2016 - News - Detail Page - Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz

Klaus-Dieter Lehmann, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, explains: "The exhibition has been received with tremendous interest. It is wonderful to see how well the objects are presented. As with the well-founded catalogue, the exhibition will provide a great deal of impetus for research. Public attention has been drawn to the still unresolved issue of looted art, as the objects from Berlin stored in Russia are labelled accordingly as agreed and the catalogue reflects the different legal positions in Germany and Russia. I hope the exhibition will provide an impetus to think about the right place for the objects, because it makes it clear how absurd the disjointed nature of the archaeological finds is."

The exhibition offers an unprecedented overview of the cultural and historical development of Merovingian Europe (5th - 8th century AD). It conveys a multi-layered picture of the Migration Period in the area from the Urals to the Atlantic.

Cultures from the Baltic region, the Russian forest-steppe zone, the Balkans and southern, central and western Europe are juxtaposed. For the first time, the diversity and quality of the cultural achievements of the early Middle Ages can be presented in such a comprehensive way. The exhibition, which took just one year to put together, is organised according to cultural regions, with the individual areas being dealt with by designated specialists. The result is a unique cultural-historical presentation of conditions from Western Europe to the Urals and from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, illustrated with magnificent finds relating to the culture of the Huns, Goths, Alans, Elbe Germanic tribes, Alemanni and Bavarians, Franks and Romans, Ostrogoths and Visigoths as well as the Lombards. At the same time, the exhibition allows the Berlin collection on the Migration Period and Merovingian period to be presented to the public for the first time since 1939.

The cooperation project is also unusual because it brings the still unresolved issue of the repatriation of cultural artefacts displaced as a result of the war into the public eye: for the first time, a large, coherent cultural area is being scientifically analysed and presented to the public in a way that is effective for the public, despite the collections having been torn apart. Of the more than 1,300 exhibits, 700 are looted artefacts alone. Most of the objects were considered lost for over sixty years, and numerous pieces had not yet been scientifically analysed. The almost 300 most valuable medieval treasures from the so-called gold boxes, which are stored in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow due to the war, are presented in their entirety. A further 230 works are on temporary loan from the Berlin Museum of Prehistory and Early History, while the rest have been contributed by the State Hermitage Museum and the Moscow State Historical Museum from their own collections. The exhibition represents a new, additional approach to the issue of looted art. The aim is to support negotiations at government level. The exhibition is intended to create transparency, clarification and historical awareness in both Russia and Germany. It was therefore essential for the realisation of the exhibition that all looted art objects in both the exhibition and the catalogue were marked with the addition "Relocated due to war. Until 1945 in the Museum of Prehistory and Early History of the National Museums in Berlin". In this way, the public can see an example of what is hidden behind the term "looted art", which was previously stored in secret depots in Russia without any scientific or restoration treatment and remained hidden from the public.

Equally fundamental, however, is the fact that the objects could finally be identified, restored and reintroduced into the cycle of scientific work as part of the exhibition. This was only possible thanks to the co-operation of the German and Russian experts. It was only thanks to the old inventory lists that the Berliners brought back from their museum that the Berlin objects stored in Russia could be identified.

This constructive cooperation, which can claim to be a model, is also promoted by the "German-Russian Museum Dialogue". This was started in autumn 2005 on the initiative of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and the Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States, involving all museums in Germany affected by the looted art issue. Further German-Russian projects are planned.

The exhibition will also be shown in a second station at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. A presentation here in Germany is not possible, as Germany cannot guarantee the return of some of the exhibits due to its claims of ownership.

Pushkin State Museum, Moscow: 13 March - 13 May 2007
State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg: 20 June - 16 August 2007

The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation contributed financially by assuming the entire costs for the catalogue, supported by the sponsorship of RAG Beteiligungs-AG, Essen. The trilingual exhibition catalogue (German / Russian / English; publisher: Edition Minerva, 591 pages, bookstore edition: 72 euros, museum edition: 45 euros) presents all the exhibits with illustrations and scientific descriptions, as well as the history of the collections and the different legal positions of Germany and Russia on the issue of cultural assets relocated as a result of the war. It can be ordered via the online shop of the National Museums in Berlin.

Background information

The Merovingians

The Merovingian empire heralded the transition to the Western-style Middle Ages. Their dynasty gave its name to the period between late antiquity and the early Middle Ages in Europe. The beginnings of this royal dynasty from the Lower Rhine are shrouded in mystery. Clovis (482-511) founded the Regnum Francorum of the Merovingians. He moved his seat of government to Paris and was later baptised a Catholic in Reims. His kingdom became the integrating force of a multi-ethnic empire in which ancient traditions and pagan-Germanic heritage mingled. The almost 330-year reign of the Merovingians ended in 751 with the deposition of Childeric III by the Carolingians. The exhibition aims to provide an exemplary presentation of the historical and archaeological contexts.

Preparation of the exhibition

While an exhibition with the provocative title "Archaeology of War - Return from Nothing" was opened in the Pushkin Museum in April 2005 and was organised without the knowledge and involvement of the German museums, the cooperation for the preparation of the Merovingian exhibition turned out to be completely different. After the aforementioned exhibition had initially caused irritation on the German side, a "new beginning of relations in an open atmosphere of partnership" was agreed between the State Museums of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and the Pushkin Museum in Moscow in July 2005. For the first time, the Berlin scientists were also granted access to previously closed depots.

As a result of the agreement, a first conference of museum experts from Moscow and Berlin took place in Moscow in October 2005. In connection with the conference, visits were again organised for the Berlin scientists to previously secret depots. At the time, Klaus-Dieter Lehmann, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, commented on the constructive and friendly atmosphere: "There are opportunities in the concrete cooperation between the experts that we should utilise in order to achieve clarification, mutual respect and understanding. It remains crucial that we uphold the claims for the return of the looted art and reintegration into the original collection context."

The organisation of the Merovingian exhibition was also driven forward in this climate. Following a working meeting in Moscow at the end of January 2006, the representatives of the participating institutions met again in Berlin in April 2006. As part of the preparations for the exhibition, German scientists were again given access to the Russian depots. Together with their Russian colleagues and with the help of the old Berlin inventories, they identified the objects and analysed them scientifically. This has shown that scientists can close gaps in research and open up completely new aspects of migration from the period between Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, particularly in Eastern Europe.

German-Russian Museum Dialogue Initiative

On 8 November 2005, around seventy museum experts from German museums affected by the issue of looted art came together for a plenary meeting in Berlin. The results of the symposium were reflected in a joint vote. The work of the "German-Russian Museum Dialogue Initiative" working group formed at the conference will be guided by the objectives formulated there. It is a new approach aimed at pooling the interests of the institutions concerned and representing them both internally and externally. In addition, this group will also initiate and coordinate concrete, forward-looking steps with Russian colleagues.

Firstly, the aim is to obtain more information from Germany about the collections available in Russia. It is crucial that German academics gain access to previously closed repositories and corresponding archive materials in Russia so that the old holdings can be localised and corresponding brief inventories can be compiled. In addition, the unsatisfactory status quo is to be publicised through effective means. For example, the museums intend to make the treasures accessible through exhibitions organised jointly with Russian museums and to bring them out of the darkness of the Russian secret repositories into the public eye. The first example of this co-operation is the Merovingian exhibition. Based on their professional mandate to protect and care for the cultural assets originally entrusted to them, the museums also intend to contribute to the preservation, conservation and restoration of the collections through the exchange of knowledge in co-operation with the Russian museums. A further aim is to contribute to education in general and to develop and expand the professional relationship with the Russian museums. Longer working visits for young Russian scientists to German museums and vice versa are to be made possible. In addition, the scientific reappraisal of the art and cultural assets that were relocated as a result of the war and the restitution by the Soviet Union to the GDR in the 1950s is to be intensified.

The museums' initiative aims to support and promote the positions of the Federal Government, which is in negotiations with Russia, from a professional perspective. It is crucial to raise public awareness of the problem both in Germany and in Russia and to draw attention to the explosive nature of the topic more effectively than before.

The Museum of Prehistory and Early History of the National Museums in Berlin - Prussian Cultural Heritage

The Museum of Prehistory and Early History in Berlin has one of the largest supra-regional collections on the archaeology of the ancient world. The display collection offers an overview of cultural history from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages based on artefacts from all over Europe and parts of Asia. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Berlin Museum of Prehistory and Early History was one of the three most important prehistoric collections in the world. The Second World War put an end to this splendour and resulted in painful losses. All the gold and precious metal finds were taken to Russia as spoils of war in 1945, where they are still stored in secret depots today. After completion of the Neues Museum in 2009, the Berlin Museum of Prehistory and Early History will move to the Museum Island.

The Museum of Prehistory and Early History and the Second World War

With its collection of more than 180,000 finds from all over Europe and neighbouring regions, the Museum of Prehistory and Early History was one of the most important and extensive prehistoric collections in the world until the beginning of the Second World War. Even before the war began, the museums were preparing for security measures. In 1934, the holdings of the Museum of Prehistory and Early History were categorised into three value groups: 1. irreplaceable, 2. most valuable, 3. miscellaneous. With the closure of the display collection in 1939, the packing of the "irreplaceable" and "most valuable" items into three "gold boxes" and 30 carrying cases began. In the course of the removals from 1941 onwards, these items were first taken to the Prussian State Bank and then, from November 1941, to the Flak Tower at the Zoo. Parts of the collection were transferred to other storage locations, but a small part, especially the jewellery in the three gold boxes, remained intact in the Flak Tower at the Zoo until the end of the war.

This anti-aircraft bunker was captured by the Red Army at the beginning of May 1945. The removal of the first works of art by the Russian trophy brigades began in May. The anti-aircraft bunker at the zoo was completely cleared. In addition to the gold collections (treasures from the Merovingian period, artefacts from Troy and Eberswalde), the Pergamon Frieze was one of the items taken to Moscow and Leningrad.

Some of the war booty taken to the Soviet Union was returned to Berlin and Dresden in 1958 as part of a restitution programme, including the Pergamon Frieze. In line with the propaganda of the time, it was assumed that all of the collection items confiscated by the victorious powers had been returned home. Like many things, the three "gold boxes" remained missing and nobody believed that these treasures would reappear.

At the beginning of the 1990s, however, it became known that large quantities of German museum artefacts were still stored in the Soviet Union that had not been included in the 1958 restitution action. To date, the Museum of Prehistory and Early History has located around 11,500 objects from its pre-war collection in Russian museums. Numerous artefacts from the other collections of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation are also believed to be in the CIS states and in Poland or can be proven to be there.

Loot art

For fifteen years, Germany and Russia have been negotiating over the so-called "looted art" - German art and cultural artefacts that were removed as a result of the war. Among the goods removed in 1945 were the collections of gold (treasures from the Merovingian period, the finds from Troy and Eberswalde) and the Pergamon frieze. The frieze panels from the Pergamon Altar are now back in Berlin and are among the biggest attractions in the museums, while the gold artefacts are still in Russia.

After the Peace and Neighbourhood Treaty of 1990 and the Cultural Agreement of 1992, no real progress was made, although the return of cultural property was explicitly included in the treaty. Instead, by passing the so-called "looted art law" in 1998, Russia declared the art and cultural assets taken from German public institutions during the war to be Russian state property, thereby effectively formulating an expropriation law that violates both the Hague Convention of 1907 and the agreements and treaties between Germany and Russia of 1990 and 1992 that are binding under international law. Reparations through the confiscation of cultural property are not permitted under international law. The Allied Control Council did not authorise the Soviet Union to pay compensation.

Petersburg dialogue

Since 2001, Klaus-Dieter Lehmann, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, together with Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky, Director of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, has headed the Culture Working Group of the Petersburg Dialogue. This was established on the initiative of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the then German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder as an open and broad-based discussion forum and takes place once a year, alternating between Germany and Russia. The Petersburg Dialogue aims to promote understanding between the two nations, deepen cooperation in all areas of society, counteract prejudices in the perception of the other country and thus give new impetus to German-Russian relations.

The Culture Working Group of the Petersburg Dialogue encourages exhibitions and exchange programmes, but also discusses controversial issues in German-Russian relations, such as the return of cultural assets displaced as a result of the war. It is crucial to familiarise oneself with and understand the positions, hopes and expectations of the other side.