dotted with white flowers, which especially in the sunshine look so beautiful in their surroundings that they attract attention," said a report on a Brno newspaper in early April 1945. Hope was felt everywhere at the end of the war – light after years of darkness.

Špilberk became one of the symbols of the Second World War. It was the first big prison in Moravia in 1939. On 1 September 1939, during a campaign entitled  Albrecht I, dozens of personalities were arrested and escorted to Špilberk. Some returned home soon, some remained in concentration camps throughout the war, and some of them never returned home. For the rest of the war, Špilberk was a representative seat of the Wehrmacht; the Baroque Chapel was converted into a ceremonial military hall to commemorate fallen German soldiers. Only in the spring of 1945 changes happen,  Brno is liberated, German soldiers on Špilberk are replaced with Soviet troops. Nazi symbols are destroyed – the Parteiadler in the Baroque Chapel is shot to pieces, the bust of Adolf Hitler is crushed... 

In 1967, an exhibition of photomontages by John Heartfield is installed in the Baroque Chapel, a German artist whose work  sharply opposed the Nazi ideology and as a sign of protest against it he even changed his name. The atmosphere of Heartfield's exhibition was at that time completed with a gallows from the wartime Kaunic hall of residence – a real one, not a replica. Where else then pay tribute to the inner strength of humans, victims of the Second World War from the ranks of soldiers and civilians, than in the Baroque Chapel at Špilberk – a place where suffering alternated with relief, fear with hope.

The exhibition will outline the events that took place here, recalling the fates of local prisoners and the conditions in which they were kept. On display there will be artefacts and photographs from the era of Wehrmacht on Špilberk and from the arrival of the Red Army. After many years, also a part of the Heartfield's collection dedicated to Špilberk will be open to the public again.

More on: www.spilberk.cz/vystava/na-starem-brne-kvetly-mandlone/
Venue and time: Špilberk Castle, the Baroque Chapel, 9-17h
Basic admission fee: 50 Kč
Photo: RA-u-děla-na-Špilberku – photo from the exhibition visual