Research Museum Schöningen

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The Schöningen Research Museum after completion as a palaeon in July 2013

The Schöningen Research Museum is a visitor center and museum in Schöningen in the Helmstedt district , which primarily serves to exhibit the Schöningen spears and to depict the living and environmental conditions when they were created around 300,000 years ago. It is located in the immediate vicinity of the place where the spears were found in the former Schöningen open-cast lignite mine .

The facility was opened on June 24, 2013 under the name palaeon , also known as the Schöninger Speere Research and Experience Center . The palaeon, operated by a GmbH , closed on June 30, 2019 due to high financial losses and became the sponsorship of the Lower Saxony State Office for Monument Preservation on July 1, 2019 .

description

Entrance hall of the palaeon with soil profiles from the Schöningen open-cast lignite mine

concept

The centerpiece of the museum exhibition are the eight Schöningen spears, which are presented in a showcase. The spears were preserved using water-soluble synthetic resin that stabilized the weakened wood. Previously, they were stored for years in light-tight stainless steel tanks with distilled water and were shown in transparent water containers during the Lower Saxony State Exhibition in 2007 and 2008.

In addition to the exhibition area, the paläon is dedicated to interdisciplinary research into the Schöningen sites and the Pleistocene archeology in the former Schöningen open-cast lignite mine. A transparent research and laboratory area as well as an interactive visitor laboratory and a museum didactic point connect the areas of research and museum. The place is also designed as an extracurricular learning location . The Lower Saxony State Office for Monument Preservation was responsible for the conception and content planning of the project from the start.

location

The museum is located on the edge of the former Schöningen Süd opencast mine in the Helmstedt lignite mining area . From the building, visitors have a direct view of the opencast mine from which the finds originate. On the 34 hectare outdoor area of ​​the palaeon, a pasture with wild horses and typical plant communities from the warm period illustrate the natural environment around 300,000 years ago. In addition, European pond turtles and bison , which are part of the natural local fauna, are to be settled there.

building

Facade detail with a futuristic effect

In the competition for museum building on July 5, 2010, the Zurich architects Holzer Kobler Architekturen prevailed against 23 competitors. The groundbreaking ceremony took place on November 28, 2011. The building owner was the city of Schöningen. The topping-out ceremony took place on June 11, 2012 .

On April 25, 2012, after a public name was found, the name of the future center was set to palaeon . The name refers to the Paleolithic as the time from which the Schöninger spears come. On June 24, 2013 the museum was opened under the name palaeon .

In April 2016, the building was shortlisted for the Lower Saxony State Prize for Architecture , which has been awarded annually since 2002.

Visitor numbers

When the museum was planned, up to 100,000 visitors per year were expected. In 2017 there were around 43,000 paying visitors, including around 8,000 high school students. From the opening in June 2013 to December 8, 2013, 50,000 visitors were counted and 100,000 by August 31, 2014. In the first three years there were around 250,000 visitors. With exhibitions like the Lego journey , in which Lego bricks human history should be closer bring, tried to set up in 2016 to develop other interested circles, which increased the number of visitors by 20%.

history

Planning

At the end of the 1990s in Schöningen, under Mayor Jürgen Lübbe, the idea of ​​setting up a museum at the site of the “Schöninger Speere” on the edge of the local brown coal mine arose. In 1999 the city hired the archaeologist and geographer Stephan A. Lütgert as the municipal project coordinator, who from 2000 to 2007 was also the managing director of the Förderverein Schöninger Speere - Erbe der Menschheit e. V. was chaired by Utz Claassen . During this time in Schöningen, among other things, several special exhibitions related to the excavations were realized together with the Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum and the “Schöningen Archaeological Days” established as an annual event. The “Schöninger Speere Research and Experience Center” project was part of Braunschweig's 2010 application for European Capital of Culture .

After the commitment of the city and the development association had received little support at the state level for many years, changed political framework conditions in 2007 ensured that the long-term museum plans could be concretized and implemented. During this time, Wolf-Michael Schmid, President of the Braunschweig Chamber of Commerce and Industry and a native of Schöninger, was elected as the new chairman of the Förderverein Schöninger Speere - Erbe der Menschheit . Together with the newly elected mayor Mathias Wunderling-Weilbier - supported by the state archaeologist of Saxony-Anhalt , Harald Meller , who counts the spears among the ten most important archaeological finds - the activities for the presentation of the spears on site. Financed by the Braunschweig Foundation , a feasibility study was carried out for a museum or a visitor site that recommended the construction of a “research and experience center”. In the spring of 2008, Schmid again turned to the then Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, Christian Wulff , who had already declared the project to be worthy of support during his time as opposition leader.

implementation

Construction of the paleon, April 2012

Only funds from the economic stimulus package II , which was made available from 2007 to overcome the financial crisis, and an associated supplementary package made it possible to publicly finance the construction project. Accordingly, on March 1, 2009, the state of Lower Saxony provided 15 million euros from top-up funds for the economic stimulus package II for the construction of a “research and experience center”.

The then Lower Saxony Minister of Science, Johanna Wanka , broke ground for the paläon in November 2011 . On June 24, 2013, the building was opened by Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Stephan Weil and presented to the public.

The operator of the palaeon was a supporting company in the form of a GmbH with shareholders, including the district of Helmstedt and the city of Schöningen.

In November 2014, after the Königslutter information center, the Salder Castle Museum in Salzgitter and the Braunschweig Natural History Museum , the paleon became the fourth information center of the Harz - Braunschweiger Land - Ostfalen Geopark .

First criticism

As soon as the new building project became known in 2009, there were doubts about the profitability and the expected number of visitors, even if the findings themselves are considered by researchers to be the "crown jewels of Lower Saxony archeology". The taxpayers' association and individual politicians criticized the new building as a "waste of money".

The state government of Lower Saxony , on the other hand, saw the palaeon as a lighthouse project that was to be seen in conjunction with other museums in the area and should also promote tourism in the structurally weak region in eastern Lower Saxony.

Economic difficulties

In 2016 the paleon's economic difficulties became known when a deficit of around 300,000 euros was expected for 2016. The Lower Saxony Ministry of Science made a total of one million euros available, which was paid out by 2018. The taxpayers' association criticized the grant and called the paleon a "subsidy grave".

In 2017, the museum received a second managing director in addition to the general manager. The general manager should primarily take care of commercial matters as well as marketing and sales, while the second manager, an archaeologist with a doctorate, should focus on the areas of exhibitions and guided tours. Special exhibitions were planned, such as the saber-toothed cats, but also general cultural events such as concerts, as well as a stronger networking of the scientific locations in order to make the palaeon a "strong economic factor". This did not work. After half a year, the general manager left the palaeon. In September 2017, a so-called new dual leadership consisting of the previous managing director and a journalist took over the management of the palaeon. In October 2018 it became known that a managing director was no longer running the palaeon. The journalist left the palaeon in early 2019. Then a new manager took over the management of the palaeon.

restructuring

At the end of 2017 it was announced that the supporting company of the paläon will be dissolved and that the state of Lower Saxony will take over the facility in 2019 as part of the Lower Saxony State Office for Monument Preservation. The taxpayers' union spoke out against the takeover. and awarded the Lower Saxony Minister of Science Björn Thümler in 2018 the so-called “bottomless pit” as a negative prize for tax waste. In March 2019, ver.di Süd-Ost-Niedersachsen warned against a closure of the palaeon or a restriction of the previous operations, especially at the expense of the employees: "About 30 jobs [...] are about to be closed." At the end of April 2019, the employees were dismissed in order to dissolve paläon GmbH on June 30, 2019, whereby five of the 30 jobs were to be retained.

In mid-May 2019, a rough concept of the Lower Saxony State Office for Monument Preservation was announced to cease operation of the Paläon Research and Experience Center and to restructure the property into the “Schöningen Research Museum”. Four positions, including a house technician, were advertised for this.

On July 1, 2019, the building complex with 2,300 square meters of usable space was reopened as the “Schöningen Research Museum”. Since then, the facility has belonged to the Lower Saxony State Office for the Preservation of Monuments, which reorganized and structured the communication of archeology at the Schöningen site. The new discoveries announced in 2020 included the Schöningen throwing stick and the Schöningen forest elephant .

In 2020, the media reported on the statements by the Lower Saxony Minister of Science Björn Thümler on the planned takeover of the research and museum operations by the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment at the University of Tübingen . In addition, he would like the archaeological sites in Schöningen from UNESCO -Welterbekomitee for World Heritage Site can be explained.

literature

  • Henning Haßmann , Lower Saxony State Office for Monument Preservation (Ed.): Palaeon. Excavation and architecture . Small series on the palaeon, volume 1 (German / English). Nünnerich-Asmus Verlag, Mainz 2013, ISBN 978-3-943904-43-7 .

Web links

Commons : Paleon  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikivoyage: Paleon  Travel Guide

Remarks

  1. ↑ Markus Haage: Opening of the Paläon - June 24, 2013 - Schöningen without comment. In: Mein-Schoeningen.de. Markus Haage Medien, June 26, 2013, accessed June 8, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Admire the oldest spears known to man. In: NDR.de. Norddeutscher Rundfunk, July 3, 2019, accessed on April 25, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Budding archaeologists visited the palaeon at palaeon on November 14, 2013
  4. ↑ In the wet element - the documentation of the Schöninger Speere in: Reports on the preservation of monuments in Lower Saxony 2/2008 (pdf)
  5. ↑ Guido Kleinhubbert: Krumme Latten in: Der Spiegel from January 25, 2019
  6. ↑ The “paleon”: spearhead in structural change? at N3 from June 12, 2012 ( memento from June 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) on ndr.de
  7. ↑ The home of the archaeological world sensation “Schöninger Speere” is named “paleon”.
  8. ^ Lower Saxony State Prize for Architecture 2016 .
  9. ↑ Michael Strohmann: Speere Museum will open in 2011. In: Braunschweiger Zeitung. BZV Medienhaus GmbH, February 3, 2009, accessed on June 8, 2019 .
  10. ↑ a b State of Lower Saxony takes over the paleon at ndr.de from October 23, 2018
  11. ↑ palaeon welcomed 50,000th visitor .
  12. ↑ 100,000th visitor to the paleon exhibition welcomed .
  13. ↑ Wolf-Hendrik Müllenberg: Lego man swinging Stone Age club , NDR, March 26, 2016.
  14. ^ Paläon managing director: More visitors this summer , in: Helmstedter Nachrichten , July 30, 2016.
  15. ↑ Article Wonder weapon of the Stone Age in the "time" v. June 9, 2004
  16. ↑ Applicant website with an article about the spears ( 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / braunschweig2010.de
  17. ↑ Thilo Jordan: Research and experience center Schöninger Speere opened. In: archaeologie-online.de. archaeomedia, Freiburg, June 28, 2013, accessed June 29, 2013 .
  18. ^ "Lower Saxony Treasury": palaeon opened. In: ndr.de. June 26, 2013, archived from the original on June 26, 2013 ; Retrieved June 26, 2013 .
  19. ↑ Paläon as of now Geopark Information Center , website of the palaeon, November 4, 2014.
  20. ↑ Stone Age becomes a location factor. in: Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung of November 27, 2011.
  21. ↑ A grant deal. In: Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung of November 27, 2011.
  22. ↑ The “paleon”: spearhead in structural change? at N3 from June 12, 2012 ( memento from June 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) on ndr.de
  23. ↑ Prestige project paläon needs support at ndr.de from October 19, 2016.
  24. ^ Praise for the project-related state funding of the Paläon in: Helmstedter Nachrichten of October 19, 2016.
  25. ↑ Taxpayers' Association criticizes grant for palaeon at ndr.de from October 20, 2016.
  26. ^ Subsidy grave Palaeon. In: Steuerzahler.de. Association of Taxpayers Lower Saxony and Bremen e. V., October 23, 2018, accessed April 19, 2020 .
  27. ↑ Speere-Zentrum “Paläon” gets another managing director , in: Braunschweiger Zeitung, December 2, 2016.
  28. ↑ Magdalena Sydow: Exclusive: Interview with new managing director of the Paläon , regionalHelmstedt.de, January 15, 2017 (interview with Manfred Casper).
  29. ↑ Michael Ahlers: Manfred Casper leaves the paleon. In: braunschweiger-zeitung.de. BZV Medienhaus GmbH, July 18, 2017, accessed on July 29, 2018 .
  30. ↑ Dirk Breyvogel: The new managing director wants to make Paläon better known nationwide. In: Braunschweiger Zeitung. BZV Medienhaus GmbH, August 23, 2018, accessed on March 20, 2019 .
  31. ↑ Markus Brich: Paleon Plan: Schöningen politicians still have many questions. In: Braunschweiger Zeitung. BZV Medienhaus GmbH, October 23, 2018, accessed on March 20, 2019 .
  32. ↑ Markus Brich: Works council expects the paleon concept for the end of March. In: Braunschweiger Zeitung. BZV Medienhaus GmbH, February 25, 2019, accessed on March 24, 2019 .
  33. ↑ Thümler repairs a " bottomless pit". In: Braunschweiger Zeitung. BZV Medienhaus GmbH, December 13, 2018, accessed on March 20, 2019 .
  34. ↑ Paleon before the end! In: Facebook. ver.di - United Service Union, March 19, 2019, accessed on March 20, 2019 .
  35. ↑ Markus Brich: Termination without a concept: Is the Palaeon threatened with closure? In: Braunschweiger Zeitung. BZV Medienhaus GmbH, April 25, 2019, accessed on April 25, 2019 .
  36. ↑ Paleon Works Council fears closure of ndr.de on April 26, 2019
  37. ↑ Michael Ahlers: The Schöninger Paläon is to become a "research museum". In: Braunschweiger Zeitung. BZV Medienhaus GmbH, May 14, 2019, accessed on May 15, 2019 .
  38. ↑ Paläon: New start as a research museum at ndr.de from July 1, 2019
  39. ↑ Schöningen shows forest elephant skeleton in Westdeutsche Zeitung from May 20, 2020
  40. ↑ New plans for Speere Museum: Unesco World Heritage targeted in Süddeutsche Zeitung from July 2, 2020

Coordinates: 52 ° 7 ′ 47.8 ″  N , 10 ° 59 ′ 30.6 ″  E