at the Wetzlar City Museum from 16 November 2025 to 12 April 2026
Exhibition opening: Elsie Kühn-Leitz – A woman, a century
At the Wetzlar City Museum from 16 November 2025 to 12 April 2026
Elsie Kühn-Leitz's life and work reflect the major themes of the past century. Her origins as a member of the Leitz (Leica) family of entrepreneurs in Wetzlar were a starting point and lifelong reference point for her. As the only daughter of entrepreneur Ernst Leitz II, Elsie Kühn-Leitz was privileged. At the same time, she confidently asserted her attitude to life and her convictions in a male-dominated world: she was one of the early generations of women to study law; later, she was one of the women who fought in the resistance against the Nazi regime; one of the great patrons of the arts in post-war Germany; the driving force and ultimately the pioneer of Franco-German friendship; a close friend of Albert Schweitzer and Konrad Adenauer; a traveller to Africa; a secret diplomat and even a talented Leica photographer. In everything she did, she remained the ‘exception’ as a woman, almost everywhere she was ‘alone among men’.
The special exhibition at the City Museum is divided into seven thematic areas dedicated to the different phases of Elsie Kühn-Leitz's life and creative work. In addition to presenting previously unknown archive material from the private archive of the Ernst Leitz Foundation, the Dance Archive in Cologne, the Historical Archive in Wetzlar and the Archive of the Youth Movement in Wickersdorf, the second part of the exhibition introduces Elsie Kühn-Leitz as a talented Leica photographer for the first time.
The special exhibition was created in cooperation with the Ernst Leitz Foundation, Wetzlar and in collaboration with the exhibition curator and documentary filmmaker Eva Rink (Berlin). The exhibition's media partner is the television station Arte..
The exhibition opens Tuesday to Sunday between 11 am and 4 pm and will be accompanied by an extensive supporting programme in cooperation with the following partners in Wetzlar: Ernst Leitz Foundation, Leica Camera AG, Wetzlar Remembers, Schnitzler's Bookshop, Wetzlar Cultural Community, German-French Society, Lower Town Church Support Association, Protestant Parish of Wetzlar, Wetzlar Historical Society.
Radio reports on the exhibition:
24.11.25 – HR2 – In the afternoon: Conversation with journalist and documentary filmmaker Eva Rink
Elsie Kühn-Leitz – A great personality at the Wetzlar City Museum
https://share.deutschlandradio.de/dlf-audiothek-audio-teilen.html?
audio_id=dira_3854F382C34711F07EA548DF3755BF60
16.11.25 – Deutschlandfunk Kultur – Fazit programme
Photographer, lawyer, resistance fighter: Elsie Kühn-Leitz in Wetzlar
https://www.hr2.de/programm/sendezeiten/am-nachmittag,epg-am-
nachmittag-3218.html
