Wilhelm Siemen

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Wilhelm Siemen (* 1955 in Paderborn ) is the founding director of the Porzellanikon - State Museum for Porcelain and was chairman of the governor's council of Lions clubs in Germany.

Life

As the eldest son of four children of the teacher Hermann Siemen and his wife Albertine Siemen, b. Heggen, he attended the classical grammar school Theodorianum in Paderborn from 1967 to 1975 . This was followed by studying history and journalism at the Westfälische-Wilhelms-Universität, Münster, from which he graduated with a Magister Artium in spring 1981. After working at the Bonifatius printing works in Paderborn, he completed a two-year academic traineeship at the Hagen Open-Air Museum, State Museum for the History of Technology and Crafts, from 1982 onwards . 1984 he became a research associate at the border town in Hohenberg an der Eger located and serving more than Showroom "Museum of the German porcelain industry," which since 1982 as an extension of Fichtelgebirgshalle museum in the district town of Wunsiedel was operated. For the future operation of the museum, he developed the concept and the associated collection concept on behalf of the sponsor. After the museum became independent, he became its director in 1985. After the exhibition area in Hohenberg was expanded, efforts grew in Selb , the city of porcelain, to set up a porcelain museum. To prevent competition between two similar institutions, Siemen was commissioned to develop a museum concept that encompasses both cities. On this basis, the differentiation between the "villa" in Hohenberg, where forms and decors will be the focus in their development until the end of the 20th century, and the "factory" for industrial history and technical ceramics developed in the following years. The responsible authorities in Munich attached great importance to the fact that "Bavaria's first industrial museum" was built in an original porcelain factory. In 1988 the "Rosenthal - Bahnhof Selb" porcelain factory, which was closed in 1969, was purchased. Despite its poor structural condition, due to its high monument value, it became the location of the "European Industrial Museum for Porcelain", which is part of the museum itself. Wilhelm Siemen, director of the new museum association since 1990, is responsible for the following construction phases and the overall concept. A provisional end of the expansion was reached in six construction phases by 2013. After a new building in Hohenberg had increased the exhibition area to 2000 square meters by 1995, it is now 8000 square meters in Selb. Europe's largest special museum was taken over by the Free State of Bavaria as a state museum in 2014. Wilhelm Siemen has been retired since November 1st, 2019.

At the instigation of Wilhelm Siemens, the "Museum of the German Porcelain Industry" association was founded in 1985, an association to promote the porcelain museum in Hohenberg and then in Selb. Today the association operates with almost three hundred members as Förderverein Porzellanikon e. V. and is an essential element of the museum.

His time as director, in addition to building and founding the museum, is characterized by a strong commitment on a European and international level. He was responsible for the conception, application and implementation of several EU projects. In addition to funding from the Interreg A and B programs, this includes three "Large Scale" projects from the Culture 2000 (Ceramics Culture Innovation) Culture (People and Potteries) and Creative Europe (Ceramics and its Dimensions) programs, most recently up to 25 Partners from 11 European countries. In addition, he was the founding chair of the "Art, Design, Tradition" working group of the European Ceramic Society for almost two decades. In this capacity he built up a network of museums, universities and artists, which, in addition to exchanging ideas with one another, also built a bridge to research and industrial application. Thanks to the networks that have been developing since 1993, under his leadership, in the anniversary year of European porcelain, 2010, Europe's largest and most comprehensive exhibition on the history of the European porcelain industry was realized. With exhibits from 100 lending institutions from 20 countries and 3,500 square meters of exhibition space, it reached almost 100,000 visitors. At the end of the 1990s, contacts were also made to Japan and China. Siemen has been a volunteer advisor in setting up the Zhejiang Museum of Intangible Cultural Heritage since October 2019.

From 1990 Wilhelm Siemen was a lecturer in the history of porcelain design at the Halle - Burg Giebichenstein School of Art and from 1994 to 1999 at the Berlin-Weissensee School of Art. As a proven expert on the German porcelain industry, he is also a member of the supervisory board of the Staatliche Porzellanmanufaktur Meissen GmbH.

Wilhelm Siemen was one of the co-founders of the Porzellanstraße e. V. and from its founding in 1996 until his retirement, deputy chairman of the association and after the death of the chairman, Lord Mayor Werner Schürer until Karl Ankele took over the office, acting chairman. During this time, the route was finally designated as a tourist road. Thanks to the EU projects he designed, the Porzellanstraße will become one of the best-known themed streets in Germany and - also thanks to an EU project - will become Porzellanstrasse International in 2015. As such, it now extends to the entire north-eastern Bavarian region and the western Czech Republic.

Siemen has been involved in voluntary work at the Marktredwitz-Fichtelgebirge Lions Club since 1987 and was, among other things, governor of the Bayern East district in 2009/10, before he became chairman of the council of governors (highest national and international representative of the German Lions) of multiple district 111 for the 2011/12 Lions year , Germany, was chosen. He then took over the post of chairman of the board of directors of the German Lions Relief Agency, HDL, for another year, and is currently chairman of the board of trustees of the German Lions Foundation, SDL. In addition, he has been active in the Catholic Church as a member of the parish council for many years. Since 1977 he has also been a member of Sauerlandia, Münster, a Catholic German student association in the CV. At the September Investiture in Bonn 2016 he was accepted into the papal Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem (OESSH).

He is married and has two grown daughters.

Orders and awards

  • Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon (2003)
  • Culture Prize Winner of the Upper Franconian Foundation (2004)
  • Golden Ring of Honor of the major district town of Selb (2005)
  • "Chevalier" des " Ordre des Arts et des Lettres " of the French Republic (2008)
  • "Fellow Award" of the European Ceramic Society (2013)
  • Award of the Golden Citizen Medal of the City of Selb (2019)

Publications

Numerous publications on the subject of "porcelain" in the past and present. Editor of the series: "Catalogs and writings of the German Porcelain Museum" (www.porzellanikon.org/publikationen)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Siemen, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German founding director of the Porzellanikon
DATE OF BIRTH 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH Paderborn