With more than 109 million visits in 2006, interest in museums and exhibition centres remains high
Press release from 12/21/2007
The Institute for Museum Research at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Preußischer Kulturbesitz has statistically analysed the visitor figures collected at museums throughout Germany as well as other data for 2006 and published them in a publication. Museums in Germany recorded a total of 102,645,078 visits last year. Compared to 2005, the number of visits increased by 1,238,272 visits (1.2 per cent) (2005: 101,406,806 visits). This demonstrates the unbroken interest in the many small museums (more than half with fewer than 5,000 visits per year) and the 200 or so large museums with more than 100,000 visits per year.
A slight upward trend in the number of visitors to museums in Germany has been observed since 1990. An assessment of the reasons for this can only be given from the perspective of the individual museum. The number of museums themselves has also grown steadily since 1990. This makes it clear that museums play a decisive role in the increasing importance of culture in society.
Exhibition centres that do not have their own collections but predominantly present non-commercial exhibitions of a museum nature also took part in the 2006 survey: Out of 496 exhibition houses, 352 exhibition houses reported a total of 7,056,912 visits for 2006 (compared to 6,924,337 in 2005). This figure is not included in the total number of museum visits.
Museums and exhibition centres together therefore had 109,701,990 visits in 2006, meaning that the total number of visits to museums and exhibition centres in Germany increased slightly in 2006 compared to the previous year.
At 9,198, the number of special exhibitions reported by museums in 2006 was 166 exhibitions lower than in the comparable year 2005. 35 per cent of all special exhibitions shown by museums were art exhibitions. The exhibition centres reported 1,956 exhibitions, 89 percent of which were art exhibitions.
The year 2008 is marked by intercultural dialogue, which is why the topic is addressed in the current overall statistical survey: a total of 1180 museums stated that they will have offers for foreign citizens.
In addition to the annually published data on visitor numbers, types of museum and sponsorship, the overall survey includes an extensive chapter on the collections in German museums and the status of their digitisation, which is becoming increasingly important in the European context.
Prof Dr h.c. Klaus-Dieter Lehmann
President
Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
Dr Michael Eissenhauer
President
German Museums Association
The 96-page publication of the results "Statistische Gesamterhebung an den Museen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland für das Jahr 2006" in the series "Materialien aus dem Institut für Museumsforschung", Issue 61 (2007) can be downloaded from the website or requested free of charge as a printed publication: Institut für Museumsforschung, In der Halde 1, 14195 Berlin, Tel.: 030/8301-460, Fax: 030/8301-504.
Press contact:
Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
Dr Stefanie Heinlein
Tel.: (030) 25463-206, Fax: -268
E-mail
German Museums Association
Mechtild Kronenberg
Tel.: (030) 841095 17, Fax: - 19
E-mail
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