Museum of Prehistory and Early History (Berlin)
The Museum of Prehistory and Early History of the National Museums in Berlin is one of the largest national archaeological and prehistoric collections in the Old World. From 1960 to April 27, 2009 it was located in the Langhans Building (former palace theater) of Charlottenburg Palace . The collection has been on view in the Neues Museum on Museum Island since October 2009 .
In addition to a permanent exhibition, special exhibitions are regularly shown. Attached to the museum is a specialist library on prehistory and early history with 50,000 volumes. The museum is also the seat of the commission for research into collections of archaeological finds and documents from north-eastern Central Europe and a project to research ancient Egyptian calendars.
history
The museum's collection goes back to the art gallery of the Hohenzollern family, who from 1830 had built up a collection of old finds in Monbijou Castle as the “Museum of Patriotic Antiquities”. The collection was later located in the Neues Museum , from 1886 in the Museum für Völkerkunde in Prinz-Albrecht-Straße and from 1921 in the Martin-Gropius-Bau , which was converted into the State Museum of Prehistory and Early History in 1931. Rudolf Virchow and Heinrich Schliemann are among the most important patrons and contributors to the collection .
After the Second World War, parts of the museum's holdings came to Russia as looted art , including the Eberswalder gold treasure , the sword scabbard from Gutenstein and the gold find from Cottbus . Parts of the looted collection were shown in 2007 in Moscow in the Pushkin Museum in a Merovingian exhibition.
The museum moved to Charlottenburg Palace in 1960, and the first exhibitions took place in September 1958. After the fall of the Wall, the exhibits that were previously in the East Berlin Museum of Prehistory and Early History could be reunited with the pieces in West Berlin. On April 26, 2009 the exhibition in the Langhans building was closed. The workshops will initially remain at the old location.
Since autumn 2009 the exhibitions have been in the Neues Museum in Berlin-Mitte .
Exhibition halls
The museum can be visited in the form of a tour. This leads through the following halls:
Rudolf Virchow Studio
The Rudolf-Virchow-Studio (Hall 1) is didactically oriented with a focus on school classes. It gives a clear overview with practical examples of the technological history of the Stone , Bronze and Iron Ages and is equipped with a PC station, a lecture room and a separate entrance for school classes.
Schliemann Hall
The Schliemann-Saal (room 104) now houses finds and copies of finds from Heinrich Schliemann's collection of Trojan antiquities , especially parts from the world-famous so-called Priam's treasure . Schliemann had given it to the German people in 1881 for perpetual possession and undivided storage in the imperial capital , whereupon Kaiser Wilhelm I thanked Schliemann in a personal letter and decided that Priam's treasure should be on permanent display in the Museum für Völkerkunde Berlin, which is currently under construction where it was to be seen from 1885 to 1939.
While the most significant parts of the treasure are now in the Pushkin Museum in Russia as looted art and some can only be seen here as copies, the few original parts returned by the Soviet Union to the GDR and from Russia to Germany in 1992 are on display . B. Silver dishes including the large silver vase (the top one in the picture), in which Schliemann found the main treasure made of gold jewelry.
Schliemannsaal in the Neues Museum
Silver dishes from Priam's treasure
Stone and Bronze Age Hall
In the Stone and Bronze Age Hall (Hall 3) finds from this era from Europe are presented. You can see artifacts from the Stone Age sites of Combe Capelle and Le Moustier , artifacts from the Ice Age and the development of paleo and Mesolithic tools. In addition, the Neolithic cultures of Europe from the band ceramic to the bell beaker culture are presented. In addition, exhibits are on display in the Bronze Age section, illustrating the evolution of metallurgy and cult and burial rites. Geographically, the sites range from Western Europe, Northern Germany and Scandinavia, Eastern Central Europe, the Alpine and Danube regions to Northern Italy. One of the main attractions is the moose from Hansaplatz - the fully preserved skeleton of a broad-headed moose ( Alces latifrons ) from the last Ice Age.
Gold hall
The Goldsaal (Room 4) houses valuable precious metal finds from the Bronze Age, especially the Berlin Gold Hat .
Hall 5
In room 5 you can find exhibits from the period from the beginning of the Iron Age to the Middle Ages. This begins with finds from the Hallstatt period from the Alpine region and the breastplate from Sticna, followed by finds from the time of the Celts, the Teutons and the Romans. After all, the Middle Ages are documented through the exhibition of coins, clothing, weapons and other objects.
Special exhibition
Until April 26, 2009 the museum showed an exhibition on the history of the legendary Prussia collection from Königsberg (Prussia) , including its own holdings.
The museum is the organizer of the archeology exhibition Moving Times. Archeology in Germany from September 21, 2018 to January 6, 2019 in the Martin-Gropius-Bau .
literature
- The Berlin Museum of Prehistory and Early History. Festschrift for the 175th anniversary , Acta praehistorica et archaeologica Volume 36/37, Berlin 2005.
- Marion Bertram: From the Rhine to the Spree. The prehistory department of the Royal Museums in Berlin and its connections to the Prussian Rhine Province in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. in: Bonner Jahrbücher Volume 215, 2015 (2016), Pages 3–30.
Web links
- State museums in Berlin: Museum of Prehistory and Early History
- Friends of Old European History and Archeology
- Museum of Prehistory and Early History in the German Digital Library
Individual evidence
- ^ N-tv: Merovingian Show: Looted Art in Moscow
- ↑ Welt.de: The Gold of the Merovingians Moves Moscow , March 13, 2007
- ↑ Deutscher Reichsanzeiger and Royal Prussian State Gazette of February 7, 1881
- ↑ Peter Dittmar: Priam's silver treasure briefly in Berlin. In: welt.de . April 23, 2009. Retrieved October 7, 2018 .
Coordinates: 52 ° 31 '14 " N , 13 ° 23' 52" E