THE HUMBOLDT FORUM “TO BE IN TOUCH WITH AS MUCH OF THE World as possible” The Goal and Significance of Germany’s Most Important Cultural Project at the Beginning of the 21st Century Hermann Parzinger THE HUMBOLDT FORUM “TO BE IN TOUCH WITH AS MUCH OF THE World as possible” The Goal and Significance of Germany’s Most Important Cultural Project at the Beginning of the 21st Century Hermann Parzinger President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation Published by the Berlin Palace–Humboldtforum Foundation CULTURE DEFINES MAJOR CITIES Within the next few years the Humboldt Forum, a site of world sion of the neighboring administrative building, in conjunc- culture, will be a cultural center of national and international tion with modern museum strategies and methods distinction in Berlin. We observe worldwide that cultural pro- of presentation. A laboratory for a universal museum of the jects—realized with great enthusiasm and considerable 21st century is planned here, and the ground floor will open financial effort—promote the renown of major cities and even as a forum toward the city. The Pushkin Museum in Moscow have a defining influence on national self-image and identity. is also preparing for the 21st century. By including green Museums frequently play an especially important part, and spaces, pedestrian zones, and subterranean galleries in the strategy to accomplish these goals often symbolically surrounding villas and new buildings, an exceptional cultural combines cultural heritage with forward-looking concepts. Its complex is being created. It will contain not only exhibition broadest expression is demonstrated by grand architectural spaces but a library and concert hall comparable to those of gestures. large museums around the world. Paris began this process in the 1980s with its glass pyr- The National Museum in Beijing is undergoing an impres- amids in the courtyard of the Musée du Louvre, both a new sive expansion to become the world’s largest museum build- source of light and a larger visitor entrance; the latest devel- ing, and hundreds of additional museums are being con- opment in Paris, for the time being, is the Musée du quai structed throughout China. Economic prosperity in the Gulf Branly, opened in 2006 as an outstanding site for non-Euro- region has enabled cities there to create a growing cultural pean art and culture. In Madrid, a new entrance and an ex- foundation with the help of futuristic museum architecture pansion lend entirely new spatial dimensions to the Prado. and imported museum knowledge, reflecting the desire for In London, the British Museum devised a completely novel a modern worldview. mu-seum experience by building a roof over its interior court- All these examples show one thing: major cities around yard and employing modern concepts to utilize the space; the world develop a powerful attraction when they foster cul- there, too, non-European art is now confidently shown next ture; they blossom when their centers breathe culture. Noth- to early European and ancient Near Eastern art. ing defines a country’s image in the world more than its Even in countries that have experienced persistent cultural sites. political upheaval that has ushered in dramatic change, major cultural ventures play a determining role in defining their identity. The 2014 master plan for the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, for example, includes an expan- The Musée du quai Branly in The State Hermitage Museum in The National Museum of China in Paris opened in 2006 on the initia- the heart of St. Petersburg is one Beijing houses the Museum of Chi- tive of President Jacques Chirac of the largest museums in the nese History and the Museum of and is considered the national world. Founded by the Russian the Chinese Revolution, combined museum of non-European art and empress Catherine the Great, it in 2003. The museum is currently culture in France. Housed in a contains more than three million being remodeled by the Hamburg magnificent new building by Jean works of art and artifacts today. architectural firm Gerkan, Marg, Nouvel at the quai Branly near the More than 60,000 objects, includ- and Partners. After its reopening, Eiffel Tower, it combines the eth- ing one of the world’s foremost the history and art of one of the nological collection of the Musée collections of European art, are oldest cultures on earth will be de l’Homme with the former Musée exhibited in more than 350 halls. displayed in an area of nearly national des arts d’Afrique et The museum covers a historical 200,000 square meters (2,152,782 d’Océanie. complex of buildings whose core is square feet). Centrally located on the Winter Palace, the former resi- Tiananmen Square, the museum dence of the czars. reflects China’s growing interna- tional importance. 6 7 BERLIN HAS A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY The fortunate reunification of Berlin after having been divided The New Museum (Neues Museum) was added in 2009, ris- for decades creates the great opportunity to reshape the his- ing from the ashes like a phoenix after decades in ruin. It torical center of the city, building on the cultural achieve- delights visitors and tells three stories simultaneously: ments of Prussia in the 19th century. Exceptional cultural and the history of the building, the history of museum presen- artistic treasures from the Western world have been gathered tation, and the history of the objects on view there. When here over the course of centuries, and from here emanated the buildings are compared with one another, none is academic curiosity for what is foreign and different around the alike—each has its own history. It is precisely this diversity globe. This urban core must become an intellectual center for that fascinates visitors from all over the world. the city of Berlin. The new entrance building currently under construc- After German reunification, the immense complex of col- tion, the James-Simon-Galerie, represents the continuing lections of European and Near Eastern art and culture on the building efforts on the Museum Island in the 21st century. Museum Island experienced a boost in popularity that keeps Special exhibition spaces, information areas, a restaurant, growing year after year. Previously separated museum hold- and a museum shop will be included there, all of which are ings were brought together again, and under the guidelines lacking in other buildings and are urgently needed. The of a master plan, the buildings are being renovated and entrance building will lead from the south into the Pergamon expanded. The Humboldt Forum in the Berlin Palace located Museum, to which a fourth wing along the Kupfergraben will on the other side of the Pleasure Gardens (Lustgarten) and be added in the course of its renovation, thus offering a now to be partly reconstructed, will become an outstanding compelling walk through the architectural history of antiq- location for the art and culture of Asia, Africa, America, Aus- uity, from ancient Egypt and the Greco-Roman world to early tralia, and Oceania. This constellation of museums will make Islam. The master plan for the Museum Island will conclude Berlin a leading cultural and museum city around the world. with the so-called Archaeological Promenade, a system of No other city combines a wealth of international collections subterranean galleries connecting the interior courtyards of in a single institution: the National Museums of the Prussian the buildings, which are located one story below ground. An Cultural Heritage Foundation (Staatliche Museen der Stiftung extended, interdisciplinary exhibition space will address sub- Preussischer Kulturbesitz). jects from a wide range of times and places. Only in Berlin is it possible to create a site for world cul- ture that is as impressive and meaningful as that comprising the Museum Island and the Humboldt Forum. For here, as the The Museum Island is the core of After reunification of the previously result of the conflicting ideologies of fateful history, the nec- the Berlin museum landscape and separated collections, a master one of the most important museum plan for the Museum Island was essary space is still available in the heart of a major city. Even complexes in the world. Its five instituted in 1999, by which all five more important, we demonstrate the intellectual readiness of museums—Old Museum, New buildings on the island would be our country to shape the geographic core of our capital not Museum, Old National Gallery, Bode restored, modernized, and further Museum, and Pergamon Museum— developed. By 2001 the Old National with self-interest in mind, but with a focus on curiosity and represent 6,000 years of art and Gallery had already reopened, in openness to the world. The site will also be able to contribute cultural history, from the stone age 2006 the Bode Museum followed, to self-realization in a globally connected world. to the 19th century. The buildings and in 2009 the reconstructed New The Museum Island, declared a World Heritage Site by were constructed between 1830 Museum. Future additions include and 1930 as individual entities; in the James-Simon-Galerie as the UNESCO in 1999, contains the treasuries of European and combination, they make an incom- central entrance and the Archaeo- Near Eastern art and culture from antiquity to the 19th parable ensemble. logical Promenade, which will con- century. The high temple of art, the Old National Gallery nect the individual buildings The Prussian Cultural Heritage underground. (Alte Nationalgalerie), was renovated to its former glory Foundation (Stiftung Preussischer in 2001. The Bode Museum, built in the style of the neo- Kulturbesitz) is among the world’s Renaissance, was lovingly restored and reopened in 2006. largest cultural and academic insti- tutions and derives from the collec- tions and archives of the former Prussian state.