Opening Exhibition - "Back to Light"

100 Years of Wall and Ceiling Paintings

Shaping the future - that is the motto of this year's Lamspringer September.

In "unclear times", art has always been an expression of progressive thinking. Art has become and becomes a plaything of the powerful when it comes to unifying society.

For the opening of Lamspringer September 2026, we turn to such a story - the rediscovery of ceiling paintings by Alfred Ehrhardt that were painted over in Nazi Germany in the crypt of the monastery church in Lamspringe.

The story is extraordinary. In 1926/27, Ehrhardt was just 25 years old when he was entrusted with the complete decoration of the crypt with a cutting-edge visual programme - shaped by influences of expressionism and New Objectivity.

Ehrhardt transferred numerous artistic innovations that also reached German church interiors in the 1920s, drawing from a broad repertoire of expressionist and New Objectivity influences. The trust placed in the artist must have been immense, as was the courage for modernity.

This proximity to the avant-garde displeased some Nazis and prompted the Klosterkammer Hannover, renamed under Nazi pressure to "Staatliche Kulturfondsverwaltung", to order the removal of the wall paintings in 1938.

Rediscovered decades later, their restoration was made possible in part through the commitment of the Alfred Ehrhardt Foundation and the support of the Klosterkammer.

We take a look at the work and especially its rescue - a fascinating evening with witnesses and those involved.