Elective affinity – this term for chemical processes was coined by the Swede Torbern Bergman. The term was taken up in 1809 by Goethe in his novel ›The Elective Affinities‹ and has since been associated with human and cultural sympathies and aversions. These are the subject matter of the exhibition: the 19th century encounters between Denmark, Norway and Sweden on the one hand and Germany on the other.   The aftermath of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars saw a search throughout Europe for separate national and cultural identities. In Germany, people believed they had discovered ›Germanic culture‹ in Norse mythology and literature, resulting in the notion of a cultural community with the North. At the same time, the Scandinavians felt an affinity with German culture.