The large hanging with a cyclamen flower, designed by the sculptor Hermann Obrist and embroidered with gold silk on blue-green woolen fabric by Berthe Ruchet around 1895, then published in Pan, was one of the most important objects of the early Munich Jugendstil. The embroidery arouses in the beholder a strong sense of movement and was thus referred to as “whiplash”. The article investigates the meaning and possible interpretations of this 'movement', drawing on the artistic theory and practice of Hermann Obrist in their intellectual context.