Nibelungen Museum Worms
 Logo of the Nibelungen Museum |
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| Data | |
|---|---|
| place |
Worms 
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| Art |
Literature museum on the Nibelungen saga
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| architect | Bernd Hoge (architect), Olivier Auber (exhibition) |
| opening | August 18, 2001 |
| Number of visitors (annually) | 23,288 (2010/11) |
| operator |
City of Worms
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| management |
Olaf Mückain (scientific director), Ulrich Mieland (administration)
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| Website | |
| ISIL | DE-MUS-741815 |
The Nibelung Museum in Worms is dedicated to the Nibelung legend. The museum, opened in 2001, integrates a section of the historic Worms city wall and two towers from the 12th century. The permanent audiovisual exhibition illuminates the mythical character of the Nibelungen saga. In addition, cultural events as well as lectures and specialist conferences take place in the premises.
History of the museum
History and planning
Most of the scenes in the Nibelungenlied take place in the city of Worms and its surroundings . The city has therefore played a special role in the reception of the Nibelungenlied for centuries.
Long-term considerations to honor the importance of the city of Worms as the most important place of the saga by building a new museum, led in June 1996 to a competition report commissioned by the city. The well-preserved section of the medieval fortification was ideal for the project due to its authenticity and the favorable location between the Worms Cathedral and the Rhine promenade with the Hagendenkmal .
The city council decided in February 1997 for the concept of the Paris agency Auber + Huge & associés (A + H) , the planning order was placed in July 1997.
realization
After archaeological excavations in the excavation area at the beginning of 1999, nothing stood in the way of the start of construction of the museum, which had a total cost of 4.5 million euros. In the meantime, however, the project found itself exposed to increasing criticism from parts of the Worms public, which was reflected in a polarizing debate in the local media that lasted for months.
A citizen's initiative led by means of a successful petition for induce a construction freeze. In the subsequent referendum on September 12, 1999, a majority of those who voted answered the question “Do you want a Nibelungen Museum to be built in Worms on the city wall, for which public funds in the millions are used, which are no longer used for other meaningful projects are available? " . At 22%, however, the participation fell short of the quorum required in Rhineland-Palatinate .
Therefore, the work could begin with the groundbreaking on November 18, 1999. After almost two years of construction, the Nibelungen Museum in Worms opened on August 18, 2001.
The overall concept
Since the Nibelungen saga is a mythical, not a historical motif, original exhibits are extremely rare; a manuscript of the Nibelungenlied could hardly have filled a museum. In addition, the sometimes problematic history of reception and impact could have been countered with a distanced commentary, but it was not the intention of the initiators to further increase the existing distance.
The concept of the media artist Olivier Auber and the architect Bernd Hoge therefore offers visitors an insight into the medieval saga by means of a "fantastic-fictional" representation that contrasts with the old walls of the fortification.
“A myth is a holistic phenomenon. No single, external perspective could ever describe it objectively. [That is why the Nibelungen Museum] is not a traditional scientific museum, but an artistic creation. It provides an overview of [the interpretations that have arisen over the centuries] and adds another to them. "
The visitor is guided through large parts of the museum by sound recordings on a portable audio system. The unknown poet of the Nibelungenlied appears as a fictional narrator.
“If the author had returned to the living, it was to rehabilitate his text, his misunderstood, alienated [...] work. […] May the poet, in his own house, succeed in reconciling you with the song and with his world of ideas! "
The actor Mario Adorf gave him the voice for this in German, Marc-Henri Boisse in French and David Stanley in English.
The themed rooms
The original room concept comprised three themed rooms: viewing tower, listening tower and treasure room. The underground treasure room was closed in summer 2007 for technical reasons. A “myth laboratory” has existed in this room since mid-2008, in which visitors can recapitulate the tour of the museum. Above all, visitors who for health reasons are unable to take the audio tour through the high towers can - since the myth laboratory is barrier-free - experience and understand the entire tour from monitors. With cross-media technology and a large screen, the room also offers museum educational opportunities for groups.
The eye tower
In the "Sehturm" the literary work is traced in its basic features and historical framework. At the same time, the mythification of the work in the history of its reception up to its transfiguration into a “national myth” is shown. The narrator helps to “grasp the invisible threads that have linked together over the centuries” .
The sight tower is located in one of the medieval defense towers. It is dominated by a 12 meter high, free swinging iron spindle, around which a spiral staircase leads. The shiny gold spindle, on whose ribs 1200 luminous pictures are attached, symbolizes the "Rütelin", the talisman from the Nibelungen treasure. Among the pictures are over a thousand representations of paintings, engravings, propaganda posters and opera productions that - inspired by the Nibelungs - convey part of the myth.
The listening tower
The “listening tower” is designed as the “narrator's office”. Visitors can listen to passages of the original song on a series of “listening chairs”, which are spoken in Middle High German and translated simultaneously. At the same time, the visitor learns more about the contemporary everyday and high culture that influenced the author of the Nibelungenlied.
As an illustration of the text passages, some of the images that the visitor could already encounter in the viewing tower return here and are now explained in more detail.
The myth laboratory
The “myth laboratory”, which is housed in an underground room, gives visitors to the museum the opportunity to reflect after the two-hour tour . The entire text of the speaker, the anonymous poet, can be called up again at this point and the Rütelin, the 17.5 m high pictorial concept housed in the viewing tower, is graphically displayed again and can now be rotated and turned as desired. For school classes, an internet search function offers the opportunity to do research on the spot for presentations or the like and under the motto: “It doesn't always have to be the Nibelungs”, numerous Flash films and short documentations can be called up in the Myth Laboratory. These deal with the topics of Worms, modern sagas , classic myths (see Myth ) and the Nibelungenlied . Using the “master terminal” and a projector attached to the ceiling, speakers can insert and present their own content in addition to the functions mentioned above.
The "Myth Laboratory" is also used for changing special presentations.
International response
Even before the museum opened, the "virtual treasure" was presented at two symposia in December 2000 in Paris and in April 2001 in Boston at the invitation of the Goethe Institute , and met with international media coverage in France , Canada , the United States and Japan :
"A high-tech, cutting-edge interpretation of the Nibelungen myth ..."
"Au-delà de la performance technique qui sait se faire oublier, les auteurs ont réussi une œuvre d'une grande poésie ..."
“Sitôt que l'on y entre, en sentira son rhythme, sa joie ou ses tourments. »
The opening of the museum was also received positively by numerous national media:
“In the new Nibelungen Museum in Worms, the nebulous legend is made visible. Thousands of images, texts and sounds result in a fantastic picture of the medieval heroic epic. "
"... an admission that deserves all attention."
"The Nibelungen Museum in Worms brings a piece of German world literature back to life virtually."
Project group
- Olivier Auber (A + H): content planning, museum & treasure
- Bernd Hoge (A + H): Architecture & Exhibition
- Thierry Fournier: Music, sound composition and real-time program (sound)
- Emmanuel Mâa Berriet: Real-time VR program (picture)
- Joachim Heinzle and Olivier Auber: Text of the narrator
- Ursula Kraft: Composition 'Rütelin'
- Susanne Wernsing: Iconography and topic research
The controversy over the treasure
Until 2007 there was a virtual “treasure room” in what is now the museum's “myth laboratory”, a real-time image projection of the Nibelungen treasure and the city of Worms with its buildings and monuments. In the “Weltengrund” below, new images and sounds were continuously released. The images and structures that make up the “ground of the world” go back to Olivier Auber's idea of the Poietic Generator . The installation was removed by the museum administration without informing the artist.
See also
literature
- Wolfgang Grün: The city wall of Worms . Stadtarchiv Worms , Worms 1998. ISBN 3-00-002765-3 [section Nibelungenmuseum : pp. 32–35].
- Jörg Koch: Wormser Nibelungen-Lexikon, Worms 2014, ISBN 978-3-944380-13-1
Web links
- Nibelungen Museum Worms
- Technical information on the myth laboratory
- Further texts, pictures and videos from the concept office A + H
- Press review of the Nibelungen Museum (with links to scanned articles)
- Concept office A + H / other projects
Individual evidence
- ↑ Volker Gallé : Kulturbericht 2011. (PDF) September 27, 2012, accessed on February 28, 2016 .
- ↑ Green: Die Stadtmauer , p. 32.
- ↑ a b from: The place of the unknown poet , The Nibelungen Museum in Worms from the point of view of the museum makers
- ↑ from: A sea of pictures , The Nibelungen Museum in Worms from the point of view of the museum makers
- ↑ from: Treasure of the Nibelungs , Boston Digital Industry, May 2001
- ↑ from: Tragédies en sous-sol , Liberation of December 8, 2000
- ↑ from: Un trésor virtuel sous la ville , Le Devoir from January 20, 2001
- ↑ from: Siegfried, Desperate Wanted , Frankfurter Rundschau, August 11, 2001
- ↑ from: What are and what do the Nibelungs tell us? , Frankfurter Rundschau of August 21, 2001
- ↑ from: In the ocean of pictures , Süddeutsche Zeitung of August 20, 2001
- ↑ Virtual treasure room: scenario , video , music excerpts
- ↑ cf. en: Poietic Generator
- ↑ "The treasure, sunk again in the Rhine" Open letter to the citizens of Worms and the surrounding area, and their representatives. Olivier Auber (A + H)
