In Berlin's Humboldt Forum, the participating institutions want to improve presentation and cooperation. After criticism and a difficult start with numerous delays, General Director Hartmut Dorgerloh, the President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, Hermann Parzinger, and Culture Senator Klaus Lederer made this clear in talks with the German Press Agency in Berlin.
The Humboldt Forum, which costs 680 million euros, was opened as the most important Federal German cultural project in a first step in July after years of discussions and some delays. The 40,000 square meter building is occupied by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation with two of its museums, the State of Berlin, the Humboldt University and the Humboldt Forum Foundation. Exhibits from Asia, Africa, America and Oceania as well as objects on the history of Berlin will be shown. In the future, the Benin bronzes, which are considered to be colonial stolen goods, will also be presented, which will probably be on display in the middle of 2022 with the last opening step.
According to Dorgerlohs, there will be "more cooperative processes" in the future. "The fact that we are now a stable network of partners is the result of intensive work in recent years," he said, "this will certainly have to become even clearer in practice."
"Our motto is also 'from addition to integration,'" he said. All actors had first moved into the house with their own programs and ideas. "Now it's about the question of what we do together. And that clearly goes in the direction of more cooperative processes.« His task is to set topics that are particularly important for the entire house.
Dorgerloh reported a lot of approval. "However, there are individual areas where, in my opinion, there are also justified and comprehensible criticisms. Now the participants will improve and rework." He sees a need, for example, at the Ethnological Museum. "I clearly expect – and this will also happen - that the approach and explanation for the audience will be optimized again in the area of the Luf boot.«
The historian Götz Aly had fueled the debate under which colonial conditions the large boom boat from the South Sea island came into the possession of the museum. "In our view, this is important," said Dorgerloh about the planned better classification. “It is very nice to know that the state museums see it that way. Now we are considering how this can be done in concrete terms. "
In other areas of the house will also be improved. The cooperation of the organizations is "not a deficit-oriented competitive community". It is about strengthening and supplementing the respective potentials.
Parzinger sees the museums well positioned. "But it is a very intense debate, which of course continues," he said of the "When museum areas are opened, the debate does not stop. But the debate must not only be held on the backs of museums.«
"You have to break away from the idea of a static museum, it will stay in motion," said Parzinger. »The Humboldt Forum is a negotiation room, a venue, perhaps a laboratory. We keep learning, especially in the cooperations with the countries of origin and origins. "With a view to the debate for restitution, he said:" The path that our museums are going with the countries of origin is without alternative and he will go to school. Because returns alone do not get a dialogue going, we want to work, think, research and exhibit together. "
Parzinger was confident about the cooperation between the institutions in the Humboldt Forum. With the opening of the entire house, the individual parts came together step by step. It is important to see what has proven itself and what should be changed.
Lederer sees the Humboldt Forum in a development process. "The debates about the non-European collections show that there is still a lot to learn and a lot to do when dealing with cultural assets," said the left-wing politician of the "The stories of how they came here and what their function, their own history is, are not told enough, there are still too many of these art treasures simply in showcases.«
"The Humboldt Forum wants to be a figurehead of the foreign cultural policy of the Federal Republic, which is supposed to characterize world openness and diversity - if it should meet this claim." We have to look closely. " At the time it was clear what you actually wanted with the house, «he said. “Ultimately, everyone involved can count themselves lucky that the idea came about that a Humboldt Forum could be made there.
