Stubbornness - this term is used to refer to various layers of rural culture. On the one hand, it refers to the proverbial stubbornness of the peasant, which is devalued as incorrigibility or intransigence. But stubbornness also requires a spirit of resistance. Those who are stubborn do not like to be talked into it by others and claim sovereignty by virtue of their own practice. It is above all the subsistence experiences of rural life in which rural stubbornness shows itself. The word "sense" should not be overlooked either: It refers to the fact that rural practice, at its best, has a high spiritual sufficiency.
While the urban supply societies are usually very willing to adapt to new fashions and language rules, the countryside often behaves unwieldily in the face of the dynamic society. This traditional finding, according to which the world in the countryside comes to an end 100 years later, will be traced in our annual theme using the example of the Oderbruch: in subsistence farming and rural communication, in village nature conservation, in festive culture, in the ability to repair and, of course, in the stubbornness of collecting.
We started the program year with a cancellation: in times of the pandemic, there was no room for a public culture that thrives on personal contact, physical presence, experiencing and speaking together - politically intended. We decided to cancel all events.
We were only able to start the season with the program day "Do-it-yourself in June". The highlight was the "Auction for Special Things" at the Fischerhaus. The auction drew attention to the loving, often stubborn commitment of those people who take care of cultural heritage sites such as village and local museums, churches, special places. With the auction, where drawings made by Johanna Benz were auctioned off by a professional auctioneer, we were able to support six small projects.
In the afternoon, honorary local politicians from the Oderbruch region met and talked about obstinacy in local politics, about the scope and possibilities to set one's own accents - especially at a time when many villages have been merged into larger communities. It also became clear in this round: (Village) stubbornness fertilizes living together, but the common must not be forgotten over the own.
For the program day in July, the exhibition on the annual theme was opened. The day began with the inauguration of the sculpture "Boat of obstinacy" in the park, a disused fishing barge, which, described with words on the thought horizon obstinacy, floats above the landscape. "Buck" is the name we have given it. The word stands for obstinacy in the Oderbruch Platt.
In the park under the trees, a multifaceted conversation developed with our discussion partners about the interactions of stubbornness, community and society. Without self-willed people, society loses knowledge, experience, friction, attention, memory and diversity.
In November, the musical reading "I live here and do my thing" about rural stubbornness in the Oderbruch had its premiere. "People have often rolled their eyes at the Oderbruch people," Kenneth Anders, who arranged the text for the reading, writes in the announcement. "The people from the countryside are stubborn, they say. And indeed, it seems they don't like to be told anything. History also shows: they often complain and grumble against every new regulation. The Oderbruch Museum wanted to know more. In over twenty interviews, a research team has collected the most diverse varieties of rural obstinacy." Jens-Uwe Bogadtke and Kenneth Anders read and sang on the stage in the museum's vaulted cellar, while guitarist and cellist Hannes Buder provided the musical scenery. It was a very successful Friday evening and Saturday morning, with many of our interlocutors on the topic of obstinacy participating and pleasantly exchanging ideas afterwards.
The workshop book on the annual theme, entitled EIGENSINN, has been published by Auflandverlag and is available in the museum store as well as in bookstores.