Bavarian Army Museum

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Coordinates: 48 ° 45 ′ 53.2 "  N , 11 ° 25 ′ 48.7"  E

Bavarian Army Museum
logo
Old main entrance to the Bavarian Army Museum (until 2018)
Data
place Ingolstadt
Art
Military history museum
architect Ludwig von Mellinger (Army Museum Munich)

unknown ( main building Neues Schloss )
Leo von Klenze and Michael von Streiter ( Reduit Tilly and Turm Triva )

opening 1879 first opening in Munich ,
1946 reopening after the war as a department of the Bavarian National Museum,
1972 reopening in Ingolstadt,
1994 opening of the permanent exhibition in Reduit Tilly,
2011 opening of the Bavarian Police Museum in the Triva tower
management
Website
ISIL DE-MUS-913911

The Bavarian Army Museum is the military history museum of the Free State of Bavaria . It was founded in Munich in 1879 . Part of the former Munich museum building now forms the central building of the new Bavarian State Chancellery . The museum has been located in Ingolstadt since 1972 . The main collection is housed in the New Palace , the permanent exhibition on World War I opened in 1994 in the Reduit Tilly and the Bavarian Police Museum in the Triva Tower, which was incorporated into the Army Museum in 2012 . Under the direction of the historian Ansgar Reiss , the facility developed into a place of learning at a modern museum educational level.

Uniform of a Hartschier (Bavarian court guard )
Bavarian infantryman around 1870 (painting by Louis Braun )

history

Museum in Munich

The museum was founded by King Ludwig II at the suggestion of General Friedrich von Bothmer and the Minister of War Joseph Maximilian von Maillinger in 1879. It was supposed to summarize the collections scattered all over Bavaria. The first director was Josef Würdinger (1822–1889). Until 1905 it was in the arsenal of the Bavarian army in Munich and then after five years of construction it was moved to a monumental building at the Hofgarten in Munich, designed by Ludwig von Mellinger ; the Hofgarten barracks had previously stood at this point .

The structure was partially destroyed in the Second World War . The preserved dome of the old museum building in Munich now forms the central building of the newly built Bavarian State Chancellery . From 1946 to 1969 the Army Museum was housed in the Bavarian National Museum in Munich and was headed by Alexander von Reitzenstein .

Museum in Ingolstadt

Head Peter Jaeckel (1972–1979)

The collection on military history came to the New Palace in Ingolstadt in 1969 . The city was the seat of the Dukes of Bavaria-Ingolstadt and, as the former main Bavarian fortress, had a rich military tradition and numerous references to the Bavarian Army . The museum was opened in 1972 under the direction of director Peter Jaeckel . The permanent exhibition designed and set up at that time remained unchanged until 2014.

Head of Ernst Aichner (1979–2010)

In 1979 Ernst Aichner became museum director and expanded the museum's collections considerably. He paid special attention to the First World War and to Bavarian military painting such as B. by artists like Anton Hoffmann or Louis Braun . Aichner also collected rather unknown artists who immortalized the events of Bavarian and European military history in a painterly way and are now an important part of the museum.

Other acquisitions, such as a bundle of 6,000 Nazi propaganda works of art in 1986 that had been seized by the United States at the end of World War II , were never restored to museums , although the United States made this a condition. Aichner sent around 700 of the war paintings to the German Historical Museum in Berlin and the Military History Museum of the Bundeswehr in Dresden. However, he wanted to wait until the planned department for the Second World War had been set up before processing the objects that remained in Ingolstadt. In 1986 a starfighter was also exhibited , although military historians noted that its relation to the history of the former Bavarian army was difficult to identify.

In connection with the Bavarian State Garden Show in Ingolstadt in 1992, Aichner developed ambitious expansion plans for the museum. In addition to the previous, not yet fully used main building in the New Palace, all historical military buildings on the southern bank of the Danube in Ingolstadt's old town were to be used for an expansion. The Army Museum would have become the third largest military history museum in Europe. Concerned about Ingolstadt's reputation as a city of culture, the citizens' initiative “Culture instead of cannons” was founded around the local SPD member of the state parliament, Manfred Schuhmann , and the Ingolstadt-based car manufacturer Audi also feared for the image of its headquarters. Ultimately, the expansion plans were only partially implemented, not least due to the budgetary situation.

In March 1993, a museum attendant was fined for selling SS runes at the souvenir stand of the museum's cash desk for using symbols of unconstitutional organizations . Aichner, who had tried in vain to cover up the affair, was investigated for attempted thwarting of punishment . However, since he had also wanted to avert criminal prosecution measures against himself, he emerged from the matter with impunity.

While the Friends of the Museum spent DM 700,000 on new acquisitions, which were mostly stored in the museum's extensive depots, the World War I exhibition only opened in the summer of 1994 more than two years after the planned date , due to a lack of DM 20,000 for educational information boards . For this exhibition, a museum educational concept that had already been decided by the Bavarian state parliament was implemented, while for the main exhibition this was only implemented with the reorganization after the state exhibition in 2015. The Reduit Tilly has developed into one of the few special museums of the First World War in recent years. Not least because the reality of war is made physically understandable in it, it found general recognition. On the 100th anniversary of the start of the war, not only did the public increase its interest, but also the loan of exhibits to other museums increased significantly.

In 2007, the collection of the Bavarian Police from Bamberg on the history of the police was transferred to the Army Museum. It contains historical information about the Bavarian gendarmerie , the Bavarian police during the time of National Socialism and generally the development of the community and city ​​police as well as the state, water protection, border and riot police. Under the organizational umbrella of the Army Museum, the collection was only opened as a separate Bavarian Police Museum after a delay of several years on December 19, 2011 with a concept developed under the new head of Ansgar Reiss. The police museum is located in the Triva tower in the immediate vicinity of the Reduit Tilly .

Aichner pursued his expansion plans until he retired at the end of January 2010: His last major official act was the opening of an exhibition on the history of the German mountain troops from 1915 to the present day, at which the "German Mountain Troops" foundation was established. The group of comrades of the mountain troops , which is controversial because of its relationship to war crimes of the German armed forces, has brought all its exhibits and all documents into the foundation as a basis. Under Aichner's successor in office, the museum took a critical look at this issue with a special exhibition about the beginnings of the German mountain troops (September 17, 2014 to September 27, 2015). Further special exhibitions on this topic were opened in 2017 or are in preparation.

Head of Ansgar Reiss (since 2010)

On February 1st, 2010 Ansgar Reiss took up the post as the new museum director. After an exhibition on African-American US soldiers during the occupation, the 2011 touring exhibition of the “ Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe ” on the subject of Nazi military justice was a guest .

This was followed by exhibitions on topics such as the police in the Nazi state , King Ludwig II , military resistance against Hitler and the Nazi regime , photographs from the Afghanistan deployment of the Bundeswehr or for nursing care in the First World War .

In 2014, the museum focused on the 100th anniversary of the First World War . A large number of special exhibitions, events and publications took up this special year and brought a large increase in visitors to the museum.

Today the museum sees its task in the "critical and historically accurate reflection of the military and armed violence in history and their effects on people, society and the state". Not least by publishing an annual report for the years 2010 to 2014, the museum gives an account of this to itself and the public.

Napoleon's arrival in Munich on October 24, 1805 from Nicolas-Antoine Taunay. The painting was an exhibit at the Bavarian State Exhibition
Special exhibition north against south

From April 30 to October 31, 2015, the Bavarian State Exhibition Napoleon and Bavaria took place in the New Palace , which was very successful with almost 150,000 visitors. For this purpose, the previous permanent exhibition was dismantled and the museum expanded to be barrier-free. After the end of the state exhibition, the Army Museum will gradually move into the same premises again with a newly designed exhibition. Objects will also be shown that have rarely or never been presented in an exhibition at the Army Museum. A modern concept in particular should better explain the exhibits to the visitor and put them in a more clearly understandable historical context than was previously the case. A first section was opened on June 3, 2019.

The first step in the renewal of the permanent exhibition, which opened in a first part in June 2019 under the title "Forms of War 1600-1815", was the special exhibition North versus South. The German War of 1866 (from July 2016). For the first time, it is showing the museum's holdings on this topic in detail and is accompanied by an extensive collection catalog.

At the end of 2017, the museum presented the volume "The Bavarian Army Museum. A Selection of Baroque and Renaissance Arms and Armor" for the first time, a collection catalog on the old collection of the museum that has received much attention in specialist circles.

On September 7, 2018, the special exhibition “In the sights of the photographer. Old weapons in a new light ”and the opening of the new museum entrance two important projects for the renewal of the exhibition in the New Palace. The main rooms of the new castle are now accessible again, the museum is barrier-free and has a modern entrance area.

The exhibition "Beginning of Peace? Bavaria 1918-1923" in the Museum of the First World War is the most extensive exhibition on the 100th anniversary of the Free State in the anniversary year.

Facilities and events

Permanent exhibitions

Today the museum consists of three houses:

Exhibition room of the Bavarian Army Museum in the New Palace
Replica of a position in World War I in the Reduit Tilly
  • The main building in the New Palace has a new permanent exhibition (since June 2019) dedicated to the subject of "Forms of War 1600-1815". On the ground floor of the New Palace, the museum shows a treasure chamber with rare objects from its collection (including the clothes of a European conquistador) and a large staging with polearms. In the Dürnitz the visitor learns a lot about the eventful history of the museum. The spectrum of this room, entitled "Arsenal and Museum", extends from the origins in the Bavarian armories to the construction of the new permanent exhibition. On the upper floor, the large room "The Battle" shows weapons, equipment and paintings from a warlike era that spans the period from 1600 to 1815. In addition to a staging of a battle scene from the Thirty Years War, visitors can also expect finds from a mass grave from the Battle of Alerheim (1645). They testify to the suffering and death of the men who fought and died here. The tower room "The Siege" shows that major battles were far less frequent than sieges. In addition to a planning model of the Ingolstadt fortress from 1566, you will also find what is probably Europe's oldest wheelbarrow (1537), which was found during excavations right next to the castle. It bears witness to the efforts that were made to build fortresses in earlier centuries. The everyday war, historically known as the "Little War", was the fighting apart from the major battles. The civilian population suffered particularly badly from this. Looting, rape, pillage and murder were common side effects of the campaigns. Two rifle hoods of marauders, who were probably slain by farmers, illustrate the brutality of everyday warfare away from fortresses and battlefields.
  • In the Reduit Tilly is now the " Museum of the First World War ", one of the largest permanent exhibitions on the First World War in Europe. In addition to its permanent exhibition with 1500 m² on the upper floor, the house also shows various special exhibitions on the ground floor of the fortress building that deal with the theme of the First World War.
  • The Triva tower houses the Bavarian Police Museum , which is a department of the Army Museum, but is referred to as a museum due to its subject matter. Here the visitor will find an overview of the history of the Bavarian police from the turmoil of the revolution of 1918/19 to the battles over the atomic reprocessing plant in Wackersdorf on over 600 m².

In addition, the museum keeps an extensive inventory of paintings, graphics, musical instruments, vehicles, models, toys, pewter figures , photo albums, diaries, archival documents and much more, which are also made available for scientific research.

Bavarian Army Library

The holdings of the Bavarian Army Library, which was built in Munich in 1822 as the main conservatory of the army, were largely confiscated by the US armed forces at the end of the Second World War and returned in 1962. They were administered by the Bundeswehr until 1984/85, then the Bavarian Army Library was re-established as part of the Army Museum and moved into rooms in the former army bakery in downtown Ingolstadt.

Special exhibitions

Selection from 2010:

  • 2010: Built on sand - The Atlantic Wall (photographs by Gerd Bäumen )
  • 2010: souvenirs of the military era
  • 2011: The struggle for civil rights. African American GIs and Germany
  • 2011: From the crime scene to the laboratory. Forensic doctors reveal
  • 2011: "What was right back then ..." Soldiers and civilians before courts of the Wehrmacht
  • 2011: The slightly different school. Photo exhibition of the pioneer school and technical school of the army for construction technology
  • 2012: order and destruction. The police in the Nazi state
  • 2012: appearance and reality. Wooden sculptures by Andreas Kuhnlein
  • 2012: Götterdämmerung. King Ludwig II.
  • 2012: (Un) “Merry Christmas!” Christmas cards from the First and Second World War
  • 2013: uprising of conscience. Military resistance against Hitler and the Nazi regime 1933–1945
  • 2013: Jo Röttger. Landscapes & Memory
  • 2013: Wanted. "Wanted poster, wanted poster, phantom drawing" from antiquity to the beginning of the digital age
  • 2013: apocalyptic as resistance. Tom Biber Collection
  • 2014: Who cares. History and Daily Life of Nursing
  • 2014: "You can't imagine this horror and nobody who doesn't go along with it." (Field post letter from an infantryman)
  • 2014: "This trench warfare and fortress warfare is terrible". Start of war in 1914
  • 2014: In the engine room of war. Ingolstadt 1914-1918
  • 2014: The Alps at War - War in the Alps. The beginnings of the German mountain troops in 1915
  • 2015: The Great War in miniature. Graphics and medals for the First World War
  • 2015: European Tribal Wars
  • 2015: Bavarian State Exhibition "Napoleon and Bavaria"
  • 2016: North against South. The German War 1866
  • 2016: The Hinterkaifeck myth . On the trail of a crime
  • 2016: André Butzer: ... and saw the peace of heaven "
  • 2017: Burned up - adored - seduced. The German mountain troops 1915 to 1939
  • 2018: In the sights of the photographer. Old weapons in a new light
  • 2018: beginning of peace? Bavaria 1918–1923

Scientific staff

Scientific employees of the museum are:

In the 1970s, Rotraud Wrede, a proven expert in uniform studies, worked at the museum. From 1979 to 2011 Jürgen Kraus was the museum's curator or chief curator.

circle of friends

For decades the history of the museum has been accompanied by the “Association of Friends of the Bavarian Army Museum” based in Munich. In addition to various representatives of the Bavarian aristocracy and officer corps , museum director Ernst Aichner was one of the founding members in 1967 as a student. From 1989 to 2016, the former CSU member of the state parliament and long-standing head of external relations at Eurocopter , Manfred Dumann, was the chairman . After the Bavarian Ministry of Science, which has been under the FDP leadership since 2009, selected a successor for Aichner without the participation of the Freundeskreis, leading members of the Freundeskreis such as Ingolstadt's Second Mayor Albert Wittmann ( CSU ) were initially irritated and did not want to rule out an FDP intruder against Horst Seehofer . After the contact between Dumann and the new museum director had normalized in the meantime, the special exhibition on Nazi military justice and its victims brought about a low point in relations. With reference to his status as the son of a fallen Wehrmacht soldier, Dumann criticized a “blanket defamation” of the lawyers and “prejudice” of the exhibition organizers, which led Reiss to state that the museum was “not a sanatorium for wounded Wehrmacht souls”. By changing the statutes, the fundamentals of further cooperation between the museum and the circle of friends were reorganized and responsibilities were made clearer. A board of trustees was newly appointed for the association under the direction of Prince Wolfgang von Bayern.

In August 2016, Dumann resigned from the chair due to age. Ernst Aichner, the former director of the Army Museum, became the new chairman. The board includes, among others, Mayor Albert Wittmann and the MPs Robert Brannekämper and Reinhard Brandl (both CSU).

On October 7, 2017, an article was published in the Donaukurier in which reference was made to revisionist and right-wing texts on the website of the Verein der Freunde. When asked by the newspaper, museum director Reiss pointed out that he had already written to Aichner in July of this "obvious grievance" and asked the association to delete the texts. When this did not happen, the museum director “publicly distanced himself from the association” and criticized “the publication of these“ right-wing texts ”violently”. All links to the association have been removed from the museum's website. Aichner himself stated that after the information from Reiß he had instructed the administrator of the club website to remove the texts from the network, which he had otherwise not approved. Then he assumed the matter was settled. In fact, only the links to the texts had been removed, but direct access was still possible. According to Aichner, the administrator has since been denied access to the club's website.

literature

Web links

Commons : Bavarian Army Museum  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Ready for war , Donaukurier from May 19, 2016, viewed on May 5, 2019
  2. ↑ Dolce Vita for the final victory. Der Spiegel 09/2001, p. 194ff, accessed on January 22, 2010
  3. ^ Evening newspaper of September 22, 1993, p. 19
  4. ↑ I want a Leo too. Der Spiegel 09/1992 p. 95.
  5. ↑ Bernd Siegler: When night falls in the Army Museum . In: taz , November 25, 1993, p. 11
  6. ↑ Donaukurier from 19/20. June 1993, p. 31
  7. ↑ Donaukurier of September 22, 1993, p. 19
  8. ^ From attack to defense on www.sueddeutsche.de
  9. ^ Donaukurier of January 18, 2010
  10. ^ Donaukurier from September 10, 2014
  11. ^ Exhibition Police in the Nazi State at www.armeemuseum.de ( Memento from October 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  12. ^ Exhibition Götterdämmerung - Ludwig II. On www.armeemuseum.de
  13. ^ Exhibition resistance against Hitler and the Nazi regime at www.armeemuseum.de
  14. ^ Exhibition Landscapes and Memory by Jo Röttger on www.armeemuseum.de
  15. ^ Exhibition “Who cares” on www.armeemuseum.de
  16. ↑ 100 years of the First World War at www.armeemuseum.de
  17. ↑ Homepage www.armeemuseum.de
  18. ↑ Annual report 2010-2014 as PDF download
  19. ↑ Bavarian State Exhibition 2015 “Napoleon in Bavaria” in Ingolstadt
  20. ^ Donaukurier: New permanent exhibition opened in the castle. June 4, 2019, accessed June 4, 2019 .
  21. ^ Forms of War 1600-1815. Retrieved July 3, 2019 .
  22. ↑ a b c d e special exhibition "André Butzer ... and saw the peace of heaven"
  23. ↑ New catalog for the old collection published. Bavarian Army Museum, accessed on June 2, 2018 .
  24. ^ Bavarian Army Museum: Forms of War 1600-1815. June 4, 2019, accessed June 4, 2019 .
  25. ↑ Special exhibition "Police in the Nazi State"
  26. ↑ Special exhibition "Appearance and Being"
  27. ↑ Special exhibition "Ludwig II."
  28. ↑ Special exhibition "Landscape & Memories"
  29. ↑ Special exhibition "Apocalyptic as Resistance"
  30. ↑ Special exhibition "Who cares"
  31. ↑ Student project First World War
  32. ↑ Special exhibition "The beginning of the war"
  33. ↑ Virtual exhibition "In the engine room of the war"
  34. ↑ Special exhibition "The Great War in Small Format"
  35. ↑ Special exhibition "European Tribal Wars"
  36. ↑ Bavarian State Exhibition "Napoleon and Bavaria"
  37. ↑ Burned up - adored - seduced: The German mountain troops 1915 to 1939
  38. ↑ In the sights of the photographer. Old weapons in a new light. Accessed on September 12, 2018 (German).
  39. ↑ Beginning of Peace? Bavaria 1918-1923. Retrieved October 26, 2018 .
  40. ↑ Website of the museum with detailed subpages for each scientist , accessed on September 16, 2018
  41. ^ Friends of the Army Museum make Front Donaukurier from September 8, 2010.
  42. ↑ Interview with Ansgar Reiß: You can't just think that guns are great Donaukurier from February 1st 2010
  43. ^ Christian Silvester: The friends open fire. Donaukurier from 17./18. September 2011, p. 13.
  44. ↑ Dumann is followed by Aichner , Donaukurier of August 9, 2016
  45. ^ Christian Silvester: Ingolstadt: Friends of the Bavarian Army Museum disseminates revisionist and right-wing extremist texts . In: donaukurier.de . October 6, 2017 ( online ).
  46. ↑ Friends' association needs clarification . In: Augsburger Allgemeine . October 17, 2017 ( online ).
  47. ↑ Friends' association needs clarification . In: Augsburger Allgemeine . October 17, 2017 ( online ).
  48. ^ Christian Silvester: Ingolstadt: Friends of the Bavarian Army Museum disseminates revisionist and right-wing extremist texts . In: donaukurier.de . October 6, 2017 ( online ).
  49. ↑ Friends' association needs clarification . In: Augsburger Allgemeine . October 17, 2017 ( online ).