More Than Hessian Mercenaries and Elvis

About this event

The exhibition digs past the familiar image of Hessian soldiers fighting for the British crown and instead traces a much richer web of transatlantic exchange. Across 12 illuminated double-sided panels, 24 stories introduce individuals and companies that shaped the relationship between Hesse and America over centuries. You encounter Franz Daniel Pastorius, who founded Germantown, Pennsylvania in 1683, and whose circle drafted the first written anti-slavery petition in the North American colonies in 1688. There is Christopher Ludwick, a baker's son from Giessen who built a gingerbread empire in Philadelphia and became a friend of George Washington. The show also follows lesser-known emigrant groups like the Giessen Emigration Society, which aimed to establish a democratic German state in Missouri. Economic, political, and cultural entanglements are made tangible through specific biographies — from furniture maker Daniel Pabst to Buffalo Bill's guest appearances in Hesse and the Taunus mineral water once exported to America. While the exhibition deliberately moves beyond the two title icons, the graphic designer has woven Hessian mercenaries and Elvis Presley — who lived in Bad Nauheim during his military service — into every panel as subtle visual motifs, a reminder that even the most famous stories are part of a far larger picture.

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