Staging Technology: The International Electrotechnical Exhibition in Frankfurt am Main, 1891

The 1891 International Electrotechnical Exhibition in Frankfurt am Main displayed a wide range of technological inventions and advancements from around the world. Inspired by the big world fairs, organisers staged spectacular arrangements of exhibits and technological inventions combined with theatrical entertainment. This article will take as its focus a specific performative aspect of a water spectacle, called ‘Tatzelwurm’ – a fantastical environment inspired by the poem ‘Zum feurigen Tatzelwurm’ by German novelist Joseph von Scheffel, which was dedicated to a Bavarian tavern on top of a waterfall. Repurposed to depict the power of steam engines within the context of the Electrotechnical Exhibition, this tavern was built on an artificial rock above an electrically powered waterfall. Besides the interplay between new inventions and theatricality in the nineteenth century, the article focuses on the ecology of this scenery. The exhibition actually cost more money to build than it ever earned back in visitor revenue. Using Alfons Paquet's concept of Schauwert (value of aesthetic experience) and Joseph Pine/James Gilmore's concept of the Experience Economy I will illustrate that theatrical environments produce their own value on aesthetic terms.