Bolzano Museum Association

Old logo of the Bolzano Museum Association with the building of the City Museum

View of the Bolzano City Museum in 1905

The Bolzano Museum Association is one of the oldest associations in the city of Bolzano . It was founded in 1882 by art-loving Bolzano citizens. In order to counter the impending danger of domestic works of art being sold abroad, the association built up an extensive collection of art historical, folkloric and religious works of art with the help of donations from the Bolzano citizens, ranging from the Middle Ages to modern times. The founding chairman was the Catholic priest, art historian and first official monument preservationist in Tyrol, Karl Atz .

The holdings of the museum association - including the Karl Wohlgemuth collection - were first housed in the Catholic journeyman's house (now the Kolping House in Bolzano) and in 1905 moved to the newly built building of the Bolzano City Museum . The archives of the city of Bolzano and the former Heiliggeistspital Bolzano were temporarily brought together here.

One of the supporters of the association and the museum concept was Julius Perathoner , the last German mayor of Bolzano.

After the annexation of South Tyrol by Italy in 1919 and the seizure of power by fascism in 1922, the Bolzano City Museum was to become a "Museo dell'Alto Adige", which had to accommodate all art-historical objects and was Italianized according to the requirements of the regime . The holdings of other museums in South Tyrol were ruthlessly looted and incorporated into the city museum. The museum association, which was also one of the few German associations during the fascist era that was not banned or dissolved, was able to protect the objects owned by the association.

In 2003 the city museum was closed due to renovation work and only partially reopened in 2011.

literature

• Toni Pescosta: 125 years of the Bolzano Museum Association . Raetia, Bozen 2007, ISBN 978-88-7283-296-7

Web links

• Official website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Short history of the museum and the museum association at http://www.gemeinde.bozen.it/UploadDocs/10250_Der_Drache.pdf , viewed on December 28, 2012
2. ↑ Hannes Obermair : Written form and documentary tradition of the city of Bozen up to 1500 - patterns, forms, typologies. In: »cristallîn wort«. Hartmann studies. Volume 1. LIT Verlag: Münster 2008. ISBN 978-3-8258-1097-9 , pp. 33-58, reference pp. 43-45. doi: 10.13140 / RG.2.1.1126.1204 .
3. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of March 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), viewed December 28, 2012