Blumen

"Rest gently, little aster," "Oh you, behold, wave of stock" or "Take away the amaryllis" - in every third poem by Benn, there is a reference to flowers and blossoms. Some carry the flower in the title, others in the rhyme. Here, the bloom serves as ornamentation, there as a metaphor, and sometimes as a signal of a mood or emotional state. They are the surest sign of the transition from cynicism to elegy, from sarcasm to unrestrained melancholy. Thomas Florschuetz and Durs Grünbein have made a selection from this wealth. Thomas Florschuetz, one of the outstanding representatives of internationally highly regarded German photography, places his own images of blossoms and fruits alongside Benn's poems. Durs Grünbein accompanies the selection with an afterword and a poem.