In the former palace kitchen of Weikersheim Palace an exhibition leads to the far-away world of a lost science. Visitors will become acquainted with Count Wolfgang II von Hohenlohe and his alchemistic laboratory. Reconstructed laboratory equipment, a large laboratory model and magnificent reproduced volumes from the Count's lost library give an inkling of the fascination of the natural sciences at the beginning of the modern age in the special atmosphere of the exhibition rooms.
The search for the "Philosopher's Stone" and intensive attempts to make non-precious ores into pure gold occupied the alchemists in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. However the focus of alchemy, the predecessor of modern chemistry and pharmacy, was on the universal scientific occupation with chemical substances. Attempts were made to research their properties and compounds, and to examine the imagined relationships between the celestial bodies and the earth, which supposedly expressed itself in metals.
Count Wolfgang II von Hohenlohe (1546-1610) received a comprehensive education at the University of Tübingen, and during extensive travels and at European princely courts. He reigned for 42 years in Hohenlohe. During this time he reformed his country, built the renaissance palace in Weikersheim, promoted the arts and passionately practiced alchemy, as did other European sovereigns in the search for power and influence. His knowledge and experience in this area were famous, and the Duke of Württemberg referred to him in a letter as the "...gutten Probirer des Ertztes" (good trier of ore).
A great deal is known about the alchemistic activity of Count Wolfgang, as an unusual wealth of evidence of his work has been preserved. Historical sources made it possible to reproduce his laboratory including two chemical furnaces and to reconstruct the extensive library. Even the notes written by the researching Count himself on his experiments have been preserved in a calendar along with lists of orders for chemical and tasks to be carried out for building the laboratory.
The exhibition "Alchemy in Weikersheim" can be visited in the former palace kitchen during the opening hours of Weikersheim Palace.