The Emergence of Our Relations with the World: Harald Welzer and Hartmut Rosa
11.12.2025, 19:30
As part of the exhibition Anatomy of Fragility, the Frankfurter Kunstverein, in cooperation with S. Fischer Verlag, is hosting a series of events with Harald Welzer: The House of Feelings. A Conversation Series on the Inner Politics of Our Emotions. The four-part series is being held in media partnership with hr2-Kultur.
Much of the political disillusionment, daily irritation, general irritability and diffuse unease emerging in Germany today has to do with the disappearance of those taken-for-granted certainties that for a long time provided the framework for people’s sense of direction and their way of life. This does not take the form of conscious reflection; rather, it amounts to a political structure of feeling—something no longer fits, something feels wrong.
When ingrained habits and a once-taken-for-granted world disappear, people are deeply unsettled without quite knowing why. This underlying feeling shades how reality is perceived, without allowing one to name specific causes and effects or to connect them with one another. When both the complexity and the rapidity of change increase at the same time, the secure grounding of everyday life is gradually eroded.
What arises is a political feeling that seeks affiliation without knowing why. Yet it is precisely this lack of grounding that makes it perfectly susceptible to narratives eager to exploit it.
The four-part discussion series explores the inner politics of feelings from psychological, sociological, political and aesthetic perspectives.
Bodies and emotions are inseparable. In public spaces, bodies are political actors. The Frankfurter Kunstverein has invited Harald Welzer to hold his four-part discussion series Innenpolitik unserer Emotionen (Inner Politics of Our Emotions) as part of the exhibition Anatomy of Fragility – Body Images in Art and Science.
Tickets can be purchased in advance via Eventbrite. The price is €13 (plus booking fee). Special conditions apply for members of the Frankfurter Kunstverein: €5 (plus booking fee). Member tickets can also be purchased on Eventbrite. Please bring your membership card with you on the evening of the event.
The ticket price already includes entry to the exhibition Anatomy of Fragility. Admission to the event is possible between 5:00 pm and 7:10 pm. Please note that after 7:10 pm no further entry will be permitted. Should you arrive later, your seat may be released for sale at the evening box office. In addition, there will be an evening box office, subject to availability. As places are limited, we recommend arriving in good time.
Please note: The event will take place in German.
Harald Welzer, born in 1958, is a social psychologist. He is director of FUTURZWEI. Stiftung Zukunftsfähigkeit and of the Norbert Elias Center for Transformation Design at the Europa-Universität Flensburg. At Fischer Verlage he has published, among others: Täter. Wie aus ganz normalen Menschen Massenmörder werden, Klimakriege. Wofür im 21. Jahrhundert getötet wird, Alles könnte anders sein. Eine Gesellschaftsutopie für freie Menschen, Nachruf auf mich selbst. Die Kultur des Aufhörens and – together with Richard David Precht – Die vierte Gewalt. Wie Mehrheitsmeinung gemacht wird, auch wenn sie keine ist. His books have been published in 21 countries.
Hartmut Rosa, born in 1965 in the Black Forest, has been Professor of General and Theoretical Sociology at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena since 2005 and, since 2013, also Director of the Max-Weber-Kolleg at the University of Erfurt. He received his PhD in 1997 from Humboldt University in Berlin. From 2001 to 2006 he was a visiting professor at the New School for Social Research in New York and at FMSH/EHESS in Paris. He has also been awarded an honorary doctorate by the University for Humanistic Studies in Utrecht. He is co-director of the annual international conference Philosophy and the Social Sciences in Prague and served for many years as Vice President/General Secretary of Research Committee 35 of the International Sociological Association (ISA). From 2008 to 2018, he was co-editor of the international journal Time & Society. Rosa has received numerous awards, including the Tractatus Award and the Paul Watzlawick Ehrenring (Austria), the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz-Preis and the Erich Fromm Preis (Germany), as well as the Annual Rob Rhoads Global Citizenship Education Award 2020 (UCLA). In 2021 he was selected as a distinguished senior fellow of the JQ Young Academy at Goethe University Frankfurt. He also served as patron of La Nuit des Idées 2021, organized by the Institut Français in Paris and held simultaneously in 42 countries. His lectures and books have been translated into more than twenty-five languages. Among his most important publications are Beschleunigung und Entfremdung (2013), Resonanz. Eine Soziologie der Weltbeziehung (2016), and Unverfügbarkeit (2018).
