At home with the Hecks
The house Heck from Friedensdorf is home to a permanent exhibition presenting the life of a carpenter’s family around 1840. At that time, master carpenter Johannes Heck lived in the house together with his wife Elisabeth and their sons Johann Ludwig and Georg, and probably also maidservants and farmhands. His trademark was a large, brightly painted tin figure of a soldier on horseback, which he inserted into the front of the furniture like an inlay.
The exhibition delves into many questions about the everyday life of villagers in the mid-19th century and also offers detailed information on the Heck’s living and housing situation. How did a carpenter work in 1840, what tools were available? What was it like living together in such a house? Was there running water, a bath, a toilet? The museum provides answers largely without the use of text panels, rather letting pictures speak for themselves. In videos, actors directly address the visitors. Throughout the exhibition, sound installations and flashing yellow objects encourage interaction and give an insight into the life of the carpenter family. The family picture in the living room, for example: In addition to Johannes, Elisabeth, Johann Ludwig and Georg, many other children are present, as well as a woman holding a child in her arms. Gently outlined as silhouettes, these additional figures represent deceased members of the family. The woman is Magdalena, Johannes’ first wife, who died giving birth to her fifth child, a little boy. Elisabeth gave birth to nine children – none of whom lived longer than two years. Unlike a text, which is rarely read, the family picture impressively illustrates the high mortality of women in childbed and that of newborn children. Actual biographical data of the Heck family found in archives form the basis of the museum’s presentation.
Throughout the house the museum tells stories based on its research. A room-sized picture book forms the exhibition’s showpiece. In a darkened “theater room” visitors can turn its pages and let themselves be whisked away into Johannes Heck’s thought world. In addition to its illustrations, house Heck is also furnished with original objects, as befits a museum, supplemented by reconstructions if original artefacts are no longer available.