On Rescue Bells, Tongue-Pulling Devices, and Morgues—An Insightful Journey Through Time with the Poet Friederike Kempner (1828–1904)
She is a young lady and has been one her entire life. Some people have mocked her because of her unintentional humor, while others have respected her dedication to social welfare, her fight against anti-Semitism, and her experience of apparent death. The Silesian poet Friederike Kempner (1828–1904) stood out as a role model at a time when people were gripped by the fear of being buried alive.
Now, for the first time, she reports live on her era, her endeavors, and the innovations that this fear gave rise to. Doctors, physicists, and natural scientists joined forces to put an end to apparent death by bringing wild inventions to market designed to better determine death or to rescue people from the grave.
But how or from what did this fear arise? And what does the advent of electricity have to do with it? Why were tongue-pulling devices and nipple-pinching forceps needed? What do Hans Christian Andersen, Bertolt Brecht, Alfred Nobel, and Dostoevsky have in common, and what does a mortuary attendant do?
All these questions will be answered during this distinguished event.
