How the Peasant House Became a National Symbol
A Chapter in the History of Museums and Nation-Building
Bjarne Stoklund
Stok lund, Bja rne 1999: How the Peasant llou:>e llecame a Nationa l Sy mbol. A Chapter in the History of Museu ms and Nation-Buildin . - Ethnolog-ia Eu ropaea 29: fi-18.
The author - who has retired fi·mn a chair i n J�uro pean eth nology at the University of Copenhagen - hns a pnst ns n curator nt t.hc Open Air Museum ncar Copenhagen . In this article he is investigating his ow n roots by analyzing the ro le that "fillk culture", especially peasant houses and dwelling-rooms, played in the construction of national culture.
The interest filr t. he material clements of fo lk culture develo ped inside the
framework of the great exhibitions , and was fu rther cultiv ated in two new types of permanent institutions: museums of applied art and "folk museum s"/open air
museu ms. The establishment of fillk museums cuI minated in the decades around 1.900. This was also a period of national mobilization and dominated by the national principle that political and ethnic unity should agree, with oppression of minorities as well as their political mobilization as consequences. How is this devel opment mirrored in the uses of fo lk culture? Among other thi ngs in the way that ethnic groups without a proper state oftheir own become providers of national symbols for the dominant nations. This is exemplified by the way in which the Dutch, the Germans and the Danes have used elements of Frisian culture in their respective nation-building. In the same period there is a national struggle to possess desired treasures of fo lk culture. This is illustrated by two examples of a national German-Danish conflict about old farm houses fr om the border area between the two nations.
Professor emer. Bjarne Stoklund, Department of' Archaeology and Ethnology, University of' Copenhagen, Va ndkunsten 5, DK-1467 Copenhagen, Denmark.
For 25 years I have been professor of European years and I have kept it since . Houses are not a Ethnology at the University of Copenhagen, but bad entrance if you want to understand social I have a past in a world that in many ways is life and culture . Peasant houses will also have different fr om the academic: that of the muse a main role in this article but not the usual one. ums . For 12 years I was a curator at the Danish I want to look at what happened when peasant Open Air Museum north of Copenhagen. It was rooms and houses were put into museums as a in the happy days ofthe sixties before the severe part of the construction of national cultures in reductions in state subsidies and before private Europe. I am thus investigating my own roots sponsorship had been invented as a solution . as a museum man and looking into a world that Nearly every year we opened a new building in in the eyes of today's ethnologist is both fa sci the area of the museum that had just been nating and exotic. enlarged to double the size. For me it was a What we shall be dealing with is part of a wonderful chapter in my life course - I was fr ee more comprehensive pattern: the role of the so of economic and administrative burdens and called fo lk culture in nation-building. A few could do all the enjoyable things. introductory specifications will be necessary. I got my interest for peasant houses in these First that the role played by fo lk culture has not
5 A Swiss "chalet" at a Danish estate in Northern Zealand. Watercolour from about 1800. -From Ellin g 1979.
been the same in the whole of Europe. It is first fa scinating century. and fo remost in the Scandinavian countries, in It started with "The Great Exhibition of the German-speaking Central Europe and in East Works of Industry of all Nations" in London ern Europe that fo lk culture has been cultivat 1851 and went on in rapid succession with one ed in a national context. On the whole this or two World Exhibitions every decade plus a lot difference is congruent with the two types of of similar arrangements of regional or national nation-building: The "political" to the west and importance. The firstof these exhibitions were the "cultural" to the east. With that background primarily a presentation of the industrial pro it is not surprising that phenomena like fo lk duction and a competition among the partici museums and open air museums are latecom pating states about the quality of their prod ers in France and Britain, and that the first in ucts, but they soon developed into also being a Britain appeared in the Celtic fr inge. cultural contest. Every nation-state that wished There are, however, some important chrono to become a member of the good company had to logical differences too, that must be taken into prove that it possessed a peculiar historically consideration. The content of fo lk culture has rooted and aesthetically valuable national cul not been the same through the whole ofthe 19th ture. And what was - seen in the light of the century. In the first part of the century the romantic ideas of the period - more genuinely interest was concentrated on the linguistic ex national than the so-called "folk culture" with pressions: folk songs, fo lk tales, legends and its supposed timelessness, continuity and inde similar kinds of oral tradition, whereas the pendence of international fa shions (Stoklund material folk culture did not play any role until 1994; Worner 1999). the second part of the century. However, to communicate such qualities in How can we explain this shift in interest an exhibition the preferred oral traditions were with regard to fo lk culture? I believe that a of little use. Everything in an exhibition must major part of the explanation is to be fo und in be visually communicated, and therefore mate the role of the international exhibitions in the rial fo lk culture was more suitable for that latter half of the century - these great exhibi purpose - and especially such material ele tions that in themselves are of topical interest ments that at the same time were aesthetically if one wants to understand the culture of this appealing: fo lk costumes and other textiles,
6 At the Paris World Exhibi tion in 1867 Norway was rep resented by this two-sto reyed "loft" from the landscape of Telemark. - From Ducuing 1867.
vernacular architecture and rooms in the peas one of the most fa scinating figuresin the histo ant house with richly decorated fu rniture and ry ofEuropean ethnology and sociology. Le Pl ay implements - the kind of o jects that around seems to have conceived the idea of the "pavil the turn of the century acquired the designa ion"-system that was introduced at the 1867 tion "folk art". Such objects were not seen in the Exhibition and has been continued as the main earliest exhibitions. About the London-exhibi principle at all the succeeding exhibitions. He tion 185 1 it was said afterwards that the partic complemented the traditional central hall with ipating countries resembled each other too much. a surrounding park, in which each ofthe partic Nations, however, by definition are different, ipating countries was invited to acquire an area and in the succeeding exhibitions it was tried where it might build something that was char deliberately to underline that difference. From acteristic of its country. Most of the participat one exhibition to the other a common national ing states brought a piece of vernacular archi rhetoric was developed, together with a set of tecture or similar, but not all. lt is symptomatic rules for the way in which nationality should be for the mentioned east: west differencethat th e communicated. And to this repertoire of the practical British presented an electric light nation-state belonged in the last decades of the house. 19th century elements of a material fo lk culture By the way, the exhibited buildings were of that were gradually becoming national symbols. course not genuine - nobody thought of authen In this connection the most important world ticity at that time. They were replicas, and in exhibition is quite obviously the one that was some cases very free copies . The houses were held in Paris in 1867. 1t became decisive for its not supposed to document real conditions , but successors with regard to form as well as con rather to strike a national note . These small tent. It may seem an irony offate that these fo lk houses were called "pavilions", and behind the culture elements were launched at an exhibi 1867 innovation lies a tradition of using such tion in Paris, since France is supposed to be a houses in private gardens. In the romantic textbook example of"political" nation-building. gardens of the 18th century they became impor Responsible for that is, however, to a great tant elements; they underlined the variations extent a single person, the mining engineer and between the different sections of the garden, social reformer, Frederic le Play - by the way and they were supposed to be evocative archi
7 A Zealand peasant room, tirst on display in an exh ibition in Copenhagen in 1879, later in corporated into the D:mish Folk Museum. - From Nyrop 1879.
teciure such as antique temples, Chinese pago The Paris innovation, however, became very das or straw huts fr om remote Pacific islands . influential, which of course has to do with the In the late 18th century a few European fact that the great exhibitions were some of the peasant houses appeared among these pavil first media for mass communication. In a way ions, most ofthem being "chalets" fr om Switzer we are dealing with two different innovations. land. In the Danish romantic gardens, however, One is the "pavilion" -system, and I have al Norwegian wooden houses can be fo und instead ready mentioned that it became the system of of or together with the "chalets". Such houses layout for all fu ture exhibitions . The other one were usually surrounded by dark coniferous is the ethnographic houses that also became a trees . They were symbolizing an alternative recurrent fe ature at the succeeding exhibitions . way of life that might be imagined among fr ee The first one after Paris 1867 was Vienna 1873, herdsmen in the mountains, and they were and for that the organizers had planned to supposed to arouse noble fe elings and contem make an "ethnographic village" with houses plation among the promenading visitors in the fr om all over the world. The finalresult of this garden (Elling 1979). ambitious project, however, was only 7 houses What was new at the 1867 Exhibition was 5 fr om differentparts of the Habsburg Empire, that such houses for the first time were being one fr om Alsace (justincorporated in the newly established in a park as national or ethnic fo unded German Empire) and one fr om Russia symbols. But the idea seems to have been in the (Pemsel 1989; Worner 1999). Later world exhi air. Tamas Hofer has mentioned that in connec bitions developed this field fu rther, including tion with a Panslavonic congress in the same not only peasant houses in great numbers but year a kind of ethnographical village compris also settlements fr om the third world, most of ing Slavonic houses fr om all parts of Eastern them populated with imported natives. Europe was arranged in Mos cow (Hofer The ethnographic houses, however, were not 1991: 167). And the idea of such ethnographical only fo und in the temporary exhibitions . They villages has been mentioned in print several moved rather early into the permanent estab times, i. e. as early as the 1790's by the Swiss lishments that we usually call "open air muse author von Bonstetten (Uldall 1957; Zippelius ums". The earliest one was opened to the public 1995). in 1892 by the Swedish museum pioneer, Artur
8 Peasant roomtiwith dummie in "national costu me;;" be came a popular element in local muHeumH. Photo from 1943 of a room in the muHe um of Nrestved, South Zea land. - From Skougaard and Varni ld 1994.
Hazelius , in a place called Skansen in Stock The figures were arranged in small groups with holm (lliornstad cd . 1991 ). In some East Euro an anecdotal content, most of them copied from pean countries "Skansen" has in fact become by th at time very popul ar genre-paintings (Berg the technical term for an open air museum; in 1980; Stoklund 1993). Poland there is even a journal for "Skansenolo Artur Hazelius included these fo lk costume " gy . Nearly as old as this museum is the open air groups as an important part ofhis new "Scandi museum in Lund, also in Sweden (Bringeus navian-ethnographic" museum in Stockholm 1992) and in Denmark in 1997 we celebrated 1873, but he replaced the set pieces around the the centenary of our first open air museum, acting figures with three walls from real peas fo unded by Bernhard Olsen (Rasmussen 1979). ant rooms . The fo urth wall was leftout to allow Artur Hazelius as well as Bernhard Olsen the public the possibility to look into the room started by opening museums (in 1873 and 1885) and to study the idyllic life that was on display of a more conventional fo rm, but with a new there . In this fo rm he repeated the presentation content: fo lk cultu re . In these museums, too, ofthese popular, three-dimensional genre-paint the peasant house had an important role to ings at the World Exhibition in Paris 1878. play. Rooms provided with decorated fu rniture On that occasion, however, the Dutch partic and peopled with wax figures in fo lk costumes ipants presented a room fr om Hindeloopen in became very popular elements in these new West Friesland that was recreated with all its museums, not only in Scandinavia but also in fo ur walls, and where the public was allowed to Central Europe (Bauer 1991). enter the room through the door. This arrange With justificationit may be maintained that ment impressed the Danish fo lk museum pio even this form of museum display has its origin neer, and when seven years later, in 1885, he in the 1867 Exhibition. The organizers had opened his Danish Folk Museum the peasant invited the participating countries to send wax interiors that he had acquired were presented figures with fo lk costumes to the exhibition. in that way (Rasmussen 1979; de Jong and Quite a lot accepted the invitation, but the Skougaard 1993). Swedish participants attracted the most atten I hope through this sketch to have demon tion by presenting some very life-like figures strated how the shift in interest fr om oral tra with costumes from different parts of Sweden. dition to material elements came about. The
9 The Hindcloopcn room at the Pa ris World Exh ibition in 1978. To the lcltlhc wax dum mies, to the right the exhibi tion visitors. - From de Jong and Skou gaard 199:1.
great fo unding period ofthe new folk museums minorities that were striving for independence in Scandinavia and in Central Europe is the in order to profile themselves culturally, the decades around th e turn of the century. These established nation states in order to demon years are also in other ways a decisive period in strate that cultural differentiation is a natural the hi story of nation -buildi ng, dominated by a part of national unity. strong spiritual national rearmament at the What happens during this intensified "na threshold of the military show-down in World tionalization" or "ethnization" of culture to those War I. The main principle of nationalism - that ethnic groups that are not taking part in the the national and political entity should be con race for individual states? To a great extent gruent - in these years is increasingly being their culture is taken to the benefit by the maintained by the European nation-states. But contesting parts , by which the groups not par it is a well known fa ct that very few - if any - of ticipating become so to say invisible. I shall try these states were in accordance with the princi to demonstrate that with some examples taken ple that state and nation should be one and the fr om the Frisian language group: The West same. Linguistic or ethnic heterogeneity, how Frisians in the Netherlands and the North ever, is a disorder in the house of a well organ Frisians in the fo rmer Danish, now German ized nation-state, and consequently ethnic dif landscape of Schleswig. Both groups have in fe rences were denied and attempts made to some periods played a great part culturally but create a standardized national population. In never politically. Denmark the attempts to Germanize the Dan Let us take as a point of departure the ish population in Schleswig will be well-known, Hindeloopen room at the World Exhibition 1878 but in the same years attempts to Magyarize that I have already been referring to. This the minorities in Hungary were made as well as room, which comes fr om one of the West Frisian a russification-policy towards the Finnish and coastal villages by the Zuidersee, was arranged the Baltic peoples. in 1877 for a Frisian exhibition in their main The logical counterpart to this state policy town, Leeuwarden. The next year it was sent to was that national movements among the larger the international exhibition in Paris - peopled minorities were beginning to fo rmulate politi by costumed dummies in the Swedish style - in cal claims with reference to the cited national order to represent Holland in the cultural com principle: every nation its own state . In this petition among nation states. And they were emerging confrontation each of the parts could successful in that the room became very popu make use of fo lk culture and folk museums: the lar at the exhibition (de Jong and Skougaard
10 TheHindeloopen room in the "Museum fUr deut che Vo lk strachten und li:rzeugn i:;se des I-Iausgewerbes" in Ber lin. Drawingby EdwardThiel.
- From de Jong ancl Skou gaard 199:1.
1993). To summarize what happens here: an model could also deliver arguments for a fu rth er example of Frisian interior design has been German policy of expansion, as we have experi changed into a Dutch national symbol . enced in both this and the previous century. There were others , however, who desired One of the museums that possessed a Hin these beautiful rooms from Hin deloopen. Adri del oopen room was the German fo lk muse um, aan de Jong has proved that at least three established in Berlin 1889 with direct inspira German museums have possessed a room from tion fr om Artur Hazelius' "Scandinavian-eth this small Zuidersee locality. Why was that the nographic" museum in Stockholm. The fo under case? Part of the explanation can be fo und in an was no less a person than Rudolph Virchow, one article in the Kolnische Zeitung of 1878, fr om of the leading figuresin the history of medicine , which I quote in translation : "Friends of Ger fo unding father of pathology, but who was also man history and German life are by preference interested in physical anthro pol ogy and looking towards Dutch West Friesland, the old "Rassenkunde", race knowledge. The declared homeland of the Frisian tribe that used to goal for his "Museum fiir deutsche Volkstrach inhabit the area between the rivers Rhine and ten und Erzeugnisse des Hausgewerbes" - as it Ems and the North Sea, because this tribe has was named at the start - was to show "die kept its German character longer and in a more Ei genart der deutschen Stamme in Trachtund genuine way than other Germanic tribes" (de Geraten" - the peculiarities of the German Jong and Skougaard 1993). tribes in costumes and implements . That indi Observe how this article equates German cated that the collections of the museum ex ness and Germanic tribes. The idea about the tended far outside the borders of Germany - e.g. connection between the Germanic tribes fr om to Switzerland and, as we have already seen, to the period of the great migrations and the fo lk West Friesland (Steinmann 1964; Muller 1992). culture of a much later era has put its mark on Rudolf Virchow was also collecting in North older ethnological terminology in concepts such Friesland which generally in the eighties and as the Saxon house, the Burgundian chimney or nineties was one of the favourite hunting the Alemannic rake, and it was important for grounds for collectors offolk culture objects . In German nation-building in general. As a model that area there were not only houses with a rich of understanding or explanation it fitted per Friesian interior design, but also in the adja fe ctly with the creation of a German unity based cent village of Ostenfeld and its surroundings on separate parts each with its characteristic you would find the most old fa shioned farm fe atures. It is well known, however, that the houses of the so-called Saxon type, and you
11 A "North Frisian Room", designed by Heinrich Sauermann for the "German National Applied Art Exhibition" in Mun ich 1888. - From Heinrich Sauermann 1979.
could come across chests and cupboards with As already mentioned peasant rooms be Gothic or Renaissance carvings. came a preferred element in both fo lk museums These were the objects that attracted the and museums for applied art - and of course early collectors , among them a] so Heinrich Sau they were not missing in the institution that ermann fr om Flensburg. Sauermann was not Sauermann created. Some ofthe most beautiful only a collector and museum fo under but also a rooms came fr om North Friesland, and it was craftsman and fu rniture producer. He is a typ this kind of room that together with a compre ical representative of the era of historicism in hensive collection of fu rniture in Renaissance the way he transformed stylistic fe atures fr om style fo rmed the basis of Sauermann's own the peasant fu rniture in his own collection into production. In the German Empire established modern so-called "altdeutsche Mabel''. He be in 1870 the new Renaissance had become the gan to collect for his own pleasure and use, but national German style par excellence -just as out ofthis grew a museum of applied art with an the Renaissance period generally was hailed as associated school as in many other cases . Later an era with great similarity to the dynamic end on the museum was changed into a general ofthe 19th century. Sauermann's fu rniture fo rms culture-historical museum, today named the part of that dominating Renaissance-style, but "SUidtisches Museum" - the town museum of with a specific and unique touch of popular Flensburg (Redlefsen 1976; Heinrich Sauer Frisian design. This was especially marked in mann 1979). the complete rooms that he designed and which
12 were put on display on exh ibitions in Germany Da nish border. In the iexi accompanying the and abroad . With the F'risian pcasnni room as published pla ns it is stressed thai as a matte r of' a model he created large rooms meant filr ce re fa ct there is no specific Frisian architectu ral monial pu rpose::;. style. Jn all es::;eniial::; ii is ba::;edon the same One of the carl ie::;iof ' these fiwmed pari of' a traditions as the Danish (Gam.leBygninger pan so-called German national applied art exh ibi Landel 19llf. ). B ui as everything was verywell
tion in Mun ich 1888. ln the catalogue of' the kepi, especially in the "risian Isles, ii was exhibition it was descri bed as a "North Frisian obvious io go there for inspiration fiw a new room, de::;igned and carried out f'ro111 old rrw ru ral building-style - and thai wa::; what hap tifs". li is called a North Fri::;ianroom, but ii is pened in the fo llowing years with the associa in fact Sauermann'::; ow n pa raph rase of the tion "Bedre Byggeskik" ("For a be tier building original. li seems a li ttle intrigu ing thai this ::;iyle"). room in the Munich exh ibition was acqui red by These North Fr isian examples tell about the no le::;s a person than Ariur lla zel i us f()r his processes of selection, thai arc setting in the Nordic Museum in Stockholm , where it has end of the 19th century, when culture became never been on display but is said still io be seriously "cihnicized" or "nation alized". Some stored (Redlefsen 1976). What was Hazelius' peoples are expanding culturally at the expense intention with this piece of applied art? Did he of others, while these others are being robbed accept it as a gen uine Frisian room- or had he for the elements they might have changed into realized that the difference was not that big national symbols. This has been the fate of the between this modern prod uct in antiquarian North Frisians. They have always been made style and the old rooms thai imaginative muse invisible in the national struggle between Danes um people had reconstructed? and German s or harnessed to the carriage of Three years later Heinri ch Sauerm an n was either one or other of the two parts. asked to design a room for the so-called Worlds The previous examples were dealing with Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago . The the right to appropriate a given fo lk culture and inspiration was still the same, but now the use it in the construction of a national culture. room had taken on even more imposing dimen My last example fr om the national conflicts sions . The increased height of the wall was around the latest turn of century is the story of managed by putting examples of the character a battle about specific museum objects . Al istic Schleswig picture weaving, the so-called though it has strong national undertones, it is Beiderwand, on the wall over the panelling, a also a contest between collectors and museum fe ature totally Sauermann's own invention. This people to get hold of the best pieces of fo lk room is now called not North Frisian, but a culture, the kind of antiques that gradually Holsteinian room, and in an exhibition in Kiel were becoming scarce. In the 1880s and 90s 1896 a similar glorious room is named a "Nie there were hectic collecting-endeavours going derdeutsches Wohnzimmer". The point of depar on in many parts of Europe, but not every ture is still the Frisian interior design, but now where . It is interesting that while some parts it is displayed under headings that present it as were left in peace, there were other districts a national German style (Heinrich Sauermann that attracted buyers fr om far and near, be 1979). cause they had been designated as peculiarly However, the Danes could also use the Fri interesting - for national or culture-historical sian fo lk culture. In 1892 a group of young reasons, or very often for both. Danish architects fo unded "the Society of Dec. In the southern parts of Germany collectors 3rd" with the purpose ofmeasuring examples of were attracted by the romantic Tyrol. It is older Danish house-building in order to create mentioned in 1888 that for thirty years there inspiration for modern architects. In 1907 their had been a constant trafficof carriages past the activities were extended to the measurement of border to Germany, where people, especially in rural houses, and where did they start? In Bavaria, knew how to value "diese Kunst North Friesland, to the south of the German schatzen der stammverwandten Tyro ler"
13 (Meixner 1 992:99).Ariu r Hazel ius seni hi:-;buy he bought for his recently establ ished open air er:-; into ihc re mote valley:-; of Norway, where museu m in Copenhagen a farmhouse ofihc :-;o genuine Nord ic fhlk cultu re was su pposed io called Saxon type from Osienfeld ncar Hu sum. hide. The f("Jundcr of ihe open air m useum in His reasons fo r ihe acquisition of ihi:;buil ding Lillehammer in Norway observed in 1886 a thai was clearly classified as German arc not caravan offive carriages, loaded wiih antiques quite evident, bui as always national and cul thai some hawkers from 'l'clemark had been ture-historical arguments seem io be mixed in. buying filr Hazel ius' museu m in Stockholm(Ras To Bernhard Olsen this farmhouse represented mw;:;en 1979: 132). ihe first siep in an evolution, because people To ihe very important hunting g rounds be and cattle were still living in the same room, longed - as I have already mentioned - ihe and because ihe house had an open fireplace western pari of Schle:-;wig. Noi only collectors wiihoui a chimney. The fa rm , however, also from Copenhagen, Flensbu rg and Hamburg comes fr om ihe south-west corner of Schleswig, were casting their neis here. There also came where Danish once was spoken - and conse buyers from the museums in Berlin and Nu quently it could be considered a symbol of that remberg, and even Ariur Hawlius- as we have lost Danishness. However, I could imagine that seen -showed an interest in this exotic country. Bernhard Olsen was fo nd of the idea that this When the fo under of the Danish Folk Museum, in his opinion - primitive farmstead was a Bernhard 0 I sen , in ihc 1890s joined the host of German one . This would indicate that civiliza collectors, the area - according to his local tion increases as you move north! contacts- was already heavily grazed . In 1899 When Bernhard Olsen was pursuing a farm-
The Ostenfeld farm house that was acquired by Bernhard Olsen for his 1897 founded Open Air Museum. In the gateway the museum director and the farm owner are shaking hands on the bargain. -Photo from 1899 in the National Museum, Copenhagen.
14 "Peicr lle ldi Pc cl" from Ostenfelrl, put on di splay by Bernhard Olsen shortly after its acquio;iiion.It io; now one ofthe room�;in the farm huuo;e from Osicnfcld in ihc Dan ish Open Air Muo;cum. - From Olsen 1898.
house fr om Ostenfeld, he had already acquired applied art (Olsen 1898). However, this Ulrich the wall-panels and fu rniture fr om two rooms Jahn was not just a Mr. Anybody. He was the fr om this old-fashioned village . One set of pan right hand man of Rudolph Virchow in the elling came fr om a drawing room, a so-called establishment of the fo lk museum in Berlin, and "Darns", the other fr om a best room, here called he seems to have been a highly-gifted collector "Pesel''. Bernhard Olsen first tried to acquire and a clever businessman, too. He had a degree the so-called Peter Heldt's house, because the in Volkskunde (ethnology), but he soon left the large set of Pesel-panelling came fr om that quiet life of a scholar to concentrate on some house . However, the negotiations abou t this exhibition projects . The firstone was a so-called acquisition were spoilt by some influentiallocal "German Exhibition" in London in 1888, for people, who did not want the farmhouse sent to which Jahn had arranged a section with Ger Denmark. Instead it was suddenly bought by man fo lk costumes and among other things a the lord mayor in the adjacent town of Husum, North Frisian house with two rooms. The walls and moved to that place to be erected in a park. of these two rooms were the two already men Bernhard Olsen now concentrated his efforts tioned panels fr om Ostenfeld, which were ac on the acquisition of another fa rmhouse from quired by Ulrich Jahn for this specificpur pose. which the Dams-panels originated - and this With the London Exhibition Ulrich Jahn had time he was successful, although there was tasted blood, and in the fo llowing years he pre strong local resistance (Michelsen 1976; Skou pared a large German section for the Worlds gaard 1995). Columbian Exhibition in Chicago of 1893 . What The two sets of wall-panels fr om Ostenfeld he wanted to put on display was a whole Ger were bought by Bernhard Olsen fr om a German man village, and to collect the necessary objects collector, Ulrich Jahn . Immediately after the for that purpose, he made "a veritable predatory acquisition he put the Pesel-panels with fu rni expedition fr om Friesland in the north to South ture on display in his museum and he presented Tyroland in Switzerland", to quote an orbituary the room in a detailed article in a journal for notice (Weinhold 1900; cf. Worner 1999).
15 Leaning on his stick, Kai Ul dall is inspecting the erection in 1958 of the main construc tion of the imposing "Hau barg"-farm house from West Schleswig. - Photo in the Na tional Museum, Copenhagen.
"The German Village" for the Chicago Exhi acquired by Ulrich Jahn for the exhibition in bition in 1893 consisted of no less than thirty 1888, and apparently considered by him as his six buildings , including a reconstructed town private property. During a conflictbetween him hall, a romantic castle and typical farm houses and Rudolph Virchow he removed the London fr om different parts of Germany. We do not collection fr om the museum and stored it else know if the two Ostenfeld-rooms were there too, where in Germany. He may have tried to sell but it is very likely. What we know for certain is, part of it to another German museum, but in the however, that in the middle of the 1890s they end he offered it to Bernhard Olsen, who imme were to be fo und as a part of the permanent diately was interested, went to Leipzig where exhibition in the fo lk museum in Berlin. They the collection was located at that time and are mentioned in the guide-book fr om 1895, and bought fo ur hundred objects including the two there is no doubt about the identification. Even rooms fr om Ostenfeld (Rasmussen 1979:200 the fu rniture in these rooms to a great extent is 202). Of course, this was later on among the what is on display today in the Ostenfeld house German museum people criticised as a very of the Danish Open Air Museum (Fuhrer... unpatriotic act. 1895). How did these rooms fr om the German fo lk It is still treasures fr om Jahn's collection in the museum in Berlin end up in the Danish Open form of Gothic chests and Renaissance fu rni Air museum in Copenhagen? The key to the ture that are putting their mark on the interior answer is fo und in the guide-book fr om 1895. of the Ostenfeld house in the open air museum. Part of the collections, including the two Osten They are telling an interesting cultural history fe ld rooms, are marked with an LS, which about wealth and conservatism among fa rmers means "London Sammlung", the collections in West Schleswig. I must admit, however, that
16 just now I am more fa Hl:inai cd by the Hel:ondlif e Note ofthc:;epi el:CHof' fu rn iture a:; o ed:; filr l:Oll el: j The oriJ.:inal Danish version of this article wm; given tors and museums. The w i dely travel led Osten as a "farewell lecture" when I retired as a professor at fe ld room:; arc tell ing a pel:u liu r story about the University of Copenhagen in .1996. lt waH pub man and his material world. They allow one io lished in the journ al Folk og Ku ltnr i n 1.997. The present English version was held as a publ ic lect ure look into a l:orner of' an exoiil:b ourgeois l:uliure durin�-:my stay as a visiting professor at the Un iver and into the stra tegies th ai were used in the sity of Edinburgh, School of Scottish Studies, in tlw establi shment of'national wliu res in the period sprin�-:term of1997. I want to thank the di rector oft. he around the tu rn of the century. School , Dr. Margaret A. Mackay, for kindly hel pinJ.: me to prepare the Engl ish version. Lei me add a short more personal postscript to thi s. Shortly after my appo i ntment as cura tor in 1 958 aiihe Danish Open Air Museum, the References directo r of many years, Kai Uldall, had to leave Bauer, Ingolf 1991: Biirgerzimmerund Bauernstubcn because of age . His reti rement was well ar im Museu m. In: Mabel a.usFr anhen. Oberfliiclwn ranged and impressive. A few years earlier the und Hin ter rii nde. Au.sstellu ngska.ta.log. Miinchcn. acquis ition of a n ew pi el:e of' lund had doubled Berg, Jonas 1980: Draktdockor - Hazelius och ancl the area of the museum, and in the new, open ras. ln: Fa.ta. buren. Bi iirnstad,Arne ed. 1991: Ska.nsen underhun draiir : land a crane was setting up the skeleton of the Hiiganiis 1991 . until then largest fa rmhouse, w hich would be Bringeu s, N.-A. 1992: Ka.rlin och.Kulturen. Kultu rens opened in connection with his retirement. It arsbok. Lund . was a so-called "Haubarg" fr om the marshl ands de Jong, A.A. M. & Mette Skougaard 1993 : The TTi n deloopen and theAmager Rooms: Two Example s of in the southern part of German West Schleswig, an Historical Museum Phenomenon. In: Jo urnal of and it was Kai Uldall's decl ared aim with that the History of' Collections 5 no. 2. large fa rmhouse to surpass his predecessor, the Ducuing, M. Fr. ed. 1867: L'exposition uniuerselle de founder of the museum, Bernhard Olsen. What 1867 I-II. Paris. Elling, Christian 1979: Den romantiske have. Danshe he had in his mind and was comparing it with studier. 2. udg. K0benhavn. was, of course, the other large West Schleswig Filhrer durch die Sammlung des Museums. Museum house, the farm from Ostenfeld. fiir deutsche Vo lkstrachten und Erzeugnisse des Kai Uldall was a skilled negotiator. He played Hausgewerbes. Berlin 1895. his cards well, and the situation was favourable Gamle Bygn inger paa Landet, pub!. by the society "Foreningen af 3. Dec." K0benhavn 1911 f. for him, with a Germany that only ten years Heinrich Sauermann (1842-1904). Ein Flensburger after the war was hardly able to take care of all Mobelfabrikant des Historismus. Begleitheft zur its cultural treasures. The local resistance, how Ausstellung im Stiidtischen Museum Flensburg ever, was strong, as it had been sixty years 1979. Hofer, Tamas 1991: Construction of the "Folk Cultur earlier, when Bernhard Olsen was buying the al Heritage" in Hungary and Rival Ve rsions of farm fr om Ostenfeld. The director of the muse National Identity. In: Ethnologia Europaea 21. um in the main town of North Friesland, Hu Lofgren, Orvar 1989: The Nationalization of Culture. sum, considered the "Haubarg" that went to In: Ethnologia Europaea XIX. Meixner, Wolfgang 1992: Mythos Tyrol. Zur Tyroler Denmark a "violated virgin" that he refused to Ethnizitatsbildung und Heimatschutzbewegung im meet again in her disgraced situation in Den 19. Jahrhundert. In: Geschichte und Region / Sto mark. The commotion that was caused by the ria e regione I,l. case, however, paved the way for the establish Michelsen, Peter 1976: Ostenfeldgarden pa Frilands museet. K0benhavn. ment of an open air museum in Kiel for the Muller, Heidi 1992: Die Sammlungskonzeption des German Bundesland Schleswig-Holstein. Museums fiirdeutsche Volkskunde von der Griind Thus history repeats itself, and I became the ung 1889 his zum ersten Weltkrieg. In: Jahrbuch witness of a late offshoot of the national contest der Berliner Museen. Neue Folge 34. Bd. about vernacular buildings sixty years afterits Nyrop, C. 1879: Fra den kunstindustrielle Udstilling. Erindringsblade. K(i!benhavn. culmination at the end of the 19th century. Olsen, Bernhard 1898: Peter Heldts Pesel og dens Indbo. In: Tidsskriftfo r Kunstindustri. Pemsel, Jutta 1989: Die Wiener We ltausstellung uon
17 187.'1. /Jas griittderz<:t.tlich<: Wic•11 r1 111 W.•ndt•p ll nhl. t. he New Museum Concept. in the Lat.t.e r H:df'ol't.he Wien. Ninct.eent.h Centu ry. In: Eth. n oLouin Sm mli11r11Jic:a Rusntussen, llolg-er I !:17!:1: /J em lwrd Olst '/1 . Vi rlw oJ.! : !. uwrlwt: K0hen havn . St.oklund, Bj arne 1994: The Role oft.he lnt.ernat.ional Rcdlelsen, I lien I !:176: lleinrich ::iauerm:um - cin Exhibitions in the Cunst.ruct.ion of' Nat.ion:.�l Cui Miihcl fitbrikant. unci Museu msg-ri.i nder vot· 100 Lures in the 19th Century. In: Ellur.oLogia E11.ropaea Jnhrcn. In: Norde/bill/.!1'11 4fi,!:1. 24. Skoug-aard, MeU.e 1!:l!:lfi:'l'he Ost.cn l'cld Farm at. t.hc Uldall, Kai 19fi7: Open Air Museums. In: M11seum Open-Air Museu m: Aspect s of' the ){ole of' Jco)k vol. X. Paris. Museums in Confl ict s of' National Heri tag-e. In: Wei nholcl,Karl l900: Ulrich Jah n. In: Zeit.w·ltrifl des NunLisk Mrt seuLogi. Vereins fur Vu Lhslmnde 10. Jahrg. Skougaard, Mct.t.e & lb Ya rn ild 1!:19tl: Panopt.ikon og Worner, Martin 1999: Vergnilgung unci Bf'Lc•h. mng. muHcu m. Vo lksfigurer f'ra et. museu mslofl.. Tn: Na · Vn Lkslwltnr a11{ den. We lt(l.lts. t eLLn n{!en 185 1 - 1900. timwLm.l/.w'l'ls 1\rlu:idsllra r/1 . Munster. St.einmann, Ul rich 1!:16t1: Die Ent.wicklung- dcs Muse Zi ppelius, Adclhart. 1995: Mellem oplysni ngst.id og ums l'i.ir Yo lkskunde von l889 bi:; 1964 . ln: 75 Jnltre nat.ionalromant.ik.Pa sporet. af de curop 18