War Museum (Finland)
The Finnish War Museum ( Finnish. Sotamuseo , Swedish. Krigsmuseet ) in Helsinki is the central military history museum in Finland and the central museum of the Finnish Armed Forces . The main task of the museum, founded in 1929, is to collect, preserve and research objects from the Finnish armed forces and Finnish military history and to make them accessible to the public with the help of exhibitions and publications.
The War Museum has two branches on the fortress island of Suomenlinna , which are open daily from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. until October 31, 2017. These are the Vesikko submarine , the only surviving Finnish submarine from the Second World War , and the so-called Manege (Maneesi) , an artillery warehouse from 1881, in which the exhibition From Autonomy to Operation Atalanta is shown.
Around 75,000 people visit the museum's exhibitions each year. The main building and the office of the War Museum are located in a barracks designed by Evert Lagerspetz from 1883 in the Kruununhaka district of Helsinki . The basic exhibition of the main building "From Hakkapelites to Peacekeeping " was closed on May 1st, 2016.
history
The first significant military history collections and exhibitions in Finland were made in the early 20th century. So there was in Helsinki a. a. in 1908 an exhibition on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the " Finnish War ". In the years 1918–1919 a collection related to the Finnish Civil War of 1918 was created at the Finnish National Museum. However, the basis of today's War Museum was the military history collection, which was gradually built in the military archive established in 1918.
The decree to open the War Museum was issued on November 25, 1929 and the opening took place on October 18, 1930. The then still small museum was initially located in the Kruununhaka district, in Liisankatu 1 in the basement of the military archive. A little later, in January 1933, the museum moved to the so-called Carpelan barracks on the fortress island of Suomenlinna, where it reopened on June 11, 1933. Every year around 9,000 visitors came to the exhibitions about the various branches of the armed forces and the Finnish Civil War .
In autumn 1939 the war museum was closed and the material was relocated because the winter war against the Soviet Union was imminent. However, there were some temporary exhibitions in Helsinki during the war years 1939-1944. From 1941 to 1943 the War Museum also organized exhibitions in the rest of Finland and Sweden . The aim of these exhibitions was u. a. to support war invalids economically and to raise morale on the home front. The museum's holdings increased considerably during the war through the entry of captured military equipment.
There were initially no exhibitions after the war, but two new permanent exhibitions were opened in 1948 - a naval exhibition in the Carpelan barracks on Suomenlinna and a coastal artillery exhibition in an 18th century powder cellar, also on Suomenlinna. In 1949, the War Museum was again given premises in Kruununhaka, this time in Maurinkatu 1, adjacent to the military archive. However, the completely renovated exhibition rooms could not be fully opened until 1962. The naval exhibition in the Carpelan barracks had to be closed in 1963 due to moisture damage in the building; a replacement could not be found. Instead, the Vesikko submarine on Suomenlinna was opened to the public in 1973, and in 1989 another branch opened its doors on Suomenlinna with the “Manege”. Furthermore, in the 1990s the former building of the military archive (Liisankatu 1) in Kruununhaka became vacant and could also be taken over by the war museum.
In 2007 the coastal artillery exhibition on Suomenlinna was closed. In addition to the main complex in Kruununhaka, the museum also has the Vesikko and the “Manege” on Suomenlinna.
collection
The war museum's holdings include weapons and other war equipment , uniforms and equipment, medals , standards , written material, photos and works of art. The inventory also includes vehicles, airplanes and boats, a large part of which is on permanent loan to the various partner museums (see below) due to the lack of space in the war museum. In total, the material pool includes more than 200,000 objects and more than 200,000 photos and images. The focus is on the period since Finnish independence (1917–). Only a fraction of the material is on public display; the largest part is in study collections and in the museum's magazines.
Exhibitions
Liisankatu 1 - "From Hakkapeliitta to Peacekeeper" was closed on May 1, 2016
The old basic exhibition on Maurinkatu 1 was replaced by the exhibition “From Hakkapelites to Peacekeeping ”, which opened on March 8, 2013 . The exhibition is located in the building next to the old museum building on Liisankatu 1, which used to host an exhibition about the Finnish Winter War. The new basic exhibition presents Finnish military history from the Thirty Years War , when Finland was still part of Sweden, to the present day. The struggles for national independence in 1917 and the two wars with Russia during World War II also have their place in the exhibition. The exhibition is temporarily closed.
Vesikko submarine
The Vesikko submarine in Suomenlinna is shown during the summer season. The Vesikko submarine is the only surviving submarine of five submarines that Finland had during World War II. The other four submarines were sold in 1953 and then scrapped in Belgium. During the Second World War, Vesikko mostly carried out patrols in the Gulf of Finland and the Åland Sea . In July 1941 Vesikko torpedoed and sank the Soviet freighter Vyborg (4,100 GRT) in the eastern Gulf of Finland near Gogland . At the Paris Peace Conference in 1947 Finland was contractually forbidden from owning submarines. While the other Finnish submarines were being scrapped, Vesikko could be preserved. In the early 1960s Vesikko was transported to Suomenlinna. Vesikko has been used as a museum ship since July 1973, after which it has become the most popular exhibition at the Finnish Military Museum.
Arena
The exhibition on the Finnish Winter War , Continuation War and Lapland War started at the same time as the opening of the Manege War Museum as an exhibition hall in June 1989. The building was originally built by the Russians as a cannon hall in the 1880s. Several special exhibitions were held in the hall, including a. an exhibition about the Finnish submarines. In the arena, for example, an 8.8 cm anti-aircraft gun , a British Vickers 6-ton armored car and the torpedo tube of the Finnish torpedo boat S2, which sank in 1925, can be seen. The new exhibition "From Autonomy to Operation Atalanta" opened in 2012. It is about the Finnish military history and the history of the Finnish army, including the wars in which Finland participated.
Partner museums
The central war museum in Helsinki cooperates with ten other military museums in Finland, which have received a large part of their exhibits as permanent loans from the war museum. These museums are mostly funded by foundations and opened after 1945. It is the Pioneer Museum in Hämeenlinna , the Tank Museum in Hattula , the Air Defense Museum in Tuusula , the Telecommunications Museum in Riihimäki , the Artillery Museum in Hämeenlinna, the Aviation Museum in Vantaa , the infantry museum in Mikkeli , the military medical museum in Lahti , the car museum Mobilia in Kangasala and the Forum Marinum maritime museum in Turku .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Museotilasto.fi . Museovirasto, 2015-2016.
- ↑ Harri Huusko, Anssi Saari, Lauri Haavisto: Sotamuseo hurry, nyt, tulevaisuudessa. Edition 49, Museo, 2/2011, pp. 14-17.
- ^ Ove Enqvist, Mikko Härö: Varuskunnasta maailmanperinnöksi - Suomenlinnan itsenäisyysajan vaiheet. Uudenkaupungin Sanomat Oy, Suomenlinna ry 1998, p. 63.
- ↑ Harri Huusko, Anssi Saari, Lauri Haavisto: Sotamuseo hurry, nyt, tulevaisuudessa. Edition 49, Museo, 2/2011, pp. 14-17.
- ↑ Official website ( Memento of March 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Anssi Saari: Sotamuseo 80 vuotta - museotoimintaa Suomessa sodan ja rauhan oloissa. In: Sotahistoriallinen Aikakauskirja 28/2009, pp. 240–265.
Web links
- War Museum Finland (Finnish, Swedish, English)
- Information about the fortress and history from the Suomenlinna website (Finnish, Swedish, English)
Coordinates: 60 ° 10 ′ 30 ″ N , 24 ° 57 ′ 36 ″ E