Prussia collection
The Prussia Collection was an important archaeological collection on the prehistory and early history of East Prussia . It was exhibited in the Prussia Museum in Königsberg Castle . Around 1943 it comprised around 240,000 (according to other sources around 450,000) exhibits. It was torn apart during and after the Second World War and was considered lost for a long time. Large parts of the Prussia collection are now in museums in Berlin, Kaliningrad (Königsberg) and Olsztyn (Allenstein).
history
In 1844, Ernst August Hagen and a group from Königsbergers interested in history founded the Prussia antiquity society . The aim of these hobby historians was to secure, research and document the cultural assets and history of the Pruzzen and their ancestors. The Prussia collection became an outstanding project of the association. It comprised archaeological finds from 5000 years of regional history: exhibits made of stone, iron, gold, silver, bronze, amber and clay. These included everyday objects, jewelry, weapons and coins from the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages, ancient times, the Middle Ages and modern times up to the 20th century.
The exhibits were initially housed in the university library until the museum was given extensive space in Königsberg Castle in 1879. The museum has been enriched from various sources. From 1881, the collection of regional antiquities of the Royal State Archives was kept here. In 1905 the museum took over the holdings of the East Prussian Provincial Museum . In 1925 the museum was nationalized and has since been officially called the Landeskundliches Provinzial-Museum .
Transported from Königsberg and rediscovery after the war
From around 1943 onwards, parts of the collection were gradually packed and transported to the west.
Parts of the store holdings , catalogs, excavation documents and collection studies were first transported to Rastenburg -Carlshof (now Karolewo in Poland ). From here, most of the metal objects and documents could be brought to Demmin . In 1949 these holdings, which had meanwhile been partially looted, were transferred to the Academy of Sciences in Berlin , where they were stored in the cellar for more than 40 years. It was only after German reunification that they were rediscovered and given to the Berlin Museum of Prehistory and Early History . Since 1992 there has been a reorganization and re-cataloging of around 45,000 archaeological objects and around 50,000 sheets of documentation.
The objects left behind in Carlshof, a large part of them made of ceramics, are in the Museum of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn.
The permanent collection exhibited in the south wing of the Königsberg Palace, the most valuable part of the Prussia Museum, remained in the city until 1945 and survived the bombing at the end of August 1944, as a result of which the palace was almost completely burned out. It was not until the beginning of 1945 that the most valuable exhibits were packed in boxes and taken away from the city. After the war, this part of the collection was considered lost for a long time. According to later findings, the collection was moved to Fort III on the outskirts of Königsberg. This 19th century fort, part of the fortress ring around Königsberg, was used by Soviet forces after the Second World War and was only cleared in 1999. The part of the Prussia collection hidden in the fort had been looted several times after the war.
During archaeological excavations in 1999 and 2000, Kaliningrad archaeologists found around 25,000 items from the Prussia collection there and brought them to the Museum of History and Art in Kaliningrad. It soon turned out that the museum was unable to restore and document the find in a reasonable amount of time due to a lack of financial and technical means. The ZEIT Foundation Ebelin and Gerd Bucerius then decided in October 2005 to set up a “Prussia workplace” in Kaliningrad and to finance restoration work. The project received technical support from the State Archaeological Museum Schleswig-Holstein . In December 2000, three Kaliningrad archaeologists were invited to Germany and made familiar with modern archiving methods.
In an exhibition in Kaliningrad from December 2001 to May 2002, more than 1000 restored finds were presented. A Prussia permanent exhibition has been open since July 2005. The Museum of Prehistory and Early History in Berlin-Charlottenburg showed an exhibition on the history of the legendary Prussia collection in Königsberg until April 26, 2009. Own holdings were included.
literature
- Phillip Adlung, Claus von Carnap-Bornheim a. a. (Ed.): The Prussia Collection. The holdings in the Museum of History and Art Kaliningrad . Hauschild Verlag, Bremen 2005, ISBN 978-3-89757-307-9
- Günter Brilla (Ed.): On the cultural history of East and West Prussia . Husum 2003, ISBN 978-3-89876-133-8 , pp. 134-148.
- Heinrich Lange: Saving the "Titanic of Prussian Archeology"? In: Berlin monthly magazine ( Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein ) . Issue 10, 2000, ISSN 0944-5560 , p. 42-57 ( luise-berlin.de ).
Web links
- The prehistoric and early historical collection of the Prussia Museum Königsberg in the Berlin Museum for Prehistory and Early History. Museum of Prehistory and Early History , National Museums in Berlin - Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation , January 10, 2016, accessed on March 20, 2017 .
- PRUSSIA, Society for History and Regional Studies of East and West Prussia e. V. Accessed March 20, 2017 .
- Thoralf Plath: Hope for financial help from Germany: Researchers in Kaliningrad recover Prussia treasures. ( Memento from January 17, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) dpa, April 9, 2009