Can silence be captured artistically without being disrupted by the very act of creation? Under the title “Silence/Stille/Schweigen”, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU) is presenting a selection of works from its art collection from 10 to 12 April 2026, including pieces by Käthe Kollwitz, Sylvia Hegewald and Konrad Knebel. The exhibition is complemented by contemporary works by British and Berlin-based artists such as Tom Hammick (UK) and Sylee Gore (Berlin). The project was curated by Prof. Kate McLoughlin, University of Oxford, Dr Christina Kuhli, Head of the HU Art Collection, and Prof. Gesa Stedman, Director of the HU Centre for British Studies (GBZ).
The exhibition will open on 9 April 2026 with the launch of the book “Silence. A Literary History” and a lecture by the author, Prof. Kate McLoughlin. The literary scholar thus presents the first literary history of silence. On 11 April, visitors will also have the opportunity to actively explore the theme in accompanying workshops. All events will take place at the Berlin Museum of Medical History, Virchowweg 16, 10117 Berlin.
“Silence. A Literary History”
Kate McLoughlin is a professor of English literature at the University of Oxford. In her book “Silence. A Literary History” (OUP 2026), she looks back over twelve centuries of English literature to explore the power and possibilities of silence. In her book, she demonstrates how silence is described in exile on icy seas, in Anglo-Saxon poetry, and in the search for silence in the modern age of beeping sounds. McLoughlin explores blissful unions with the divine and nature, the silence of intimacy, literary epics of mourning, the failure of words in the face of war, and silence as a form of protest. She examines the ways in which authors create silence through words, including the silence in Shakespeare and in the works of medieval poets who expressed complex theological concepts through lullabies. Kate McLoughlin’s publications include ‘Authoring War: The Literary Representation of War from the Iliad to Iraq’ and ‘Veteran Poetics: British Literature in the Age of Mass Warfare, 1790–2015’. She has also edited ‘The Cambridge Companion to War Writing’.
Book launch: “Silence. A Literary History”
with Prof. Kate McLoughlin, Linacre College, University of Oxford
When: 9 April 2026, 6.30 pm
Where: Berlin Museum of the History of Medicine, Virchowweg 16, 10117 Berlin
Exhibition “Silence/Stille/Schweigen”
When: 10 April 2026 to 12 April 2026, Friday and Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm, Saturday, 10 am to 7 pm
Where: Berlin Museum of the History of Medicine, Virchowweg 16, 10117 Berlin
Art workshop and creative writing workshop on the theme of silence and stillness
When: 11 April 2026, 11 am
Where: Berlin Museum of the History of Medicine, Virchowweg 16, 10117 Berlin
No registration required. The workshops are free of charge.
Registration and programme
Seating in the lecture theatre ruins is limited. Registration is therefore required at: events.gbz☞ Please insert an @ at this point ☜hu-berlin☞ Please insert a period at this pointde.
Admission is free for the opening. For visits to the exhibition on subsequent days via the entrance to the Museum of the History of Medicine, standard admission prices apply. The book launch and the writing workshop will be held in English; the art workshop will be held in German and English.