Deep mourning for Werner Knopp
Press release from 01/07/2019
Long-time President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation passes away at the age of 87 - Parzinger: He was the President of Unity
The long-standing President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, Werner Knopp, passed away on 4 January 2019 at the age of 87. Born in Braunschweig, he had been at the helm of Germany's largest cultural institution in Berlin for over twenty years.
"The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and its five institutions mourn the loss of a man who was made for the office of President. Werner Knopp was an elegant and politically savvy cultural diplomat, a committed doer and at the same time a bridge builder both internally and externally. We will not forget this president, his work is still our foundation today," said SPK President Hermann Parzinger.
Werner Knopp headed Germany's largest cultural institution in Berlin from 1977 to 1998. It was during his term of office that German reunification took place and the former Prussian collections, which had been divided for decades, were brought together. "This president turned the SPK into an all-German foundation and, above all, integrated all the new federal states into the SPK. It is to his credit that the unification of the parts of the collection in Berlin could be regulated so clearly and comprehensively in the Unification Treaty. At least as important is the fact that the colleagues from East and West came together with great openness and without suspicion, because he spared them the tedious debates about winding up. We also have Werner Knopp to thank for the construction of the Gemäldegalerie at the Kulturforum and the restoration of the Neues Museum by David Chipperfield," said Parzinger.
In the SPK magazine 2/2015, which describes the reunification of the Berlin collections from the perspective of 25 protagonists, Werner Knopp wrote: "I remember a very moving letter from an East German employee who wrote to me that he and others were worried about losing their identity if they were united with the Federal Republic. But the foundation had allayed their worries and GDR citizens could also live with the Prussian tradition." www.preussischer-kulturbesitz.de/news-detail/article/2016/02/01/im-spk-magazin-zur-einheit-ich-wollte-keine-uebernahme.html