Why don't you go over there! The new SPK magazine is dedicated to the reunification of the Berlin collections 25 years ago and the people who were there
Press release from 01/13/2016
The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation looks back on a quarter of a century of its reunited collections. Between 1991 and 1992, the libraries, archives and museums brought together what had been divided for four and a half decades. To mark the anniversary, the SPK magazine tells the story of the reunification process from 25 perspectives: People who were there at the time have their say in 25 articles: from restorers to museum directors, from East and West alike.
SPK President Hermann Parzinger writes in the editorial: "25 people tell the stories they experienced a quarter of a century ago, whether in Mitte or Charlottenburg, Dahlem or Köpenick. These are stories of upheaval and relocation, of promise and doubt, of self-assertion and compromise. We look back on lofty plans and sober strategies, on a time in which the intellectual architecture of Berlin's cultural landscape was initialled, which is still a challenge for us today."
In the conversations conducted by Kristina Heizmann, Ingolf Kern and the Berlin writer Andreas Schäfer, among others, the whole dimension of the history of unification shines through. After years of forbidden contact between East and West, the moment came on 9 November 1989 to see the divided collections again in each half of the city, the romantic phase was followed by a realistic phase in which people argued, planned and packed up. It was also a logistical multi-fight: depots, archives and exhibition venues were relocated, objects moved from East to West - and vice versa. Files from the Secret State Archives returned from Merseburg on a goods train, in Köpenick employees of the Museum of Decorative Arts fought for their castle and in the Picture Gallery they longed for a move to the Museum Island. The booklet reports on all these scenes of unity.
The 25 protagonists were photographed by Berlin photographer Werner Amann during a three-day shoot in his studio. You can find some of the portraits and the cover of the magazine in the download area for press images.
Please order review copies by e-mail from the SPK press office.