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2000 Years Varus Battle Varusschlacht Museum and Park Kalkriese opens two new exhibitions on 15th May
Bramsche-Kalkriese, 24th April 2009 Bramsche-Kalkriese - 2000 years after the Varus battle the Museum and Park Kalkriese is holding two new exhibitions, so providing new insights on the historic battle and its consequences. The exhibition CONFLICT, which is being shown in the newly erected visitor centre, spotlights the causes and consequences of military conflicts in the Germanic world. This exhibition is part of the extensive archaeological exhibition project “IMPERIUM CONFLICT MYTH. 2000 Years Varus Battle” organised with our partners, the museums in Haltern and Detmold.
The permanent exhibition with a completely new concept is also opening at kalkriese. The future emphasis of the permanent exhibition, conceived by the Varusschlacht and the architects hollenbeck.plato from Cologne, will be on discovering and explaining the Varus Battle.
“The Varus Battle and its consequences are a subject that fascinates and captivates people”, commented the Varusschlacht managing Director, Dr. Joseph Rottmann. “The interest is gigantic. With almost 2000 groups of visitors registered, we’ve almost reached last year’s figure already.”
Exhibition CONFLICT
Premiere in the newly built visitor centre of the Museum and park Kalkriese 2000 years after the Varus Battle. Varusschlacht im Osnabrücker Land is continuing the story in its special exhibition from 15th May and is focussing on the causes and consequences of military conflicts in the Germanic world after the Varus Battle. The special exhibition is part of the extensive archaeological exhibition project “IMPERIUM CONFLICT MYTH. 2000 Years Varus Battle”.
With the help of archaeological finds and historical information, the causes, the course and the consequences of military conflicts in the ancient world from the pre-Roman Iron Age to the migrations of the peoples of the 5th century are presented and inter- preted from the perspective of the Germanic peoples. The main emphasis is on the time after the ending of the period of expansion in Roman policy concerning Germania in 16 AD.
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The focus of the special exhibition if formed by three case studies, called “conflict zones”. Additionally there are several thematic aspects which are of central importance for our understanding of the character and the course of military conflicts within the Germanic peoples on the one hand and, on the other, between Germanic peoples and the Romans.
At the same time the curators of the exhibition, Heidrun Derks and Dr. Stefan Burmeister have widened the scope of the exhibition to include today’s warfare. “It is not enough to condemn violent conflicts, if one does not clearly recognise why they are waged, what purpose they serve and who profits from them”, Heidrun Derks commented.
An essential motive for Germanic conflicts was raiding for booty. “Booty helped to establish power and influence and was so a central component for Germanic elites in the consolidation of their power structures”, Dr. Stefan Burmeister explains. “Raiding is indissolubly linked with the establishment of power and formation of new ethnic groupings.”
The Marcomannic wars are the focus of the first conflict zone. They are a good example of the problems of the Roman Empire with its neighbours and later enemies and for the complexity of the conflicts which arose. The king’s grave of Musov (Czech Republic) shows impressively how the Germanic elite managed to combine a Roman style of life with a Germanic way of life.
The finds of offerings of war booty from the conflict zone of the south-western Baltic illustrate the purely inner-Germanic conflicts between the 2nd and the 5th century. These archaeological finds are of incalculable value, so there are no historical records of any kind for this region. The 500 objects from Illerup in Denmark illustrate the dramatic nature of the inner-Germanic conflicts. After winning the battles the victors sacrificed the equipment of their defeated enemies by depositing it in the bog. In this fashion the equipment of military units consisting of several hundred men have been preserved which, after more than 1500 years provide a detailed insight, like no other, into the inner organisation and the equipment of Germanic army units.
The Alamannic treasure of Neupotz (Rhineland-Palatinate) is the focus for the conflict zone „Storm“ on the Rhine Limes. The treasure, consisting of more than 1000 items – some are very valuable – with a metal weight of almost a ton illustrate the Germanic plundering raids deep into the Roman Empire. The storming of the Limes and the
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continuous incursions by Germanic tribes people were the beginning of the end of a once mighty empire.
Violent acts after the battles were over should not be forgotten either, curator Burmeister emphasized. Massacres of the civilian population were quite normal after a war. There were, however, sacred and ritual facets to these acts of violence. The images of the “civilised” Romans on the one hand and of the “cruel” Germanic tribes people on the other are thus relativised.
New Permanent Exhibition
2000 years after the Varus battle the Museum and Park Kalkriese is taking a new course: in the newly conceived permanent exhibition of the Varusschlacht im Osnabrücker Land the motto from 15th may will be Discovering and Interpreting instead of Searching and Finding. “After 20 years of interdisciplinary research the evidence is being fitted together and the puzzle is taking on more and more concrete forms”, Dr. Joseph Rottmann, Managing Director of Varusschlacht, explains the basis for the new concept of the exhibition.
“As exciting as speculations may be, it is now time to take stock”, comments the Head of the Museum, Heidrun Derks. The contours of some facets were clearly recognisable. The exhibition at kalkriese has been completely revised in its contents and design and is now divided into six chapters. “It has not only to do with the history of the discovery of the battle but with the research work on the Varus Battle and its results.”
Research on the history of the Varus battle at Kalkriese continues to be a process depending on circumstantial evidence. The museum at Kalkriese wants to present this process lucidly, comprehensibly and optimally spotlit from all angles. We welcome constructive discussion.
The exhibition, created in 12 months of conception and realisation, is a surprising and thrilling experience for visitors of all ages. It will provide especially children and young people with direct and intensive access to history and research in a manner appropriate to their ages.
The tour through the imposing museum made out of rusty steel begins with a confrontation of the enemies of the time. Who were the Romans? What adversaries did they encounter? The second part of the exhibition is devoted to the main figures in the
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historic battle: what were the motives of the victorious Cheruscian, Arminius? Who was the luckless Roman military leader, Publius Quinctilius Varus?
The third chapter takes the visitors into the period after the 16th century. Into the period in which people became increasingly interested in the battle and more and more amateurs, researchers and learned people speculated on the location of the battle – until in the Nineteen Eighties Kalkriese was once again spotlighted by the finds of the amateur-archaeologist, Major Tony Clunn. As early as 1885 Theodor Mommsen, the doyen of Roman historiography, had mentioned Kalkriese as the location for the Varus Battle.
Research which has been going on since 1989 and the finds which have been made form the focus for the fourth section of the exhibition. How are the finds evaluated? What evidence proves to be sound?
Visitors to the exhibition will find answers to these questions in the fifth chapter. They will be provided with the facts on 150 coins discovered at Kalkriese, none of which dates from the time after 9 AD, on earth discolorations and anthropological methods to determine age. The examination of tooth enamel of a mule which died on the embankments enables us to determine the time of its death in the autumn months.
The last chapter takes the visitors to the museum’s tower and is devoted to the question of how and why Arminius could turn into Hermann and the Varus Battle into a national myth. The most significant thing of all is left to the top-most platform of the tower: a view of an ancient battle field on a site of the Varus Battle.
Contact for inquiries from the press: Gisela Söger, VARUSSCHLACHT im Osnabrücker Land GmbH, Medien und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit, Tel. +49 (0)5468/9204-17, E-Mail: [email protected]