Headscarves, Pussyhats and yarmulkes: Stories on our heads

As the Muslim headscarf ban in France has shown, head coverings have long provoked controversy — and have also marked out religious minorities for attack. While a Jewish man wearing a traditional yarmulke head covering might be scared of walking down the street, Muslim teachers who choose to wear a headscarf in Austria are now banned from working in schools, or in the German state of Bavaria cannot work as a judge. 

But as revealed a new exhibition in Stuttgart, Hats off! Spiked Helmet, Pussyhat and Stories on our Head, controversies about the way people choose to cover their heads is nothing new.

Read more: Austria bans Muslim headscarf in primary schools

"Head coverings reveal history and tell stories," said Paula Lutum Lenger, the director of the Stuttgart' House of History Baden-Württemberg. "Our exhibition is about power, order and insurgency, tradition, revolution and religion."

The initial part of the show features the controversy over head scarves. "The head scarf is a multifaceted symbol," says curator Sebastian Dörfler. "Some Muslim women see it as a symbol of repression and consciously reject it. Others who wear it see it as a part of their religion and their persona."

Dörfler and his co-curator Immo Wagner-Douglas have included, among other items, a headscarf owned by the teacher Fereshta Ludin. She fought to be allowed to wear such religious symbols while teaching, but lost her case before the German Constitutional Court in 2003.

The headscarves worn by traditional Christians also feature in the exhibition that includes four display cases illuminated like store windows to illustrate various types of headwear. Each of the huge variety of hats, caps and helmets has quite a different intention: The spiked cap exemplifies power; the 1920s cloche is chic; the top hat classy, and the pink Pussyhat has become a symbol of protest against misogyny in the era of Donald Trump — who was recorded saying that women would let him "grab them by the pussy." For men, wearing a hat in public was a must until the late 1960s.

'Clothing is language'

The exhibition showcases examples of headgear from an era when an outfit simply wasn't complete without a hat. There are hats once worn by poet Friedrich Schiller; the inventor of the hot air balloon Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin; and Theodor Heuss, Germany first postwar democratic president.

Read more: German state plans to ban religious symbols from courts

Then there is the tragic story behind the caps a fraternity kept for a long time — their owners were young men who died in WWI. Two military helmets on display have bullets stuck in them.

The exhibition also shines a light on headgear that has been under debate in some parts of the world. "Clothing is language," says curator Schaller, warning that people should not judge others just because of their headwear.

Hats off! Spiked Helmet, Pussyhat and Stories on our Head runs until August 2, 2020 at the House of History, Baden-Württemberg in Stuttgart.