The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation turns fifty
Press release from 07/24/2007
25 July 2007 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the German Bundestag's resolution on the law establishing the Foundation. It contains regulations on the transfer of art and cultural assets (archive, library and museum holdings as well as scientific collections) and the associated properties, which were no longer owned after the dissolution of the State of Prussia. The assets entrusted to it are to be preserved, maintained, supplemented and researched "for the interests of the general public in science and education and for cultural exchange between peoples". In recognition of the special national, nationwide significance of these collections, their coherence is to be preserved and the random fragmentation of the holdings caused by the war is to be eliminated. The structure was federalist from the outset - with the participation of initially some, from 1975 all federal states, and from 1992 also the new federal states - and was based on the predominant federal interest. A legal dispute between the federal government and some of the federal states ended with the ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court on 14 July 1959, which confirmed the constitutionality of the system. Only then, a few weeks after the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, was the Foundation able to begin its work.
Initially, the main task was to bring the cultural assets that had been relocated to Western countries during the war back to Berlin and to refurbish or build new buildings in West Berlin in which they could be housed and made accessible to the public. The most important historical buildings (Museum Island, Staatsbibliothek Unter den Linden) were located in the east of the divided city. New cultural centres had to be created in the west. The stages are: the expansion of the Dahlem museum complex, the co-design of the Kulturforum with the Neue Nationalgalerie (1968), the Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut (1977), the Staatsbibliothek (1978), the Musikinstrumenten-Museum (1984) and the Museums of European Art (from 1985), then the centre around Charlottenburg Palace with the archaeological collections and the Galerie der Romantik (1986).
Reunification had the greatest impact on the dynamics of development. The unification treaty between the two German states stipulated that the eastern collections and buildings previously administered by the GDR would be transferred to the Foundation - initially on a provisional basis. The next steps were the accession of the new federal states to the Foundation's financing agreement (1992) and the agreement on a new, open-ended agreement on financing by the federal government and all sixteen federal states (1996). In addition to the institutional merger, the task now was to design and realise clearly profiled museum quarters with the museums and the merged collections, a task that still defines the work of the Foundation today. Essentially, these are: the Museum Island (Unesco World Heritage Site since 1999) with the art and culture of Europe from its roots to the 19th century, then the Humboldt Forum on the Schlossplatz with non-European cultures and the Kulturforum as a place of modernity and a centre for fashion and design. A coherent concept for a library in two buildings is to be realised for the State Library. All of this is linked to an extensive building programme involving the renovation, restoration and technical refurbishment of historic buildings (in particular Museum Island, Staatsbibliothek Unter den Linden) and the construction of new buildings (James Simon Gallery, Museumshöfe, Speicherstadt Friedrichshagen). In addition, the collections are to be further expanded, especially with regard to contemporary art and culture (Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart, Museum für Fotografie).
International collaborations and sensational exhibitions, which are grouped under the Foundation's Metropolitan Programme, are increasingly strengthening Germany's cultural presence abroad ("faRAón" in Mexico City, "Visions of the Divine" in Tokyo and Kobe, "Deuses Gregos" in São Paulo, "Solidarność 1830" in Warsaw). With the Federal Programme, in turn, the Foundation is intensifying its cooperation with institutions in the individual federal states (long-term loans, fully curated exhibitions, branch galleries). In all of this, academic expertise based on research into the collections is of central importance. This is the source of the dynamism and informative value that is crucial for educational and mediation work.
Five institutions are brought together under the umbrella of the Foundation: the National Museums in Berlin, the Berlin State Library, the Secret State Archives of Prussian Cultural Heritage, the Ibero-American Institute and the State Institute for Music Research with the Museum of Musical Instruments. They form a collection cosmos of visual and textual culture that ranges from the origins of cultural development to contemporary art and encompasses all regions of the world. Today, the foundation is one of the largest cultural institutions in the world.
Klaus-Dieter Lehmann explains: "The eventful history of the Foundation has shown what a sustainable basis was created with the law passed fifty years ago. More than ever, the Foundation's nationwide orientation is a model for the future."