MenschenAffen – AffenMenschen

Monkeys are probably the animals with which we most readily identify when it comes to recognising the human in the animal. Nevertheless, they symbolise, as it were, a fear of human degeneration. The special human-animal relationship is the subject of this cultural history. Frank Jacob explains what role apes played in human self-perception and how they were and are understood as humanoid animals, for example as objects in research and popular media. In doing so, he sheds light on a history of relationships that continues to this day, whereby the intensity of this relationship between humans and primates has been redefined again and again over the centuries.