State Museum Württemberg

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The Old Castle as seen from Schillerplatz (2010)

The Württemberg State Museum (until 2005: Württemberg State Museum) in Stuttgart was founded in 1862 by Wilhelm I, King of Württemberg. However, its origins go back to the 16th century. Back then, the dukes used the Kunstkammer to collect everything that was rare, precious and unusual. In 2006, the cultural history museum, with the approval of the Baden-Wuerttemberg state government was in the Landesmuseum Württemberg renamed.

The task of the museum is to present the country's history from the Stone Age to the Celtic Age , the Romans , the Alemanni , the Middle Ages , the Renaissance , the Baroque up to the 19th century in the Kingdom of Württemberg . There are also exhibitions that cover the whole of Europe, u. a. in classical antiquity , in glass, handicrafts, coins, clocks, scientific instruments, textiles and musical instruments . Every year around 280,000 people visit the Württemberg State Museum.

history

From the art chamber to the museum

The ducal art chamber was the origin of today's State Museum Württemberg. It was first mentioned in 1596 in a report by the Basel doctor Felix Platter . It was the time of Duke Friedrich I , who ruled from 1593 to 1608, and who laid the foundations for the collection , which initially consisted of objects brought with him from his travels to Italy, Hungary and areas of what is now Austria. It was expanded by his successor, Duke Johann Friedrich , died in 1628. The collection was partially looted during the Thirty Years War , but Eberhard III expanded it again by presenting it in the New Lusthaus in Stuttgart and hiring an archivist to look after it. Originally the collection of the Kunstkammer consisted mainly of pieces from classical, especially Roman antiquity, but later it was also joined by coin collections, minerals, tableware, gifts from other princes and a wide variety of curiosities. In 1886 it was transformed into a museum as the Royal Art Cabinet and was named the State Collection of Patriotic Antiquities . After the end of the monarchy in 1918, the collection became state property, but ownership remained unclear. This was followed by lengthy negotiations between the state of Württemberg and the House of Württemberg, in which the main concern was to estimate the material value. In 1922 the collection moved to a wing of the New Palace and was shown as a department of the Württemberg State Collections. Their value was estimated at three million gold marks in 1927 . An agreement was reached with the House of Württemberg to pay an annual pension of 123,000 Reichsmarks until 1937. As early as 1939, at the beginning of the Second World War, the holdings had been relocated and were located in the former Schöntal monastery . The first exhibitions of a few pieces took place in the late 1940s. In 1971 the entire collection was again accessible to the public in the south tower of the rebuilt Old Palace .

Directors

Museum building

The old castle was the main residence of the Württemberg counts and dukes for four hundred years. With the re-establishment of Ludwigsburg in the early 18th century and the construction of the New Castle in Stuttgart, the old castle only barely escaped demolition at the beginning of the 18th century, especially since it was "hardly good for a theater decoration", as Goethe noted in 1797 .

The roots of the building go back to the beginnings of Stuttgart. Around 950, Duke Liudolf von Schwaben , son of Otto I, seems to have built a castle there. This was supposed to protect the mare garden, which was important for armament against the Hungarians. From 1325 the Dürnitz building was rebuilt. The climax of the structural measures was reached in the 16th century, when Duke Christoph had the castle converted into a contemporary palace, which was considered the most beautiful German Renaissance courtyard . Over the centuries, other construction work took place at the old castle, such as the equestrian staircase by Blasius Berwart in 1560, the castle church, which was consecrated in 1562, or the baroque design of the conference room.

On December 21, 1931, the biggest catastrophe in the history of the old castle occurred: the Dürnitz building with both towers was largely destroyed by an escalating chimney fire. The reconstruction, carried out by Paul Schmitthenner and financed by donations, came to a standstill in the Second World War.

The old castle as seen from Karlsplatz

In 1944 the old castle, which had not yet been fully restored, was badly hit by air raids and burned down, two thirds of the arcade courtyard were destroyed. From 1947 to 1969 the Arkadenhof and Dürnitzbau were also rebuilt by Paul Schmitthenner based on their original architecture . The old castle was given a new shape in which the idea of ​​the historical building lived on.

Large parts of the collection fell victim to the fire of December 21, 1931, such as the craft rooms in the folklore collection, as they were too bulky to transport. In 1948/49 the first provisional exhibition rooms of the Württemberg State Museum in the Old Castle were opened to the public again. In 1971 the Dürnitz building was reopened after construction work.

Later, a memorial for Claus von Stauffenberg was set up on one side of the palace ( facing Karlsplatz ) .

Entrance area

There are three large-format paintings and the museum shop in the museum foyer. At the very end there is a memorial to the Stauffenberg brothers with a sculpture by Urban Thiersch , who was also involved in the events of July 20, 1944 .

Collections

Permanent collection of legendary masterpieces

Jesus figure on the palm donkey (14th century)

On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Württemberg State Museum, the Legendary Master Works collection was opened on the second floor of the museum . Cultural history (s) from Württemberg opened. In a journey through time, the cultural and historical development of Württemberg from the hand ax to the First World War is presented and explained on over a thousand exhibits.

introduction

The exhibition begins with a map showing the spatial extent of the Duchy and what will later become the Kingdom of Württemberg. Backlit photos of the most important buildings and excavation sites in Württemberg are presented in a gallery corridor. In the actual exhibition, the visitor walks from the oldest objects to younger and younger exhibits.

Stone age

Mammoth sculpture, ivory, approx. 35,000 - 40,000 years old

The Stone Age was largely shaped by the Ice Age . The museum has taken this into account by means of glowing white showcases, which are supposed to remind of the ice from the Ice Age. Here there are exhibits such as the bone flute , which was made from the spoke of a whooper swan and is one of the world's oldest musical instruments (approx. 40,000 years old).

Many Ice Age small sculptures were found on the Swabian Alb . At the beginning of the exhibition the little lion's head - a very realistic animal sculpture of a cave lion , of which only this part was found - and a mammoth were shown. Both ivory carvings come from the Vogelherd cave in the Heidenheim district and are around 40,000 years old.

Bronze Age and Iron Age

In this section of prehistory and early history , many archaeological finds are presented: ornate ceramics, magnificent jewelry as well as tools and weapons from valuable grave goods.

Under Roman rule

The permanent exhibition Under Roman Rule offers an overview of south-west Germany at the time of the Romans from the 1st to the 4th century AD. All aspects of life in a border province of the Roman Empire are illuminated in various subject areas. The exhibits give an insight into everyday life, the military, economy and trade, handicrafts and handicrafts as well as religion and belief in the afterlife and the incursions of the Teutons and the gradual retreat of the Romans from the area on the right bank of the Rhine are also discussed. The mask helmet from Pfrondorf on display is one of the best preserved of its kind.

The early middle ages

Topics are the migration period , the rule of the Franconian Merovingians and the Christianization of the Alamanni .

Christian life in the Middle Ages

The collection of sacred art from the Middle Ages is significant in terms of art history. With over a hundred works, it is dedicated to the central pictorial themes and functions of medieval art. The focus is on the crucifix, the image of Mary, the altar and the devotional image .

  • Examples of the exhibition

  • Christ is captured

  • Christ before Pilate

  • Christ is scourged

  • Christ must carry his cross

Duchy and Kingdom of Württemberg

Portrait of King Frederick I of Württemberg in coronation regalia and armor , court painter Johann Baptist Seele
Royal crown from 1806 , changed around 1820, the scepter in front

Properties and portraits of the dukes and kings of Württemberg round off this permanent collection. The goals of the collection, however, are oriented towards regional history. The Kunstkammer (see below) is continued in the crown jewels of the Württemberg kings. The royal crown and scepter, commissioned by King Friedrich I in 1806 and made with diamonds, emeralds and pearls, are presented together with courtly ceremonial service and diamond jewelery.

The history of the German south-west not only in the 19th century, but also in the period after the end of the monarchy in the 20th century up to the present is presented in the House of History Baden-Württemberg .

Permanent collection True Treasures

In May 2016, the newly designed second large display collection under the title True Treasures opened on the first floor of the new castle . It is divided into three parts: First, selected pieces from the antique collection are shown. Then follows the original core area of ​​the museum collection, the Kunstkammer, followed by the area of ​​the Celts .

Collection of antiquities

The antique collection in the Landesmuseum Württemberg consists of four parts, the collection of classical antiquity, the provincial Roman collection, the Roman lapidarium and the collection of antique glasses.

Collection of Antiquities: Gallery of Roman Portraits

The collection of antiquities includes objects from the Mediterranean area from the 13th century BC. BC to 5th century AD included. The collection spans from the Bronze Age through the heyday of Greece and the Etruscans to the Roman Empire and late antiquity . One of the oldest objects is a Cycladic idol from around 2500 BC. The collection also includes Greek sculptures, Roman portraits, Roman wall paintings , Etruscan small art and several mummy portraits from Egypt, for example a portrait of Eirene . There are over 600 aegyptiacs in Hohentübingen Castle .

The first object of the later antique collection was in the ducal art chamber. It is the small marble figure of a Roman Iupiter Dolichenus , which was found in the port of Marseille and has been the property of the dukes since 1679. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the collection of antique pieces came to a standstill, in contrast to other royal houses. It was not until the 19th and early 20th centuries that there was an increase through various private collections.

Since objects in the antique trade often come from illegal robbery excavations and the origin of objects is often no longer traceable, the museum management has decided not to expand the collection of antiquities and to stop buying objects; the collection is therefore considered complete.

The Chamber of Art and Curiosities of the Württemberg dukes

The ducal art chamber houses handicrafts and natural wonders. With two Aztec feather shields and a jade sculpture, the Kunstkammer also owns three of the earliest pre-Columbian objects documented in Europe .

True treasures - Celts

Celtic necropolis from the Hochdorf find

This display collection has the subtitle State Tombs and Centers of Power from the 7th to 5th Century BC in Württemberg . The presentation is an overview of the culture of the early Celts in southwest Germany and their networking in prehistoric Europe. With this sub-collection, the State Museum has one of the world's most important holdings from this era.

Glass from four millennia. Ernesto Wolf Collection

Antique glass

The Landesmuseum Württemberg has one of the most important glass collections in the world. Most of the glasses come from the collection of the Stuttgart-born collector Ernesto Wolf , which the State Museum acquired between 1991 and 2003. The antique glasses have an enormous range, which makes it possible to show the history of glass from its beginnings to the late Roman and Byzantine times. The oldest objects from the West Asian region go back to the Bronze Age. Egyptian vessels bear witness to the first heyday of glass production. Brightly colored vessels were part of the table luxury of the Hellenistic and early Roman times; the variety of forms of Roman and Byzantine glass art is impressively demonstrated in the exhibition. The highlights of the glass collection include, for example, an excellently preserved Achaemenid lotus chalice from the first half of the 4th century BC. Chr.

Clocks and scientific instruments

In addition to the glass collection, which has been one of the most important in Europe since the private collector Ernesto Wolf acquired the refined Renaissance and Baroque glasses, there is also a collection of Renaissance clocks and scientific instruments.

Collection of historical musical instruments

The musical instrument collection from the 16th to 20th centuries is focused on keyboard instruments and accentuates early fortepiano . This collection is spatially separated, in the historical building of the fruit box .

Roman lapidary

The lapidarium is spatially separated in the New Palace. There, around 100 stone monuments are presented from the time when large areas of southwest Germany belonged to the Roman provinces of Upper Germany and Raetia. The sculptures, reliefs and inscription stones on display date from the middle of the 1st to the middle of the 3rd century AD. An important piece of this collection is a well-preserved statue of a genius from Bad Wimpfen .

Folklore

The culture and way of life of broad strata of the population are the subject of the folklore collection in Waldenbuch Castle near Böblingen. "Popular culture", the everyday and the special are collected and shown here on 2500 m². The folklore collection includes worlds of work and goods, worlds of images and worldviews, belief and superstition, clothing and disguise, advertising and branded articles, folk and amateur art. The collection presents the upheavals from pre-industrial to industrial and post-industrial times.

Special campaigns on specific topics take place regularly in Waldenbuch, including an annual nativity scene exhibition .

Young Castle Children's Museum

Special exhibitions

Fascination with the sword

From October 13, 2018 to April 28, 2019.

2016/17: The Swabians - Between Myth and Brand

From October 22, 2016 to April 23, 2017, the State Museum presented the exhibition The Swabians - Showing Between Myth and Brand . The aim was to present the “notorious people from the Southwest” in all of its facets.

CHRISTOPH 1515-1568. A renaissance prince in the age of the Reformation

For the 500th birthday of Duke Christoph , one of the most important princes in the country, this exhibition was shown from October 24, 2015 to April 3, 2016.

Art treasures from Hohenlohe

June 13th to August 23rd, 2015

A dream of Rome. Roman city life in southwest Germany

October 25, 2014 to April 12, 2015

In the splendor of the tsars. The Romanows, Württemberg and Europe

October 5, 2013 to March 23, 2014

2012/13 The world of the Celts. Centers of power - treasures of art

This exhibition was shown from September 15, 2012 to February 17, 2013 as a major state exhibition, with 1,300 exhibits from all over Europe at two locations, this had a visitor record with around 185,000 interested people.

2010: joy and sorrow in major and minor

From April 16 to September 12, 2010, the State Museum showed the exhibition Freud and Suffering in major and minor as a contribution to the Great State Exhibition of Music Culture in Baden-Württemberg 2010 . It comprised over 60 music samples and loans, such as the Weingartner song manuscript , which could be seen in Stuttgart for the first time since 1977. In addition, musical works were re-recorded for this exhibition.

2009/10: Treasures of Ancient Syria. The discovery of the Kingdom of Qatna

In 2002 excavations in Qatna in Syria made a spectacular discovery. Tübingen archaeologists, in collaboration with an international team of researchers, found an undisputed royal tomb under the remains of the palace complex. The more than 2000 excavated objects included weapons, furniture and jewelry made of gold and valuable stones, vessels made of different materials, fabrics decorated with purple, cylinder seals.

The gold and semi-precious stone finds from the royal crypt in Qatna were shown for the first time in Europe in the Great National Exhibition Treasures of Ancient Syria - The Discovery of the Kingdom of Qatna . The exhibition, which is under the patronage of Prime Minister Günther Oettinger and the Prime Minister of Syria, Mohammad Naji Ottri , was shown from October 17, 2009 to March 14, 2010.

2008/09: The pirates. Ruler of the seven seas

The Pirates. Rulers of the Seven Seas was an interactive, hands-on exhibition for children aged four to 12. It had 142,000 visitors from November 1, 2008 to April 13, 2009.

2007/08: Egyptian mummies

Under the patronage of Günther Oettinger and Suzanne Mubarak , then First Lady of the Arab Republic of Egypt, the State Museum presented the national exhibition Egyptian Mummies - Immortality in the Land of the Pharaohs from October 6, 2007 to March 24, 2008 . Over 350 original objects from ancient Egypt about the phenomenon of mummification and its cultural-historical background were presented on more than 1000 m² of exhibition space. This included mummies, animal mummies and burial equipment with richly decorated coffins and mummy masks, precious jewelry, statues of gods and cult implements as well as utensils of daily life such as textiles, tools and vessels. In addition, the results of computer tomographic mummy examinations were presented, which allowed an insight into today's research.

Some of the objects came from its own inventory, which was given to the Württemberg State Museum in 1910 as a gift from the Stuttgart manufacturer Ernst von Sieglin and which today form the Sieglin Collection . The objects were mainly made available by museums in Germany and abroad. The exhibition had around 220,000 visitors.

King Friedrich of Württemberg (1816)

2006/07: The Kingdom of Württemberg. 1806–1918 monarchy and modernity

From September 22nd, 2006 to February 4th, 2007, the State Museum commemorated the elevation of Württemberg to a kingdom and the changes and upheavals on the way to modernity with the Great State Exhibition. In addition to the Württemberg royal family, thematic priorities were also set that traced the life of the population. The exhibition had more than 168,000 visitors.

1977: The time of the Hohenstaufen

The exhibition was organized on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the state of Baden-Württemberg.

Society for the Promotion of the Landesmuseum Württemberg e. V.

In the Society for the Promotion of the State Museum Württemberg e. V. friends of the house got together in 1910.

The aim of the funding company is to anchor the importance of the largest museum of cultural history in the state of Baden-Württemberg in the public's awareness and to support its activities. With the contributions and donations of its members, the sponsoring society finances the purchase and restoration of works of art, concerts, museum educational activities for children and young people, guided tours for the disabled, lecture series, publications as well as communication and mediation to the outside world.

Museums

Reliquary shrine , Cologne around 1200

In addition to its headquarters in Stuttgart, the Landesmuseum Württemberg has branches and branches :

The branch in Schloss Aulendorf (art of classicism; old toys) was closed in 2016.

In 1989 the Archaeological State Museum Baden-Württemberg was founded with a main exhibition in Konstanz , which has also included the following former branches of the State Museum Württemberg since 2003: Walheim (Roman House), Osterburken (Roman Museum), Aalen ( Limes Museum ), Rottweil (Roman Department of the Dominican Museum ), Oberriexingen (Roman wine cellar) and Bad Buchau ( Federseemuseum with Stone Age village).

Collections on the Internet

Around 10,000 objects can be researched using the museum's digital catalog.

State office for museum support

The State Office for Museum Care is an independent department of the State Museum of Württemberg founded in 1979. It supports the non-state museums, collections and museum facilities in Baden-Württemberg.

See also

Web links

Commons : Landesmuseum Württemberg  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Katharina Küster, Ulrike Andres et al .: True Treasures Kunstkammer . Landesmuseum Württemberg, Stuttgart 2016. ISBN 978-3-7995-1142-1 , p. 11 ff.
  2. ↑ Werner Fleischhauer: The history of the art chamber of the dukes of Württemberg in Stuttgart . W. Kohlhammer Stuttgart 1976, p. 141 ff.
  3. ↑ Landesmuseum Württemberg: Legendary Master Works. Theiss, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-929055-72-6
  4. ^ Thomas Fischer : The Romans in Germany. Theiss, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-8062-1325-9 , p. 43 represents the assumption that this helmet was also used in combat after the visor was removed; Image of the helmet  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. via the BAM portal ; Figure with side view .@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.bam-portal.de  
  5. ↑ Book series True Treasures . State Museum Württemberg, Stuttgart 2016.
  6. ↑ Nina Willburger : True Treasures of Antiquity. Landesmuseum Württemberg, Stuttgart 2016, ISBN 978-3-7995-1140-7 , p. 11 ff.
  7. ↑ landesmuseum-stuttgart.de: Christoph online (85 objects, digital catalog)
  8. ↑ landesmuseum-stuttgart.de: digital catalog, all objects (as of February 2019)

Coordinates: 48 ° 46 ′ 37.3 "  N , 9 ° 10 ′ 46.1"  E