Selux

The Light Museum at Selux
A jour­ney in time into the world of elec­tric lighting in Berlin

Over the years, Berlin has been respon­si­ble for more lights and lan­terns than any other city world­wide. In 1882, the first per­ma­nent elec­tric street lights in the world were erec­ted in Berlin. With the city in the midst of a phase where, due to its role both pre­sen­tly and histo­ri­cally, it is seen as a major centre for inno­va­tion and recon­struc­tion in street lighting and other fields, sen­si­bi­lity for the city’s histo­ri­cal land­scape and respon­si­bi­lity for pro­jects affec­ting its urban space in the future go hand-in-hand.

Since the 1980s, Selux has been deve­lo­ping both fai­th­ful recon­struc­tions of histo­ric lan­terns and new desi­gns, which have cri­ti­cally tran­sfor­med the ideas inhe­rent in histo­ric models into crea­tive, con­tem­po­rary styles. We at Selux are proud to be able to play such an active role in resto­ring the appea­rance of Berlin’s histo­ri­cal centre in such a con­spi­cuous manner.

Proof that histo­ri­cal recon­struc­tions of lan­terns are one of the streng­ths of Selux can be seen from, amongst others, the Har­den­berg lan­terns on the Kur­für­sten­damm and the Witz­le­ben lan­terns in Kreuz­berg and the area around the Schloss Char­lot­ten­burg. Since 1998, Schu­p­mann lan­terns can once again be found lighting up the area in front of the Bran­den­burg Gate and Berlin’s grand bou­le­vard, Unter den Linden.

In deve­lo­ping repli­cas of the ori­gi­nal lan­terns, care was taken at all times to ensure these looked both histo­ri­cally authen­tic and met the high demands of modern lighting tech­no­logy. Selux has deci­ded to dedi­cate an exhi­bi­tion to the histo­ri­cal deve­lo­p­ment of elec­tri­cal lighting focu­sing espe­cially on Berlin. Inte­re­sted visi­tors will be able to view a large number of ori­gi­nal histo­ri­cal lumi­na­ries from the period 1850 – 1914 as well as the clas­si­cal replica lan­terns pro­du­ced by Selux. Amongst the attrac­tions on exhi­bi­tion will be an icon of indu­strial design — Peter Beh­rens’ magni­fi­cent eco­nomy arc lamp (Spar­bo­gen­lampe). We will be delighted to be able to explain the wor­kings of the elec­tric carbon arc lamp based on a demon­stra­tion of a fully-func­tio­ning 120-year-old arc lamp.