Schmetterlinge

Butterflies are among the most likeable creatures in the animal kingdom. They are indispensable for nature anyway. Among them there are long-distance runners, drunkards, impostors and even "talking" specimens. With spectacular photographs, nature photographer Ingo Arndt opens up amazing worlds and reveals many a secret from the world of butterflies. Together with his wife Silke, Ingo Arndt goes on photo expeditions all over the world and realises fascinating book, reportage and exhibition projects, for which he has received many awards.
The work of Johann Brandstetter, an artist from Neuötting, brings to mind Humboldt's inventories of his expeditions or the explorer and draughtswoman Sibylla Merian. With filigree drawings, he presents the beauty of butterflies, draws them in their habitats and with their food plants. In this way, Brandstetter visualises complex ecosystems and impressively combines art and biology. Mostly created after precisely documented journeys, his pictures depict the larger interrelationships of nature - and its threats.

One of the most species-rich and widespread animals is also present in mythology, art and literature. A cabinet has been set up for collecting, researching and writing poetry, in which Vladimir Nabokov, Hermann Hesse and Wilhelm Busch are gathered, as well as the Bohlsbacher-born Lorenz Oken, an absolute explorer great of the 19th century and eponym of Offenburg's Oken Gymnasium.