Newly published: Yearbook of Prussian Cultural Heritage reports on the work of the Foundation and looks to the future
Press release from 12/23/2008
The 44th volume of the yearbook reports on outstanding events and developments in 2007, including the ceremony marking the fiftieth anniversary of the foundation's founding, with a speech by Federal President Horst Köhler. This volume also contains the speeches on the occasion of the change in the office of President of the Foundation.
The yearbook also reflects the great diversity of the SPK's collections and themes as well as its building activities. Progress on the Museum Island is documented: one text is dedicated to the restoration of the Market Gate of Miletus, which can now be seen again without scaffolding. The directors of the Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection and the Museum of Prehistory and Early History present their exhibition plans for the Neues Museum, which will be renovated, extended and refurbished and opened to the public in autumn 2009. Also looking to the future are the contributions on the museums' depot building, which will be erected in Berlin-Friedrichshagen, and on the scientific-restoration competence centre, which is to be completed by 2012 on the Museumshöfe opposite the Museum Island. Hermann Parzinger dedicates an obituary to the architect O.M. Ungers, who died in 2007 and according to whose plans the Pergamon Museum will be renovated and given a fourth wing. The architect Fritz Bornemann, who shaped the exhibition design of the Dahlem museums in the 1960s and 1970s, is also honoured. A further text describes the status of construction work at the three locations of the State Library - Unter den Linden, where the topping-out ceremony for the new reading room was celebrated in February 2008, in the Potsdamer Straße building and in Friedrichshagen, where a library storage building is also being built.
As the new president, Hermann Parzinger is represented with several contributions: His speech at the opening of the exhibition "Under the Sign of the Golden Griffin. Royal Tombs of the Scythians", which the DAI organised together with the Museum of Prehistory and Early History in 2007. The speech by Federal Foreign Minister Steinmeier is also reproduced. In the lecture "Perspectives through research", Parzinger already referred to one of his future focal topics at the Foundation in 2007. He also comments on the Humboldt Forum, the major project of the coming years, in the yearbook.
Further texts show the breadth of the Foundation's activities: from the Federal Programme, illustrated by the example of the cooperation between the Museum of European Cultures and the Heiligengrabe Monastery, to the indexing of bequests for research at the Ibero-American Institute and the digitisation of cultural assets and their availability on online portals. Two contributions from the Secret State Archives PK illustrate how exciting working with files and archives can be. And finally, important new acquisitions are presented - a guitar collection for the Musical Instrument Museum and a generous donation of 17th and 18th century Dutch prints for the Museum of Prints and Drawings. Comprehensive information about the Foundation's year 2007 is provided by the President's report, the annual chronicle and the exhibition overview in addition to the individual contributions mentioned above.
Jahrbuch Preußischer Kulturbesitz Vol. XLIV / 2007, Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 2008; 440 pages, 106 illustrations, 64 of which are in colour. ISBN 978-3-7861-2581-5, ISSN 0342-0124. price: 25 €.