National Museum Zurich

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National Museum in Zurich
Extension

The National Museum Zurich (until 2010: Swiss National Museum ) is the most visited historical museum in Switzerland. It opened on June 25, 1898. Since January 2011 it has been part of the Swiss National Museum (SNM). This institution comprises three museums of cultural history and a collection center. It is subordinate to the Federal Department of Home Affairs .

history

Inauguration, June 1898

The State Museum was opened in 1898 in a newly built castle-like building by Gustav Gull northwest of the main hall of the main train station at what is now Platzspitzpark in Zurich. Eugène Luffy headed the festivities for the inauguration of the State Museum on June 25, 1898: the cantons were depicted in 20 images, comparable to the guilds of today's Sechseläuten . Each canton carried an “allegorical chariot” with it, which represented a special feature of the canton. The train was led by a “Helvetia splendid car” and ended with a car with “Turica, the protector of art”. With the “Fairytale Castle” project, Zurich won a competition against other Swiss cities. The building combines a wide variety of architectural styles and has therefore been controversial since its creation.

However, the Federal Commission for the Preservation of Monuments expressed itself in an expert opinion of November 27, 1897 with the following words:

Aerial (1994)
“With the Landesmuseum as a single building, Gustav Gull is architecturally responding precisely to the task at hand. The chosen form of a “medieval palace complex” reflects history and makes the complex easily recognizable as a museum building. The building for national history forms an essential counterbalance to the main train station, then and now the hub of progressive, future-oriented public transport. With its main courtyard, the complex opens up to the Platzspitz park, which closes it off towards the city. With a consistent structure around the main courtyard and the entrance courtyard, with a tight floor plan that deliberately uses exceptional situations, and with distinctive vertical accents, the museum is powerfully realized, an expression of the self-confident federal state. " The tuff stone used for the construction comes from Libingen (SG).

The G recognizable in the floor plan could refer to the first letter of the architect's name.

Heinrich Angst was the first director of the Swiss National Museum from 1892 to 1903. His successor was his deputy director Hans Lehmann . He was director from 1904 to 1936. His deputy director was Josef Zemp .

Refurbishment and extension

Newly designed entrance area of ​​the museum on the occasion of the opening in 2016

Due to the increasing lack of space, the National Museum Zurich was expanded for the first time from 2013 to 2016 after several unsuccessful attempts. In 2002, after a two-stage architecture competition, the Basel architects Christ & Gantenbein were commissioned to renovate the existing Gull building and to plan a modern annex building that protrudes into the Platzspitzpark. The renovation work on the station wing, which began in 2006 and cost 75 million francs, was completed on July 28, 2009. Further renovation work in the old building, including the arts and crafts school wing, was ongoing until 2016.

On June 9, 2008, the building construction department of the City of Zurich issued the building permit for the extension. In December 2009, a referendum was held against the cession of the necessary land and the funds raised by the City of Zurich. The vote on it took place on June 13, 2010. The electorate approved the building project. A cantonal vote was taken on the planned extension of the National Museum in Zurich. The "Standpunkt Landesmuseum" committee held a referendum in June 2010 against the decision of the Cantonal Council. On February 22, 2011, the canton of Zurich voted for a cantonal contribution of CHF 20 million from the lottery fund.

The foundation stone for the extension was laid on April 30, 2013. On July 31, 2016, the new parts of the state museum with space for exhibitions, a library and an auditorium were opened. The total costs for the extension and the renovation of the arts and crafts school wing amount to CHF 111 million. The federal government will pay CHF 76 million of this. The city of Zurich contributes 10 million francs, the canton 20 million.

  • View 2010

  • With a new building in November 2018

  • Stairway to ...

  • …Hall

  • window

Exhibition focus

Permanent exhibitions

Exhibition archeology
interactive panorama of an ice age landscape

The museum houses the largest collection of cultural history in Switzerland and shows Swiss history from its beginnings to the present day in six permanent exhibitions:

  • «History of Switzerland» describes the development of Switzerland over a period of 550 years and dares to look at the history of the present.
  • With over 7000 exhibits, the collection exhibition in the historic west wing focuses on the handicrafts and handicrafts of Switzerland.
  • In the family exhibition “ With a magic carpet through history ”, children from the age of 5 playfully immerse themselves in the topics of the Orient, shipping and railways.
  • The ideas that hold the willing nation Switzerland together are discussed in “Ideas Switzerland” .
  • “Simply Zurich ” revisits the diverse past of the canton and city of Zurich.
  • «Archeology Switzerland » deals with the most important stages in human history from prehistoric times to Christianization in the early Middle Ages. Around 1,400 exhibits from Switzerland's archaeological cultural heritage lead chronologically from the Middle Paleolithic (100,000 years ago) to the early Middle Ages (around 800).

The exhibition is divided into the three chapters "Terra", "Homo" and "Natura". The first part "Terra" provides an introduction to the exhibition by showing the world of archeology. A map hanging from the ceiling introduces visitors to Switzerland's rich cultural and historical heritage. The remains of the past lie at the bottom of lakes, in glaciers or deep underground.

The "Homo", the heart of the permanent exhibition, represents the chronological stages in the development of human thought. Masterpieces of the old goldsmith's art, tools and weapons made of stone, wood and bone as well as objects from the everyday life of people in the past can be found in the new museum building see, supplemented by a modern and didactic scenography. Everything that humans have lost, given to their dead or buried in the earth, evokes life over the past millennia. Shapes and materials evolve gradually over the centuries. Each of these great epochs thus illustrates the progress of civilization in what is now Switzerland.

The last section "Natura" shows the interactions between humans and animals. With the sedentary way of life and the domestication of plants and animals, the natural landscape gradually becomes the cultural landscape that is so familiar to us. Animated projections and interactive research terminals complete the presentation and invite young and old on a beautiful journey into the past, where they can slip into the shoes of archaeologists.

Temporary exhibitions

Changing exhibitions on cultural-historical topics are shown several times a year. This includes the exhibitions of the winners of the “Swiss Press Photo” and “World Press Photo” journalist awards.

further services

The state museum's other offers include its collections, publications, a specialist library and an image archive.

The collections , studios of the conservators and restorers, the laboratory for conservation research and object logistics, lending, object registration, the photo studio and a library, a seminar room and workplaces for scientists and guests of the Swiss National Museum and other institutions are located in the collection center in Affoltern am Albis united.

literature

  • Hanspeter Draeyer: The Swiss National Museum Zurich: Building and Development History 1889–1998 . Published by the Swiss National Museum, Zurich 1999, ISBN 3-908025-26-5 . (= Volume 6 illustrated book series)
  • Hans Lehmann : From the founding history of the Swiss National Museum, Part 1 , Part 2 . In: Schweizer Illustrierte. Volume 2, 1898.

Web links

Commons : Landesmuseum Zürich  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The inauguration of the Swiss National Museum
  2. ^ Program of the opening, official edition, publishing house of the organizing committee
  3. ^ Standpunkt Landesmuseum ( Memento from May 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on March 12, 2008.
  4. ^ F. de Quervain and M. Gschwind: The usable rocks of Switzerland . Ed .: Geotechnical Commission. Hans Huber, Bern 1934, p. 317 ff .
  5. ↑ Plan of the Swiss National Museum
  6. ↑ Earlier expansion plans for the State Museum
  7. ↑ Zurich architects win competition for expansion. A new face for the State Museum. NZZ of July 17, 2002, accessed on October 9, 2015.
  8. ↑ NZZ Online (July 29, 2009): The State Museum is alive , accessed on October 13, 2009.
  9. ↑ landesmuseum.ch National Museum Zurich: Planning of the new National Museum, accessed on October 13, 2009.
  10. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento from May 17, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Referendum committee NO on the destruction of the park at the State Museum
  11. ↑ nzz.ch , NZZ of June 22, 2010.
  12. ↑ Landesmuseum in Zurich is being expanded , blick.ch, February 22, 2011, accessed on October 12, 2015.
  13. ↑ Landesmuseum facts and figures on the expansion in Neue Zürcher Zeitung of July 28, 2016.
  14. ^ New building for the Landesmuseum: First stone laid , srf.ch, April 30, 2013, accessed on October 12, 2015.
  15. ^ National Museum Zurich: Special exhibitions , accessed on October 13, 2009.

Coordinates: 47 ° 22 ′ 45 "  N , 8 ° 32 ′ 23"  E ; CH1903:  six hundred eighty-three thousand one hundred and fifty-one  /  248175