Saxones. A new story of the old Saxons

Exhibition location Lower Saxony State Museum Hanover

Exhibition location Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum

Under the title Saxones - a new history of the old Saxons , a Lower Saxony state exhibition took place in the Lower Saxony State Museum Hanover and the Braunschweig State Museum in Braunschweig from April 2019 to February 2020 . It dealt with the union of the Saxons , which was based in today's northwestern Germany in the 1st millennium . The title of the exhibition uses the Latin word Saxones , with which ancient and late ancient authors referred to the Saxons. It is derived from the typical Saxon cutting knife, the sax .

content

The exhibition on an area of 800 m² described the history of the first millennium after Christ in the area of today's Lower Saxony and Westphalia , when a Saxon identity crystallized there. This was visually illustrated by painted, larger-than-life portraits and scenes of nine people as snapshots from their lives, such as funerals, drinking bouts, returning from the war, cutting hair, war costumes, paperwork and cattle trading. Each picture represented the typical of a century of the first millennium after the birth of Christ. The writing Res gestae Saxonicae , the history of Saxony, written around 970 by the monk Widukind von Corvey, played a central role in the exhibition as the first written source on the Saxons.

Exhibits

Around 850 exhibits were shown in the exhibition, including 160 ensembles of archaeological finds and 60 special individual objects such as weapons, jewelry, manuscripts, documents and liturgical implements . Many pieces are decorated with decorations , the motifs of which people read and understood as codes at the time . Most of the exhibits were grave goods . About a third of the pieces came from the museum's own holdings. The other exhibits came from 72 lenders in the form of German and international collections in Denmark, France and Great Britain.

Special topics and found complexes

Gold treasure from Dortmund
Feddersen Wierde
Bronze bucket from Sasendorf
Desert on the Lindenbrink
Prince's tomb of Arpvar in Gellep Stratum
Documents from Ludwig the Pious
Book Translatio Alexandri

Grave inventory of the ceremonial grave of Hiddestorf
Gold bracteates from the hoard from Nebenstedt, Lüchow-Dannenberg district
Belt buckle from the equestrian grave of Hankenbostel
Hemmoorer bucket
Proboscis from the Saxon burial ground near Immenbeck
Dolabra from the Harzhorn event
Bronze bucket from Sasendorf
Find of the desert on the Lindenbrink
Prince's tomb of Arpvar in Gellep Stratum
Grave inventory of the princely graves of Marwedel

organization

The state exhibition was shown from April 5 to August 18, 2019 in the Hanover State Museum and from September 22, 2019 to February 2, 2020 in the Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum. It was conceived jointly by both museums and was under the patronage of Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Stephan Weil . The main sponsors of the exhibition were the State of Lower Saxony through the Lower Saxony Ministry for Science and Culture as well as the Braunschweigischer Kulturbesitz Foundation , the Richard Borek Foundation , the State Cultural Foundation and the Lower Saxony Foundation .

The curator of the exhibition was the prehistorian Babette Ludowici . Since 2005, as secretary under Claus von Carnap-Bornheim , she has continued the research on Saxony in Lower Saxony initiated by Albert Genrich in the 1950s . The volume accompanying the exhibition, edited by Babette Ludowici under the title Saxones , was published by Konrad Theiss Verlag.

The exhibition concept was assessed and accompanied by an international scientific advisory board of archaeologists and historians. This included members of the International Saxon Symposium Association founded in 1949 . Working group for the archeology of the Saxons and their neighboring peoples (IVoE) based in Brussels .

Meaning and reception

With its title, the state exhibition claimed to tell the story of the Saxons anew. In addition, she presented research results from research on Saxony over the past 35 years. According to the exhibition curator Babette Ludowici, these findings are known in specialist circles, but have not yet been prepared for the public in this form.

The exhibition wanted to help transform the idea of the Saxons into a more differentiated picture through historical-critical research. The image of the Saxons, shaped by Widukind von Corvey in the 10th century, is a myth that was taken up by the national historiography of the 19th century and by the National Socialists . According to media assessments, the exhibition clears up earlier legends about the Saxons and shows that ethnic thinking is on shaky legs. According to Markus Hilgert from the Kulturstiftung der Länder, the exhibition represents a “ deconstruction ” of a “ German-tumbling ” discourse in Saxony.

criticism

The exhibition and the accompanying volume Saxones were sharply criticized by individual scholars from an archaeological point of view. There were factual errors and the lack of new research results. In many areas, despite the availability of archaeological findings, there are gaps in the presentation, such as in Saxon castle construction, in the Old Saxon language, religion and mythology, early urban development, the development of monasteries and monasteries as well as buildings and settlements. The exhibition presented elite graves , hoards , precious metal objects, weapons and glass vessels while the archaeological finds on everyday culture such as tools, equipment, clothing, handmade ceramics, bone and antler objects were missing. The stated goal of writing a “new history” of the Saxons had not been achieved.

literature

Babette Ludowici: Saxones in: Archeology in Lower Saxony , 2019, pp. 160–163
Babette Ludowici (Ed.): Saxones , Konrad Theiss Verlag, 2019 (volume accompanying the exhibition)
Daniel Nösler, Martin Kuhnert: Review of: Babette Ludowici (Ed.), Saxones. Accompanying volume for the Lower Saxony State Exhibition in the State Museum Hanover and in the Braunschweig State Museum. New studies on Saxony research 7 , Darmstadt, 2019 in: News from Lower Saxony's Prehistory 88, 2019, pp. 319–332. ( Online )
Arend Quak: Review of: Saxones (Neue Studien zur Sachsenforschung 7), edited by Babette Ludowici in: in Amsterdam Contributions to Older German Studies 79, 2019, pp. 437–440, ( Online )