Change in the office of Vice President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
Press release from 12/20/2010
The Board of Trustees of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, chaired by Minister of State for Culture Bernd Neumann, today unanimously elected Prof Dr Günther Schauerte as the new Vice-President of the SPK. Mr Schauerte is currently Deputy Director General of the National Museums in Berlin - Prussian Cultural Heritage. On 1 August 2011, he will succeed Norbert Zimmermann, who has held the post since 1997 and is retiring.
Hermann Parzinger, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, was very pleased with the choice: "Günther Schauerte enjoys the highest national and international reputation. Thanks to his excellent professional qualifications as a cultural and scientific manager, he is ideally equipped for all organisational tasks. He has a global network and many years of management experience."
The Vice President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation is the permanent representative of the President in all his tasks. He is primarily responsible for dealing with specific fundamental issues and matters of political importance relating to the Foundation as a whole. This often includes representation on committees within and outside the Foundation or on special occasions. In addition, the Vice President is involved in defining strategic goals and further developing the structures of the Foundation and its institutions.
Günther Schauerte, born in Fredeburg in 1954, has been Deputy Director General of the National Museums in Berlin since 2002. After studying Classical Archaeology, Ancient History and Pre- and Early History in Münster, he gained his doctorate in 1983. From 1983, he initially worked at the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn and the Römisch-Germanisches Museum Cologne before moving to the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin as a research assistant in 1986. In 2002, he was appointed Deputy Director General of the National Museums in Berlin.
The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation is one of the largest and most important cultural institutions in the world. Established in 1957, 75 per cent of the foundation is funded by the federal government and 25 per cent by the federal states. The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation includes the National Museums in Berlin as well as 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. The Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Minister of State Neumann, is Chairman of the Board of Trustees.