Ethnological collection of the Hanseatic city of Lübeck

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The ethnological collection of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck was a Lübeck ethnological museum that existed from 1893 to 2002 .

Origins

Jacob von Melle

It has been proven for Lübeck since the 17th century that private individuals were engaged in collecting cultural objects from foreign peoples. For example, from 1696 at the latest, an ancient Egyptian mummy was owned by the council pharmacist Jacob Stolterfoht, and Jacob von Melle , chief pastor of St. Marien , owned an extensive and at the time famous collection of ethnographic objects from Iceland , Sweden , Finland , the Ottoman Empire and others Japan .

After the death of Jacob von Melle's son Franz Jacob von Melle in 1770, Johann Caspar Lindenberg acquired the majority of the collection for his art and natural history cabinet; his son Adolph Friedrich Lindenberg (1740-1824), consul general of the Hanseatic cities in Lisbon , added a significant number of other objects to the collection and decreed in his will that they should pass into the possession of the Society for the Promotion of Charitable Activities after his death . In 1831 his son and heir fulfilled this destiny.

The non-profit organization assigned the ethnographic objects to its own collection of art and natural objects and exhibited them partly in the Society's rooms, partly in the choir of the Katharinenkirche . Over the decades, the ethnographic collection has been continuously expanded through donations.

In 1860 there was a separation from the scientific objects; the art and ethnographic exhibits were initially referred to as the Lübeck Art Antiquities Collection , and from 1864 onwards as the Cultural History Collection .

At the beginning of the 1870s, the collection had grown so much that it was increasingly necessary to store it in a separate museum building. A fund was set up for this purpose in 1874, but it was not until the will of the merchant Georg Ludwig Blohm (1801–1878) in the amount of 150,000 marks that concrete plans were made possible. On May 8, 1887, the Senate and the citizenship decided that the new building should be built on the site of the former cathedral monastery . Furthermore, the separation of the ethnographic from the cultural-historical collection was established; the to be founded Museum für Völkerkunde should be run as an independent institution sponsored by the non-profit organizations. The non-profit organization, in turn, entrusted the management of the museum to its subsidiary, the Geographical Society, which began working out the exhibition concept.

In 1892 the ethnographic objects were transferred to the new museum at the cathedral, which was completed after four years of construction .

Museum of Ethnology (1893–1942)

The Museum am Dom (1893)

On May 16, 1893, the Museum am Dom, which combined a total of six municipal museums under one roof, was officially opened. The Museum of Ethnology took up three halls on the first floor of the building. It was under the direction of a council elected by the non-profit organization, made up of six volunteer members of the Geographical Society, who were assisted by a paid curator .

In 1896 the nose and throat doctor Richard Karutz , an autodidact in the field of ethnology, was appointed curator. He set himself the goal of increasing the scientific rank and at the same time the broad impact of the museum. To this end, he organized and described the entire holdings according to scientific standards, gave the museum a presence through publication in specialist publications, and expanded the collection considerably by acquiring objects from all over the world. Karutz himself undertook numerous trips to Europe, North Africa and Central Asia for collecting and research purposes , during which he brought together a large number of exhibits and also made sound recordings as one of the earliest ethnologists. Although he did not personally take part in the most important research trip of his tenure, the Lübeck Pangwe Expedition from 1907 to 1909, he had designed it, organized it and won Günther Tessmann as the expedition leader.

In the course of Karutz's tenure, the museum's holdings grew from around 4,000 unsystematically collected objects in 1896 to over 20,000 systematically compiled exhibits, 2,000 photo plates and 200 audio documents, mostly through donations. Furthermore, Karutz designed the didactic and aesthetic conception of the museum several times according to the latest aspects, in 1917, 1921 and even again in 1928, seven years after he left Lübeck.

In 1921 the management of the museum went to Dr. Theodor Hansen (1867–1938), also a doctor, who, unlike Karutz, did not develop any activities. The actual management of the museum was in the hands of Margarete Schmidt, senior secretary in the Lübeck museum administration, who managed the collection with the help of instructions from Karutz sent by letter. After Hansen's death in 1938, no new curator was appointed, so that Margarete Schmidt actually filled this post, but without an official appointment.

In 1931/1932 Julius Carlebach built a Jewish department in the museum. This Judaica collection with over 100 exhibits includes, with the exception of a few objects from the museum's collection, which can be traced back to the collection of Mayor Lindenberg, which he procured himself. The new department was politically motivated to awaken an understanding of Jewish culture in Lübeck and initially received little attention from the press and public in Lübeck. She survived the Nazi era and the air raid on Lübeck in 1942 in the museum magazine. A 1932 as the Jewish community in Bad Segeberg at the request Carlebach loan surrendered Torah scroll was her 2007 by the Lübeck museum director Hans Wißkirchen be returned.

In 1934 the Völkerkunde-Museum was transferred to the state, like all other museums supported by the non-profit organization. The lack of commitment on the part of the new sponsor and the disdain for the cultural achievements of other, especially non-European peoples, which prevailed in the Third Reich , led to stagnation of the institution and a loss of popularity.

Relocation of the collection (1942–1985)

During the bombing raid on Lübeck in 1942 , which also destroyed the Museum am Dom, around 80 percent of the holdings were saved through Margarete Schmidt's efforts, although many valuable exhibits were destroyed. In the following years the objects were stored in different, changing locations, with further losses due to theft and damage. From 1945 onwards, the collection was stored in the air raid shelter in Schildstrasse and from 1947 onwards it was looked after by the Geographical Society.

In 1952 the collection was loaned to the Museum für Völkerkunde in Hamburg and returned to Lübeck in 1969, where it was housed in the house of Dr.-Julius-Leber-Straße 67 and was re-cataloged over the following years as part of an inventory.

In 1971 the collection, which was still in storage, was given the new name Völkerkundesammlung der Hansestadt Lübeck ; Dr. Helga Rammow , who, in addition to her scientific work, endeavored to remind Lübeckers of the existence of the now forgotten collection and to propagate the establishment of a new museum. In 1977 the culture committee of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck decided to show the collection to the public again; The building in Königstrasse 21, which is owned by the city, was intended for this purpose. However, the project failed because the house was needed for school purposes.

Ethnological collection of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (1985–2002)

The armory

In 1984 the planning could be resumed, as the armory was again a suitable building. A donation from Rodolfo Groth enabled the implementation of the plan, and in 1985 the ground floor of the armory became the domicile of the ethnological collection, which was expanded to include the first floor in 1988. However, the support from the city was limited, which was reflected in, among other things, significantly reduced opening times.

After Helga Rammow retired in 1990, the city of Lübeck did not appoint a new manager for the collection, which was instead subordinated to the Museum of Art and Cultural History and experienced constant budget cuts and staff savings.

In 2002 the citizens finally decided to stop the exhibition of the ethnographic collection.

The collection since 2003

The continued operation of the museum was taken over by the Society for Geography and Ethnology eV , founded in November 2002 , a result of the merger of the Geographical Society and the Friends of the Ethnographic Collection of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck eV, which has existed since 1998, and was able to keep the museum open until March 18, 2007. Since then, the collection has been stored in the armory and is no longer accessible to the public, but only for research and study purposes.

Since 2010, the collection has been digitized by the Center for Cultural Studies Research Lübeck (ZKFL), a joint institution of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck and the University of Lübeck , with financial support from the German Research Foundation . Lars Frühsorge is the head of the collection as Brigitte Templin's successor .

literature

  • Brigitte Templin / Claudia Kalka: Insights into the holdings of the ethnological collection of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck . The Lübeck museums, 2011. ISBN 978-3-942310-02-4
  • Richard Karutz : The Museum of Ethnology in Lübeck . Lübeck, 1897
  • Richard Karutz: Guide through the South Seas department of the Museum of Ethnology in Lübeck , Lübeck 1917
  • Richard Karutz: The Estonian collection of the Museum of Ethnology in Lübeck , Lübeck 1919
  • Richard Karutz: Guide to the Museum of Ethnology in Lübeck , Lübeck 1921 (with R. Karutz's list of publications)
  • Richard Karutz: On the purpose and aim of the Museum of Ethnology in Lübeck , Lübeck 1921
  • Helga Rammow: Richard Karutz. In: Alken Bruns (Ed.): Lübeck resumes . Neumünster 1993, pp. 199 ff. ISBN 3-529-02729-4
  • Brigitte Templin: Oh man, know yourself. Richard Karutz (1867–1945) and his contribution to ethnology. Lübeck contributions to ethnology Vol. 1. Lübeck 2010, 380 p. M. 33 fig.ISBN 978-3-7950-1297-7

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Von der Rolle Bad Segeberg: The community receives the Sefer Torah back from the museum in: Jüdische Allgemeine from May 17, 2007
  2. ZKFL
  3. ^ Collection website

Coordinates: 53 ° 51 ′ 41.5 "  N , 10 ° 41 ′ 5.1"  E