New Yearbook of Prussian Cultural Heritage published
Press release from 01/25/2013
Volume 47 of the Yearbook of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation has just been published. It documents the diverse, high-profile activities of the Foundation and its five institutions in 2011, with a particular focus on the anniversary of the State Library, the Humboldt Forum, classical studies at the SPK and two outstanding acquisitions.
The 350th anniversary of the Berlin State Library was one of the dominant themes in 2011. One highlight was the keynote speech by historian Christopher Clark on the founding year 1661. The Director General of the State Library also explained why reading rooms and printed books will still be necessary in the future, despite advancing technical developments and increasing digitisation.
The first workshop of the International Advisory Board for the Humboldt Forum took place in 2011, during which the concepts of the participating museums were discussed. The workshop report and the concepts can be found in a new section of the yearbook, which will accompany the planning for the Humboldt Forum in the coming years. In it, the director of the Ethnological Museum uses the example of a research project on the Pacific Northwest Coast to describe how representatives of cultures of origin can be included in the conception of the collection presentation. The research findings from the Museum of Asian Art's numerous international collaborations on the Turfan collection are also fundamental for future exhibitions in the Humboldt Forum.
A significant event was the founding of the Berlin College of Antiquity, which emerged from the Cluster of Excellence "TOPOI - The Formation and Transformation of Space and Knowledge in Ancient Civilisations". The SPK's participation in this research network, among others, emphasises its special role as an academic institution that primarily conducts collection-based research and provides complex research infrastructures.
Alexander von Humboldt's address book, which was acquired by the State Library in 2011 and is regarded as a kind of hub in the scholar's extensive correspondence network, also offers new research approaches. Another important new acquisition of the SPK is the "Kleine Klebeband der Fürsten von Waldburg-Wolfegg", an extensive collection of drawings from the 15th to mid-17th century. The "Kleine Klebeband" was purchased jointly with the Augsburg Art Collections and Museums, the Ernst von Siemens Art Foundation and the Free State of Bavaria, supported by the Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States and the Rudolf-August Oetker Foundation for Art, Culture, Science and Monument Preservation.
The SPK is currently involved in numerous construction projects, two of which are presented in the yearbook: the remodelling of the Museum of Decorative Arts at the Kulturforum and the plans for the open spaces on Museum Island Berlin.
At the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, art and cultural education is a topic that is being worked on intensively, as the contribution by the Director General makes clear. Another text sheds light on the role of the museums' former Director General, Wilhelm von Bode, in compiling a catalogue of nationally valuable works of art after the First World War. Another historical and yet highly topical subject is the so-called Berlin sculpture find. The works of "degenerate art" found by chance during archaeological excavations in Berlin were exhibited in the Neues Museum in 2011 and are currently being researched. In a further article, the President of the Foundation presents the complex relationship and mutual influence between archaeology and politics.
Jahrbuch Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Vol. XLVII / 2011, Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 2012; 452 pages with 111 illustrations, 95 of which are in colour. ISBN 978-3-7861-2676-8, ISSN 0342-0124.
Price: €35.00. Review copies are available from Gebr. Mann Verlag: e-mail (Tel.: +49-30-7 00 00 13 88-0; Fax: +49-30-7 00 00 13 88-11).