Kalkriese Museum and Park

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Overview board for the museum grounds at the entrance

Museum and Park Kalkriese is an archaeological museum with an attached open-air museum in the Bramsch district of Kalkriese am Wiehengebirge in the Osnabrücker Land . The facility was founded because the Kalkriese find region indicates that one of the scenes of the Varus Battle between Arminius and Varus could have been here in AD 9 .

History of the museum

The discovery of the three slingshot leads in 1988 triggered the ongoing archaeological excavations in Kalkriese.
The iron face mask - the showpiece of the exhibition.
Advertising board on the museum grounds

The British officer and amateur archaeologist Tony Clunn found three Roman slingshots and Roman coins in the surrounding fields in 1987 and 1988 . In 1989, planned excavations began , which unearthed a large number of coins, weapons, fragments of the equipment of Roman soldiers, animal and human bones and the remains of a rampart. The importance of the place as one of the possible venues for the Varus Battle quickly became clear.

In order to be able to present the archaeological finds to the public quickly, an information room was set up on a nearby farm in 1993. As part of a project for the World Exhibition Expo 2000 , the Varusschlacht Museum Park was created , which was supplemented by a museum building in 2001 and opened with a completely redesigned exhibition in 2002. The construction of the museum cost 14 million euros. In 2009 the facility was expanded to include a visitor center.

The museum is supported by the district of Osnabrück and the Sparkasse Foundation in the Osnabrück region. The museum's manager is Joseph Rottmann, the director is Heidrun Derks. The museum is growing in popularity and attracts around 100,000 visitors annually, including around 1,000 school classes alone.

In 2005 the museum received the Europa Nostra Award . The prize of 10,000 euros was awarded “for the innovative interpretation of the ancient battlefield and the interdisciplinary research work.” The Varus-Kurier appears once a year with topics from Kalkriese and archeology.

For the 2000th anniversary of the Varus Battle in 2009, exhibitions were held in Kalkriese, in the Lippisches Landesmuseum in Detmold and in the LWL Roman Museum in Haltern am See .

park

Archaeological excavations accessible to the public are being carried out on the grounds of the approximately 20 hectare park . A section of the site, which has been sunk to the historical level by sheet pile walls , with a reconstructed site situation and a reconstructed wall gives a small impression of the battlefield.

In the park area, the course of the wall is marked by iron steles in the ground. The presumed march route of the Roman army, the "Route of the Romans", is marked by steel plates in the area. In addition, steel plates in the ground offer a lot of information about the course of the battle, people and finds. The methods of the archaeological investigation of the ancient battlefield are clearly shown on display boards .

The organizers regularly offer various events to the public. The highest numbers of visitors are regularly recorded in the uneven years that take place in the "Roman and German Days". In the anniversary year 2009, 26,000 people attended the spectacle.

museum

The modern museum building with its facade made of rusting steel plates - so-called Korten steel - and glass windows was designed by the Zurich architects Annette Gigon and Mike Guyer and completed in 2002. A 40 meter high observation tower allows a panoramic view of the presumed battlefield. Around 400 objects from the excavations in Kalkriese are shown in the museum's permanent exhibition . A total of around 6,000 Roman finds have come to light in Kalkriese. The highlight of the exhibition is the iron helmet mask of a Roman rider, which once wore a cover made of sheet silver, which was probably torn off by looters.

  • Exhibition and observation tower

  • View of the park from the exhibition tower

  • A reconstructed Germanic wall on the excavated battlefield

  • An excavation site on the battlefield

  • "Peace sign" of all 27 EU countries , set up in the anniversary year 2009

criticism

According to press reports, the Osnabrück district and the Kalkriese regional associations want to develop into a “main center of German history” with around 28 million euros. However, criticism has also been expressed that there are only indications that the finds are remains from the Varus Battle and that an objective discussion in the interest of promoting tourism is avoided.

literature

  • Joachim Harnecker: Arminius, Varus and the battlefield of Kalkriese. An introduction to the archaeological work and its results . 2nd Edition. Rasch, Bramsche 2002, ISBN 3-934005-40-3 .

Web links

Commons : Museum und Park Kalkriese  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Matthias Schulz: Che Guevara in the foggy country . In: Der Spiegel . No. March 11 , 2004 ( spiegel.de ).
  2. ↑ Silke Hellwig : The last battle. Where did the legendary Varus Battle once take place? In: The time . March 29, 2007, archived from the original on February 12, 2013 ; Retrieved November 11, 2007 .
  3. ↑ Kalkriese awarded . In: Hamburger Abendblatt . November 7, 2005 ( abendblatt.de ).
  4. ↑ 26,000 visitors to Roman and German days . In: Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung . June 14, 2009 ( haz.de ).
  5. ↑ Macus Junkelmann: Horsemen like statues made of ore . Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1996, ISBN 3-8053-1821-9 , p. 18, 19 and 54 .
  6. ↑ Josef Nyary: 1997 years later - Who will win the Varus Battle? In: Hamburger Abendblatt . November 14, 2006 ( abendblatt.de ).
  7. ↑ Siegfried Schoppe et al .: Varus found his end in the Lippe Forest: A pamphlet against the Kalkrieser hypothesis . December 28, 2006 ( arminiusforschung.de [PDF; 209 kB ]). arminiusforschung.de ( Memento of the original dated September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.arminiusforschung.de
  8. ↑ Peter Kehne : Marketing contra science: Kalkriese and the attempt to take possession of the Varus battle . In: The customer . 54th year 2003, ISSN  0342-0736 , p. 93 .

Coordinates: 52 ° 24 '27 "  N , 8 ° 7' 48"  E