National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina

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Front view of the museum
View of the museum complex

The National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( Bosnian Zemaljski Muzej Bosne i Hercegovine ) in Sarajevo , formerly the State Museum for Bosnia and Herzegovina or Bosnian-Hercegovinian State Museum , was opened as a state museum institution on February 1, 1888. Since its opening, the museum has played a prominent role among the museum and research institutions in what was then Bosnia-Herzegovina and was the first of its kind. In modern Bosnia-Herzegovina , due to its history, it is one of the country's leading scientific institutions. Since the three constitutional ethnic groups of Bosnia could not agree on the financing of the central cultural institutions, the museum was closed since October 2012. It has been open again since September 15, 2015.

history

Ivan Franjo Jukić
The pension fund building in the old town of Sarajevo, the first domicile of today's National Museum
Exhibition of the prehistoric collection around 1893
Exhibition of the entomological collection around 1893
Prehistoric bronze jewelry from Čatići (Kakanj municipality)

Museum Association

The starting point for the museum collection for the National Museum is the Museum Association for Bosnia-Hercegovina, founded in 1885 . The enlightening Franciscan Father Ivan Frano Jukić gave the impetus for this years before it was founded.

The association was founded on the initiative of Benjámin Kállay (administrator for Bosnia-Hercegovina) and the doctor Julius Makanec (association vice- president, † July 1891). This association primarily collected folkloric and archaeological objects for future museum holdings. In addition, he tried to meet the organizational requirements for founding the museum.

At the beginning of 1886, at the instigation of the state government, the association was given two rooms in the building of their former civil servants' pension fund ( Lage ), which were used to accommodate the exhibits that had already been collected. This wing of the building is a wing of the old main post office in the direct vicinity of the Roman Catholic cathedral and opposite the old Turkish bath .

founding

When the Bosnian-Hercegovinian State Museum was officially founded in 1888 , rooms on two floors were rented in the building that was already in use. The then Austro-Hungarian provincial governor and head of the provincial government for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Johann von Appel , took part in the festive opening act .

Due to the rapid growth of the collection before the official opening, the state government had the curator and archaeologist Ćiro Truhelka (1865–1942) for the archaeological-art-historical collection as early as 1886 , the taxidermist Edmund Zelebor for the scientific collection parts in 1886 and another curator for this area , the ornithologist Otmar Reiser (1861–1936). Wenceslaus Radimský (1832–1895), miner of the country, was commissioned to build up the mineralogical-geological collection .

Konstantin Hörmann (1850–1921) was the museum director and worked as a section director in the administrative department of the then state government.

Foundation structure

When it was founded, the Bosnian-Herzegovinian State Museum comprised two departments:

The museum library with exclusively scientific works expanded in the first few years after it was founded through acquisitions and donations. The museum director Constantin Hörmann was particularly useful. The museum received early donations from Sarajevo, Hallein , Vienna , Rovereto and Trenčín . In 1893 there were 701 monographs in the library .

Developments in the development phase

The collections of the State Museum grew very quickly after it was founded, because the employees brought back numerous collectibles that came from short research trips to the country that were undertaken annually.

This included above all archaeological work on prehistoric sites on the Glasinac plateau and on Hallstadt tombs in the vicinity of Visoko as well as on Roman sites of Gradina (archaeological site of the city of Domavia ), in the Sana river area , on the Jezerina field near Bihać , in Zenica (foundation walls of a building), Stolac (thermal bath with mosaic floors), near the settlement Potoci not far from Mostar (tombs with sarcophagi ), in the Drina valley the remains of the Roman road in the Srebrenica region , at Laktaši ( remains of buildings) the fortifications on the Crkvenica rock and the castrum Bolnica near Doboj .

In the first few years the museum was open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. In 1888, the year it was founded, 9,000 people visited the collections. In 1892 the number of visitors had grown to 44,000. The days with the most visitors at this time were Sunday with a predominantly rural and Islamic population and Saturday with a predominantly Israelite population. In consideration of the Muslim visitors, the opening time was extended to 6 p.m. on Fridays during Ramadan since 1892 . The holidays or special occasions in the city were naturally the busiest days for visitors.

Supraregional effect in the first few years

The State Museum attracted considerable attention in its first years and was visited by the following personalities for study purposes in addition to high state representatives (selection): Franz Bulić (museum director in Split ), Moriz Hoernes ( historian ), Emil Holub (Africa researcher), Alexander von Homeyer ( Ornithologist), Carl von Marchesetti (Civico Museo di storia naturale, Trieste ), Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk ( member of the Reichsrat ), Oscar Montelius (historian) and Carl Bernhard Salin (archaeologist).

The museum's rapid popularity also encouraged participation in events beyond the Bosnian-Herzegovinian border. For example, the custodian Truhelka was at the costume exhibition in the Imperial and Royal Austrian Museum of Art and Industry in Vienna in 1891 and the custodian Reiser and the taxidermist Zelebor participated in the international ornithological congress in Budapest .

When the International Congress of Christian Archeology was held in Salona in 1894 , the Sarajevo Museum, with its collections and research results, was an important part of the conference program.

Early museum management

From 1895 to 1904, Constantin Hörmann, the museum's previous ministerial director, was its director. He then returned to the ministerial state administration as head of the political administrative department. After his retirement in 1910, Hörmann was director of the museum until 1917 . He enjoyed great recognition as a collector and editor of local folk songs and for his influence on cultural progress in the country. Since 1889 he published the museum magazine Glasnik zemaljskog muzeja za Bosnu i Herzegovinu .

New museum building in 1913

In 1913 the museum received a new and specially designed building complex. Its architect, the Czech Karel Pařík , built it with a facade in the style of the Italian Renaissance and some elements from the Secession style . In its basic structure, the building complex consists of four pavilion-like buildings, which are arranged symmetrically to one another. Today (2009) the buildings of the National Museum are under monument protection. The need for the new building resulted from the rapidly growing collection. The National Museum is still housed in these buildings today.

In the course of this spatial expansion, the country's first scientific library was built. The Institute for Balkan Research (Bosanskohercegovački institut za istraživanje Balkana) , which was founded in 1904 and arose from the collection and scientific work of Carl Patsch and existed until 1918, worked in this building complex . This research facility had its own library, most recently with around 6000 monographs.

Museum work between 1918 and 1945

During the period of the SHS state and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia , Bosnia-Herzegovina found itself in an isolated position in terms of domestic political tensions, which were driven by the interests of Serbian and Croatian politicians. During this time, the staff could only deal with the maintenance of the museum facilities and had little opportunity to further expand the collections and research activities.
During the occupation by the German Wehrmacht after the Balkan campaign (1941) , museum activities almost came to a standstill.

Development after 1945

With the end of the Second World War and the re-establishment of Yugoslavia , the situation of the National Museum was slowly able to stabilize again. A period of lively research and publication began around 1960. From the estate of Carl Patsch in the National Museum and from the collections of other institutions, an Oriental Institute (Orijentalni institut) was created in 1950 , which belonged to the University of Sarajevo . It was the most important collection of Islamic manuscripts in Europe. At the beginning of the siege of Sarajevo on May 17, 1992, the entire institute was destroyed and its holdings were lost in the fires.

The events of the Bosnian War caused damage to the building complex of the National Museum, but only slightly affected the other collections. The museum library with 400,000 objects could be saved by storing them in shelters, while the national and university library in Sarajevo with its 3 million volumes lost around 90 percent of its holdings on August 25, 1992. That is why the library of the National Museum is of particular importance.

Recent structure

With the help of the UN and numerous foreign institutions, the war damage after 1995 was gradually repaired. The National Museum is finally divided into four main departments, which were based on its founding structure:

  • archeology
  • Natural history
  • ethnology
  • scientific library

The Botanical Garden (Botanički vrt) is located between the pavilions of the museum . Its facilities were damaged during the war in Yugoslavia.

The Sarajevo Haggadah

Sheet from the Sarajevo Haggadah

A special collection item is the Sarajevo Haggada , an instruction for the Seder evening . It was written in Spain around 1314 and brought to Bosnia by Sephardic emigrants around 1492 after the Jews were expelled from Spain , which at that time belonged to the Ottoman Empire . This unique work has been in the museum's possession since 1894 and is the oldest surviving evidence of Jewish book art in Spain. It is a medieval manuscript on parchment with rich illumination .

During the Second World War, the then museum director Jozo Petrović and the curator Derviš Korkut denied the presence of the book. There are different opinions about the whereabouts during the German occupation. According to tradition, the museum director at the time brought it to a mountain village at risk of death, where it is said to have been hidden by Muslim clergymen and other residents. Another variant says that it was buried under a tree. It is believed that it was probably hidden in the rich library holdings in the National Museum.

At the time of the war in Yugoslavia 1992–1995, the director Enver Imamović , some police officers and members of a military unit recovered it from the damaged museum complex, which was located in a front line. They took the Haggadah to the underground vaults of the National Bank in Sarajevo.

In 2002 a separate and specially secured room was set up for this Zimelie in the National Museum . The Jewish Community of Sarajevo, the National Museum, the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina and other donors participated in the financing.

Closure of the museum

The museum building closed in 2013

The museum was temporarily closed to visitors in 2004 due to financial problems. The background to this development is the controversial structural integration of seven important museums of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which the central government of the country has so far ignored. In the course of 2011 consideration was given to discontinuing the entire operation of the National Museum. On December 28, 2011, the museum ceased its work for the public because the available budget was no longer sufficient for the most important tasks, such as the salaries of the employees or the basic museological-conservation tasks. The museum director Adnan Busuladzic was counting on the end of the operation in 2012.

After unsuccessful attempts to continue receiving the monthly operating costs of around 60,000 euros from the responsible Ministry for Civil Affairs , the museum ceased operations on October 4, 2012 after 124 years. On the same day, a protest was carried out at the museum against the closure. The Sarajevo-born artist Azra Aksamija , professor at MIT , sees this decision less as a budget-related, but primarily a political act. According to the Austrian ambassador in Sarajevo, Donatus Köck, “the state museum preserves the identity of the country like no other. It was the largest institution of its kind in all of Southeastern Europe. ”In Bosnia-Herzegovina he observed a neglect of culture and a low appreciation of it, and in mid-2012 he hoped for support for the State Museum from UNESCO .

Publication series

  • Glasnik zemaljskog muzeja za Bosnu i Herzegovinu (in short: Glasnik ) was published in the Bosnian language (alternating Latin and Cyrillic script) as a quarterly periodical. Period of publication from January 1, 1889 to 1943. After 1945 the series appeared under the title Glasnik Zemaljskog Muzeja u Sarajevu / Istorija i etnografija . Because of the war, the series was interrupted from 1992 to 1995. Today she appears again as Glasnik Zemaljskog Muzeja Bosne i Hercegovine u Sarajevu (GZM for short).
  • Scientific reports from Bosnia and Hercegovina appeared at irregular intervals in German to provide information to other Austro-Hungarian and international partners of the museum from 1893 to 1916 and since 1971 in three series (A to 1979, B to 1980, C to 1979)

further

  • Flora Bosne et Hercegovinae. 1950, 1967, 1974, 1983.
  • Novitates musei Sarajevoensis. Volume 1–3 (1925–1936)
  • Novitates, Prirodne nauke. Volumes 1-5 (1945)
  • Otmar Reiser: Ornis Balcanica. 1939 (Volume 1 Bosnia and Herzegovina and parts of Serbia and Dalmatia), 1894 (Volume 2 Bulgaria: (with Eastern Rumelia and Dobruja)), 1905 (Volume 3 Greece and the Greek Islands (with the exception of Crete)), 1896 (Volume 4 Montenegro)
  • Zbornik srednjovjekovnih natpisa Bosne i Hercegovine. 1962, 1964, 1964, 1970.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Radio Sarajevo: Zemaljski muzej će biti otvoren 15th September! ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 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. on radiosarajevo.ba [accessed September 10, 2015] @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.radiosarajevo.ba
  2. ↑ The Publishers and Booksellers Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( Memento of the original from February 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed December 8, 2009) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.uik.ba
  3. ^ Gojko Jokić: Bosnia and Herzegovina . Beograd 1968, pp. 78-79.
  4. ↑ Library in the Science Center for Eastern and South Eastern Europe: Carl Patsch's library  ( page can no longer be accessed , 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. , accessed December 8, 2009.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.wios-regensburg.de  
  5. ^ Nataša Golob: Libraries at War: Former Yugoslavia 1991–1995. In: Gazette du livre médiéval. Volume 28 (1996), ISSN  0753-5015 pp. 38-43, accessed December 8, 2009.
  6. ↑ COMPRESS, liaison offices of the City of Vienna. Announcement of October 20, 2004 ( Memento of the original of February 2, 2014 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.compresspr.at
  7. ↑ State Museum before closing. News from December 27, 2011 on www.dastandard.at
  8. ↑ Cultural heritage is about to be destroyed. Bosnia's oldest scientific institution has been closed - an interview with a historian. News from January 16, 2012 on www.dastandard.at
  9. ↑ Chajm Guski: The Treasure of Sarajevo The National Museum with its precious Haggadah is threatened with closure . News from February 9, 2012 on www.juedische-allgemeine.de
  10. ↑ Doris Pack on behalf of the Committee on Culture and Education: European Parliament resolution on Sarajevo as European Capital of Culture 2014. B7-0281 / 2011
  11. ↑ Bosnian National Museum has to close 124 years after it was founded. on: www.welt.de , October 4, 2012.
  12. ^ Bosnia's National Museum is the latest victim of political funding crisis. News from October 3, 2012 on www.guardian.co.uk
  13. ^ Protesters chain tied to the Museum entrance.  ( 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. Brief information on the protest action on www.cultureshutdown.net@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.cultureshutdown.net  
  14. ↑ Željko Dragić: Interview with Donatus Köck from July 18, 2012 on www.kosmo.at ( Memento of the original from February 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kosmo.at

Coordinates: 43 ° 51 ′ 18 ″  N , 18 ° 24 ′ 9.5 ″  E