New Yearbook of Prussian Cultural Heritage published
Press release from 10/21/2010
The 45th volume of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Yearbook is, for once, a double volume. It looks back on the years 2008 and 2009, the first two years in office of the new Foundation President Hermann Parzinger.
The wealth of outstanding events during this period is reflected in the strength of the documentation section of the yearbook: for example, the opening of "Surreal Worlds", the presentation of the Scharf-Gerstenberg Collection in the eastern Stüler Building in Charlottenburg, the change in the office of Director General of the National Museums in Berlin from Peter-Klaus Schuster to Michael Eissenhauer, the handover of the keys to the Neues Museum on Museum Island Berlin and the ceremony to mark its reopening. The significance of this day was emphasised by the presence of Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose speech can be read in the yearbook.
The speech by Federal President Horst Köhler on the occasion of the opening of the exhibition "Coming to the world differently: The Humboldt Forum in the Palace. A workshop view". An article by Hermann Parzinger places the subject of the palace reconstruction in a wider context.
Finally, the yearbook also documents events such as "Taking Responsibility", a conference on the subject of cultural property seized as a result of Nazi persecution, and "Loss + Restitution", where former German President Richard von Weizsäcker and former Soviet Union Ambassador Valentin Falin, among others, spoke on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the repatriation of cultural property from the Soviet Union.
Under the heading "Research - Planning - Reflections", the yearbook offers further insights into the work of the individual foundation organisations: Bernhard Maaz, long-time director of the Alte Nationalgalerie, describes the more recent practice of recovering the holdings of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. One example is the painting by Carl Blechen, "Road to Castel Gandolfo", which was thought to have been lost during the war for decades and has now reappeared on the art market. The Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin reports on the initial results of the "Reichstauschstelle" research project, which deals with the confiscation of books during the Nazi era and the role of the Prussian State Library in this context, as well as the world's largest collection of original manuscripts by J. S. Bach and the fate of the library's manuscript holdings during and after the Second World War. Under the title "Images of Germany - Images of Latin America. The two German states and Latin America (1949-1990)", one of the central themes of the Ibero-American Institute in 2009 will be addressed.
Another text focuses on Mies van der Rohe's Neue Nationalgalerie, which has become an architectural icon. A contemporary witness report traces the post-war history of the Berlin Museum of Decorative Arts, while another article highlights the achievements of the former director of the Gemäldegalerie Max J. Friedländer for the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.
Finally, the "New Acquisitions" section looks at two generous donations from private collectors: Friedrich Christian Flick donated 166 works of contemporary art to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation for the Nationalgalerie, and Klaus F. Naumann gave the Museum of Asian Art the most significant acquisition in the field of Japanese art for almost a hundred years.
In addition to the individual contributions mentioned above, the President's Report, the annual chronicle and the overview of publications and exhibitions provide an overview of the two foundation years 2008 and 2009.
Jahrbuch Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Vol. XLV / 2008/2009, Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 2010; 620 pages, 132 illustrations, 94 of which are in colour. ISBN 978-3-7861-2609-6, ISSN 0342-0124, price: 35 €. Review copies are available from Gebr. Mann Verlag: ischulze@reimer-verlag.de (Tel.: +49-30-7 00 13 88-32; Fax: +49-30-7 00 13 88-11).