Humboldt Forum

Last updated

Humboldt Forum
HF Logo quer rgb-01.svg
Berlin-BerlinerSchloss-6-Asio.JPG
View of the Humboldt Forum in the rebuilt Berlin Palace (2023)
Humboldt Forum
Established2020
Location Berlin Palace, Berlin, Germany
Coordinates 52°31′03″N13°24′10″E / 52.51750°N 13.40278°E / 52.51750; 13.40278
Type Art museum
Collectionsnon-European art
DirectorHartmut Dorgerloh
Architect Franco Stella
Public transit access U: Museumsinsel ( Berlin transit icons - U5.svg )
Website www.humboldtforum.org/en/

The Humboldt Forum is a museum dedicated to human history, art and culture, located in the Berlin Palace on the Museum Island in the historic centre of Berlin. It is named in honour of the Prussian scholars Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt. Considered the "German equivalent" of the British Museum, [1] the Humboldt Forum houses the non-European collections of the Berlin State Museums, temporary exhibitions and public events. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it opened digitally on 16 December 2020 and became accessible to the general public on 20 July 2021. [2]

Contents

History

The Humboldt Forum incorporates two former museums, the Ethnological Museum of Berlin and the Museum of Asian Art. Both had their roots in the Ancient Prussian Art Chamber. The Ancient Prussian Art Chamber was originally established by Joachim II Hector, Elector of Brandenburg in the mid 16th century, but was nearly destroyed during the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). The art chamber was rebuilt as a magnificent collection by Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, and was moved to the newly extended Berlin Palace by Frederick I of Prussia in the early 18th century. The Ethnological Museum opened in 1886 as a successor of the Ancient Prussian Art Chamber; the Museum of Asian Art originated as the Indian Department of the Ethnological Museum in 1904. Wilhelm von Bode, the Director-General of the Royal Museums in Berlin, established the Museum of East Asian Art as a separate collection in 1906. In 2006 the Museum of Indian Art and the Museum of East Asian Art were merged to form the Museum of Asian Art.

From 2020 the Ethnological Museum and the Museum of Asian Art are both part of the Humboldt Forum in the Berlin Palace. [3] By 2019, the Forum's overall costs totaled $700 million; [4] at the time, it was considered Europe's most expensive cultural project. [5] Its opening was initially planned for autumn 2019, then delayed to 2020 [4] due to technical problems, including with its air conditioning system. [6] Delivery delays and the unavailability of workers during a lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany pushed it back a few months further. [7] [8] In April 2020, two tar cookers exploded at the construction site, injuring one worker. [6]

On 16 September 2022, the opening of the eastern wing, the last section of the Humboldt Forum museum, meant the Humboldt Forum museum was finally completed. It became Germany's currently most expensive cultural project. [9]

Building

North and east facades of Humboldt Forum Humboldt Forum 10493.jpg
North and east facades of Humboldt Forum

The Humboldt Forum has its seat in the reconstructed Berlin Palace. [5] [10] The foundation stone was laid by President Joachim Gauck in a ceremony on 12 June 2013. [11]

Museum

On completion in 2020, the City Palace housed the Ethnological Museum of Berlin and the Museum of Asian Art, as well as two restaurants, a theater, a movie theater and an auditorium. [12] The project is led by a three-member management committee, chaired by founding director Neil MacGregor and also including the co-directors, archaeologist Hermann Parzinger and art historian Horst Bredekamp. The Foundation for the Humboldt Forum in the Berlin Palace has been set up to create the museum. [13]

MacGregor has proposed to make the museum admission-free, based on the model of the British Museum. [14]

Collections

The Humboldt Forum houses 4 major wings: America, Africa, Asia, Oceania. In edition to this it also has several other galleries, including the Humboldt Lab, the Berlin-Exhibition, Sounds of the World, and spaces for temporary exhibitions.

Controversies

The Humboldt Forum came under criticism before and after its 2020 opening due to the museum's ownership of stolen art and other artifacts which were acquired from the German colonial empire and other European colonies in Africa and Asia, such as the Benin Bronzes. [15] [16] In 2018, it was at the center of a debate about the legality of cultural heritage from former German colonies being put on display in Germany, drawing protests from activists and art historians including as Bénédicte Savoy, who alleged the museum had not done enough to research the provenance and failed to critically present objects originating from the Global South in its collection. [17] [18]

In October 2024 the Forum announced to alter the lyrics of Udo Lindenbergs 1983 song Sonderzug nach Pankow in an upcoming choir performance. In 1983 Lindenberg had used the word "Oberindianer" to address East Germanies head of state Erich Honecker. The Humboldt Forum announced the word could be perceived as hurtful and racist by indigenous people and other visitors and will therefor be replaced. Critics like Wolfgang Kubicki saw a violation of Artistic freedom, while historian Hubertus Knabe said the Humboldt Forum was leaning towards a "far-left Cult" and stated that the people responsible should be voted out of office. [19] [20]

Images of the highlights shown at the Humboldt Forum:

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Museum Island</span> Part of Spree Island in central Berlin

The Museum Island is a museum complex on the northern part of Spree Island in the historic heart of Berlin, Germany. It is one of the capital's most visited sights and one of the most important museum sites in Europe. Originally built from 1830 to 1930, initially by order of the Prussian Kings, according to plans by five architects, the Museum Island was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999 because of its testimony to the architectural and cultural development of museums in the 19th and 20th centuries. It consists of the Altes Museum, the Neues Museum, the Alte Nationalgalerie, the Bode-Museum and the Pergamonmuseum. As the Museum Island designation includes all of Spree Island north of the Karl Liebknecht Boulevard, the historic Berlin Cathedral is also located there, next to the open Lustgarten park. To the south of Liebknecht Boulevard, the reconstructed Berlin Palace houses the Humboldt Forum museum and opened in 2020. Also adjacent, across the west branch of the Spree is the German Historical Museum. Since German reunification, the Museum Island has been rebuilt and extended according to a master plan. In 2019, a new visitor center and art gallery, the James Simon Gallery, was opened within the Museum Island heritage site.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Humboldt University of Berlin</span> Public university in Berlin, Germany

The Humboldt University of Berlin is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palace of the Republic, Berlin</span> Former seat of GDR parliament and cultural center

The Palace of the Republic was a building in Berlin that hosted the Volkskammer, the parliament of East Germany, from 1976 to 1990.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Berlin Palace</span> Former residence of the Prussian Kings, seat of the Humboldt Forum

The Berlin Palace, formally the Royal Palace and also known as the City Palace, is a large building adjacent to the Berlin Cathedral and the Museum Island in the Mitte area of Berlin. It was the main residence of the House of Hohenzollern from 1443 to 1918. Expanded by order of Frederick I of Prussia according to plans by Andreas Schlüter from 1689 to 1713, it was thereafter considered a major work of Prussian Baroque architecture. The royal palace became one of Berlin’s largest buildings and shaped the cityscape with its 60-meter-high (200 ft) dome erected in 1845.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schloßplatz (Berlin)</span> Square in Berlin, Germany

Schloßplatz is a square located on Museum Island (Museumsinsel) in Berlin, Germany. It measures about 225 m by 175 m, with its long side oriented on an axis approximately southwest/northeast. At its west corner is the Schlossbrücke, from which Unter den Linden leads west to the Brandenburg Gate. From the same corner, Karl-Liebknecht-Straße runs northeast alongside the square and on to Alexanderplatz. Until the early 20th century, only the square south of the palace was so named, the square north of it being the Lustgarten.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neue Nationalgalerie</span> Art museum in Berlin, Germany

The Neue Nationalgalerie at the Kulturforum is a museum for modern art in Berlin, with its main focus on the 20th century. It is part of the National Gallery of the Berlin State Museums. The museum building and its sculpture gardens were designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and opened on September 15th, 1968.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neil MacGregor</span> British art historian (born 1946)

Robert Neil MacGregor is a British art historian and former museum director. He was editor of the Burlington Magazine from 1981 to 1987, then Director of the National Gallery, London, from 1987 to 2002, Director of the British Museum from 2003 to 2015, and founding director of the Humboldt Forum in Berlin until 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Udo Lindenberg</span> German musician and composer (born 1946)

Udo Lindenberg is a German singer, composer, and painter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hamburger Bahnhof</span> Contemporary art museum in Germany

Hamburger Bahnhof is the former terminus of the Berlin–Hamburg Railway in Berlin, Germany, on Invalidenstrasse in the Moabit district opposite the Charité hospital. Today it serves as a contemporary art museum, the Museum für Gegenwart, part of the Berlin National Gallery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Museum of Asian Art</span> Museum in Berlin, Germany

The Museum of Asian Art is a part of the Humboldt Forum in Berlin since 2020. Before its relocation it was sited in the neighborhood of the borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf, Berlin, Germany. It is one of the Berlin State Museums institutions and is funded by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. It houses some 20,000 Asian artifacts, making it one of the largest museums of ancient Asian art in the world. The museum is located in the same building as the Ethnological Museum of Berlin. The museum houses important collections of Art houses of South, Southeast and Central Asian countries and art from the Indo-Asian cultural area, from the 4th millennium BC to the present. Its geographic reach covers regions in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, the Autonomous Region of Tibet and Xinjiang of the People's Republic of China, the Southeast Asian countries of Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and also the Indonesian Islands or archipelago.

The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation is a German federal government body that oversees 27 museums and cultural organizations in and around Berlin, Germany. Its purview includes all of Berlin's State Museums, the Berlin State Library, the Prussian Privy State Archives and a variety of institutes and research centers. As such, it is one of the largest cultural organizations in the world, and also the largest cultural employer in Germany with around 2,000 staff as of 2020. More than four million people visited its museums in 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Staatliche Museen zu Berlin</span> Group of institutions in Berlin, Germany

The Staatliche Museen zu Berlin are a group of institutions in Berlin, Germany, comprising seventeen museums in five clusters; several research institutes; libraries; and supporting facilities. They are overseen by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and funded by the German federal government in collaboration with Germany's federal states. The central complex on Museum Island was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1999. By 2007, the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin had grown into the largest complex of museums in Europe. The museum was originally founded by King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia in 1823 as the Königliche Museen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethnological Museum of Berlin</span>

The Ethnological Museum of Berlin is one of the Berlin State Museums, the de facto national collection of the Federal Republic of Germany. It is presently located in the Humboldt Forum in Mitte, along with the Museum of Asian Art. The museum holds more than 500,000 objects and is one of the largest and most important collections of works of art and culture from outside Europe in the world. Its highlights include important objects from the Sepik River, Hawaii, the Kingdom of Benin, Cameroon, Congo, Tanzania, China, the Pacific Coast of North America, Mesoamerica, the Andes, as well as one of the first ethnomusicology collections of sound recordings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Museum Europäischer Kulturen</span> Museum in Berlin

The Museum of European Cultures – National Museums in Berlin – Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation came from the unification of the Europe-Department in the Berlin Museum of Ethnography and the Berlin Museum for Folklore in 1999. The museum focuses on the lived-in world of Europe and European culture contact, predominantly in Germany from the 18th Century until today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Humboldt Box</span> Temporary exhibition space in Berlin, Germany

The Humboldt Box was a futuristic museum structure on the Schloßplatz in the center of Berlin, Germany. It was built as a temporary exhibition space and viewing platform for the Humboldt Forum construction project and to inform the public about its future use.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Gallery (Berlin)</span> Art museum in Berlin, Germany

The National Gallery in Berlin, Germany, is a museum for art of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. It is part of the Berlin State Museums. From the Alte Nationalgalerie, which was built for it and opened in 1876, its exhibition space has expanded to include five other locations. The museums are part of the Berlin State Museums, owned by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foundation for the Humboldt Forum in the Berlin Palace</span>

The Foundation for the Humboldt Forum in the Berlin Palace is a German foundation established by the Government of Germany to create the Humboldt Forum museum in the reconstructed City Palace, Berlin. It works closely with the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media. Following a resolution passed by the German Parliament, the Bundestag, it receives funding from the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monika Grütters</span> 20th century Federal German CDU politician

Monika Grütters is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2013-2021. She has been a member of the German Bundestag since 2005 and was chairwoman of the Committee on Culture and Media Affairs from 2009 to 2013. Since December 2016, Grütters has also been the chairwoman of the CDU Berlin and an elected member of the CDU Federal Executive Board.

Sharon Jeanette Macdonald is a British anthropologist and museologist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reconstruction of the Berlin Palace</span>

The reconstruction of the Berlin Palace took place from 2013 to 2020, incorporating donor-funded facades and components of the Baroque palace building. In 2002, the German Bundestag decided to partially rebuild the palace, which was demolished in 1950, thus continuing the restoration of Berlin's Historic Center. The three facades, which date back to 1713 and were designed by Andreas Schlüter, were reconstructed with the palace dome by Friedrich August Stüler from 1853. The project was widely discussed in society. According to the decision of the international expert commission in April 2002, the reconstructed palace serves as the seat of the Humboldt Forum.

References

  1. ↑ Adams, Tim (17 April 2016). "Neil MacGregor: 'Britain forgets its past. Germany confronts it'". The Guardian . London. Retrieved 6 January 2023.
  2. ↑ "Berlin's newest landmark is ready and waiting" (Press release). Humboldt Forum. 16 December 2020.
  3. ↑ "Berlin Humboldt Forum opens in stages". Deutsche Welle . 22 November 2018. Retrieved 6 January 2023.
  4. 1 2 Rogers, Thomas (13 June 2019). "Berlin's Troubled Humboldt Forum Pushes Back Opening" . The New York Times . Retrieved 6 January 2023.
  5. 1 2 Scaturro, Michael (18 May 2015). "Berlin's rebuilt Prussian palace to address long-ignored colonial atrocities". The Guardian . London.
  6. 1 2 Schuetze, Christopher F.; Marshall, Alex (8 April 2020). "Explosion at Berlin's Humboldt Forum Puts Delayed Opening in Doubt" . The New York Times.
  7. ↑ Hickley, Catherine (16 June 2020). "Berlin's Humboldt Forum to open this year despite pandemic delay". The Art Newspaper .
  8. ↑ Hickley, Catherine (7 October 2020). "Berlin's Humboldt Forum to open in phases beginning in December". The Art Newspaper.
  9. ↑ "Completed Humboldt Forum opens in Berlin – DW – 09/16/2022". dw.com.
  10. ↑ Peltz, Christiane (12 June 2015). "So verlief das Richtfest am Berliner Schloss" [Topping-out wreath ceremony at the Palace]. Der Tagesspiegel (in German). Retrieved 6 January 2023.
  11. ↑ Alexander, Harriet (12 June 2013). "Berlin begins reconstruction of King Frederick the Great's palace". The Daily Telegraph . London. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  12. ↑ Hickley, Catherine. "Berlin Palace Rebuilding Begins 63 Years After Explosion" . Bloomberg News . Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  13. ↑ Bowley, Graham (12 October 2018). "A New Museum Opens Old Wounds in Germany" . The New York Times. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  14. ↑ Hickley, Catherine (3 November 2016). "Neil MacGregor unveils plans for Berlin's ambitious Humboldt Forum". The Art Newspaper. Retrieved 6 January 2023.
  15. ↑ "No Humboldt 21". 3 June 2013. Retrieved 31 December 2020.
  16. ↑ "Humboldt Forum: Berlin museum opens despite criticism over looted art". BBC News . 16 December 2020.
  17. ↑ Shaw, Anny (21 November 2020). "Black Lives Matter movement is speeding up repatriation efforts, leading French art historian says". The Art Newspaper. Retrieved 6 January 2023.
  18. ↑ Schuetze, Christopher F. (15 March 2019). "Germany Sets Guidelines for Repatriating Colonial-Era Artifacts" . The New York Times.
  19. ↑ Keilani, Fatina (30 October 2024). "Udo Lindenberg wurde von der DDR zensiert, nun setzt ihn der woke Westen auf den Index: Aus einem Hit soll das Wort «Oberindianer» gestrichen werden". nzz.ch.
  20. ↑ Sternsdorf, Paulina (31 October 2024). "„Linksradikale Sekte", „Kulturlos": Wütende Reaktionen nach Lindenberg-Zensur". Focus.de.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.