CULTURE IN TRANSITION

PRUSSIAN PALACES AND GARDENS FOUNDATION BERLIN-BRANDENBURG (STIFTUNG PREUSSISCHE SCHLÖSSER UND GÄRTEN BERLIN-BRANDENBURG)

The castle and gardens created between the 17th and early 20th centuries in the Prussian residences of Berlin and Potsdam are key testaments to German culture and history. After 1918, the complexes belonging to the Hohenzollern dynasty were nationalized, and most were opened up to the public as museums.

After 1945, the partition of Germany meant that the ensemble was no longer recognizable as a single unit. Varying ideas as to how each site should be used resulted in considerable material losses, predominantly at castles situated in the GDR region.

After 1990, the stewardships in charge of the West Berlin properties and those in Potsdam and Brandenburg were able to start working together. This resulted in the establishment of the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg in 1995.

PRUSSIAN PALACES AND GARDENS FOUNDATION BERLIN-BRANDENBURG

For decades, Rheinsberg Palace was used as a sanatorium and its original rooms were remodeled to serve a functional purpose.

After the reunification of Germany, the Palace was soon released from the fittings and fixtures of the sanatorium. It opened as a museum on May 6, 1991.

After 25 years of intensive restoration and refurbishment, Rheinsberg Palace and Park has finally been resurrected.

FRIEDENSTEIN GOTHA CASTLE FOUNDATION / GOTHA DUCAL MUSEUM
(STIFTUNG SCHLOSS FRIEDENSTEIN GOTHA/HERZOGLICHES MUSEUM)

Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha, known as “Ernst the Pious,” wished for peace in the turmoil and destruction of the Thirty Years War (1618–1648). He laid the foundation for this in 1643 by starting construction of a three-wing palace complex in Gotha, known as Friedenstein (“peace stone”).

The complex is the biggest palace construction in 17th century Germany. At the same time, Duke Ernst founded an art chamber and library, to which he and his successors contributed many significant works. In the late 19th century, a new art museum was opened to exhibit the art history collections.

Highlights of the art history collections at the Friedenstein Gotha Castle Foundation include a pair of figures representing Adam and Eve before the Fall of Man. The work was carved from limewood by Conrad Meit and dates back to 1510–15.

This work formed part of the exhibition designed in 1993, “The Word of God and the Image of Man: Works by Cranach and his contemporaries,” featuring 16th century works, and signifies the high status of the Gotha collection.

Conrad Meit
“Adam and Eve,” circa 1510–15
Boxwood, glazed in brown, various colors applied in places
Photo: Friedenstein Gotha Castle Foundation/Gotha Ducal Museum

FRIEDENSTEIN GOTHA CASTLE FOUNDATION / GOTHA DUCAL MUSEUM

Following the Second World War, part of the art collection and library was transported to the Soviet Union, returning to Friedenstein Castle only in 1956. Only a small part of the extensive collections (including 17th century Dutch and Flemish paintings, significant art and natural collections, antiquities and East Asian collections) could be exhibited during the GDR times for conservation reasons.

After many years of restoration and renovation, the Gotha Ducal Museum was reopened in 2013 with generous support from the Federal Republic of Germany – a true treasure chest of the unique former Gotha art collections.

Lucas Cranach the Elder
“Gesetz und Gnade,” 1529 (“Law and Grace”)
Mixed media on limewood, 82.2 x 118 cm
Photo: Friedenstein Gotha Castle Foundation/Gotha Ducal Museum

LINDENAU MUSEUM IN ALTENBURG

The 180 early Italian panel paintings at the Lindenau Museum in Altenburg make up the largest collection of this type of art outside of Italy. Bernhard von Lindenau (1779–1854), a statesman, natural scientist and art collector in Saxony-Thuringia, created this collection. In 1876 he opened a museum and an art school with a collection of casts, ancient ceramics, and European and German painting from the 17th to 19th century. To this day, the collection has been maintained in line with the original founder’s philosophy, and now also includes 20th and 21st century works.

Despite every effort, Lindenau Museum’s difficult staffing, financial and architectural situation means that it is challenging to meet the museum’s requirements for maintenance and research. With the aid of external institutions and foundations, in 2011 it succeeded in restoring a “grotesque” panel, a predella panel by Luca Signorelli and two panels by Pietro Perugino from the high altar in Florence (originally furnishing a room) over the course of three sub-projects.

Pietro Perugino (1452–1523)
“St. Margaret of Antioch,” 1505-07
Tempera on poplar wood, 158 x 65cm
Photo: Bernd Sinterhauf

LINDENAU MUSEUM IN ALTENBURG

The two altar panels of St. Margaret of Antioch and St. Francis of Siena are among the most prominent paintings by Umbrian artist Pietro Perugino (circa 1446/1450–1523). Both paintings are thought to have come from the high altar (crafted between 1500 and 1507) of the church Santissima Annunziata.

Today, eight panels are known to come from the fully dismantled altar in 1655. The two main panels remain in Florence. The six side panels are now found at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, at the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica in Rome, at the Lindenau-Museum in Altenburg, and in private ownership.

After conducting some intensive art history research, the original altar was successfully reconstructed in 2011 as part of the KUR project.

Pietro Perugino (1452–1523)
“St. Francis of Siena,” 1505–07
Tempera on poplar wood, 158 x 65cm
Photo: Bernd Sinterhauf

DESSAU WÖRLITZ CULTURAL FOUNDATION (KULTURSTIFTUNG DESSAU WÖRLITZ)

Wörlitz Castle, the summer residence of Prince Leopold III Frederick Franz of Anhalt-Dessau, was completed in 1773 and is today considered the earliest neoclassical building in Germany.

Designed by architect Friedrich Wilhelm von Erdmannsdorff, it is a beautiful reflection of the mindsets and cultural interests of the late 18th century. The Castle is situated in a vast Garden Kingdom, inspired by the Prince’s travels.

It is the responsibility of today’s Dessau Wörlitz Cultural Foundation to restore, preserve and research the historical Garden Kingdom with its five castles, individual buildings and landscapes, striking a balance between monument preservation and the protection of nature.

GRASSI MUSEUM OF APPLIED ARTS (GRASSI MUSEUM FÜR ANGEWANDTE KUNST)

The present-day Grassi Museum of Applied Arts was founded as the Kunstgewerbemuseum Leipzig (Museum of Arts and Crafts) in 1874. Today it is one of the most important museums in the field of applied art, with around 90,000 exhibits.

The Museum of Applied Arts moved into the Grassi Museum building complex in 1926: the complex was constructed according to plans by architects Zweck and Voigt from 1925 to 1929 and is itself one of the most important architectural testaments to the Art Deco style.

In 1943, the building was severely damaged by bombs: a lack of funds during the postwar period meant that restoration and redesign could only begin in 2001. Today, the Museum for Applied Art is once again open to the public with a permanent exhibition launched in three phases between 2007 and 2012 and many special exhibitions. It is growing constantly thanks to donations, new purchases and further restoration and reconstruction works.

MORITZBURG HALLE FOUNDATION (STIFTUNG MORITZBURG HALLE)

Since the early 20th century, the Civic Museum of Art and Applied Art at the Moritzburg has been a site for contemporary art in Halle (Saale). In 1937, deep cuts had to be made to the significant stock of classic-modern art as a result of the Nazi “degenerate art” campaign.

After 1945, there was sporadic success in filling gaps and replacing losses. In the mid-1950s, the museum once again became a key exhibition site for contemporary art. In addition to the painting collection, today’s Moritzburg Foundation owns a significant collection of plastic art ranging from the Middle Ages to the present day, a “graphic cabinet,” a photographic collection and prominent craft objects.

Exhibition view, painting collection of the Moritzburg Halle Foundation
View of the Feininger Gallery
Photo: Christian Seeling

MORITZBURG HALLE FOUNDATION

Since the mid 1980s, the history of the classic Modern Art collection and its fate during the Nazi era has been a key focus of research. The central focus is a series of Halle motifs by Bauhaus artist Lyonel Feininger, who produced his paintings in 1930 and 1931 at the invitation of the city. All of the works were lost to the Museum in 1937, apart from a few drawings.

Following the end of the Second World War, the two paintings, “Marienkirche mit dem Pfeil” (1930; “Church of St. Mary’s with the Arrow”) and “Der Dom zu Halle” (1930; “Halle Cathedral”) were bought back, in 1948 and 1957 respectively.

In the 1990s, external funding enabled the purchase of a mixed collection of Naturnotizen (nature notes), as well as the purchase of the painting “Rote Turm I” (1930; “Red Tower I”), previously believed missing, in 2009.

FÜRST PÜCKLER PARK BAD MUSKAU FOUNDATION (STIFTUNG FÜRST-PÜCKLER-PARK BAD MUSKAU)

The border demarcation drawn up at the end of the Second World War means that the English landscape-style gardens, built by Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau between 1815 and 1845 in today’s Bad Muskau bei Görlitz, are situated equally on German and Polish territory.

The landscape park and its buildings, such as the Alten und Neuen Schloss (Old and New Castle), Kavaliershaus (Cavalier house) and Orangerie, underwent great changes shortly after the sale of the complex. First and foremost among them is the reconstruction of the New Castle in the neo-Renaissance style between 1863 and 1866 on orders of William, Prince of Orange.

Prince Pückler’s ambitious visions for the castle’s reconstruction by Karl Friedrich Schinkel and the expansion of the landscape park remained unfulfilled for Muskau.

GERMAN HYGIENE MUSEUM IN DRESDEN (DEUTSCHES HYGIENE-MUSEUM DRESDEN)

For decades, the German Hygiene Museum in the GDR answered – with wagging finger – the question: “How should we live?” and did so exactly as you would expect of a socialist state institute for health education.

However, after 1990 and the reinvention of this venerable establishment as the Museum von Menschen (Museum of Humans), “How do we want to live?” became the key question for the institution, originally founded in Dresden in 1912.

The result of 25 years of research is a challenging and popular program of exhibitions and events that attract great attention both nationally and internationally.

View of the permanent exhibition “Human Adventure,” with its famous model “The Transparent Man.”

BACH MUSEUM / BACH ARCHIVE

Since its establishment in 1950, the Bach Archive has served as a center for the research, preservation and celebration of the life and works of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) and his family. The key focus of the archive is to edit musical works and to index documents and manuscripts in cooperation with international institutions.

In addition to the interactive permanent exhibition housed in the historic Bosehaus at Thomaskirchhof, which includes rare original items from the Bach family’s life, the musical and cultural life of the city is enriched by regular concerts and the annual Bach Festival.

The Bach Archive aims to accumulate, catalogue and exhibit a complete collection of writings on Johann Sebastian Bach and his circle. As a research institute, the Bach Archive is both a site for scientific work and a site of information for the public.

LEIPZIG MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS (MUSEUM DER BILDENDEN KÜNSTE LEIPZIG)

The Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig looks back over 150 years of civil engagement as well as at an eventful history. Thanks to considerable donations in the late 19th century and first half of the 20th century, one of Germany’s most significant city museums flourished in this wealthy trade-fair city. An air attack on Leipzig in 1943, however, destroyed the museum building on Augustplatz.

After 1945, the collection was re-housed in various different buildings. The museum left its final temporary home at the Handelshof in Leipzig city center in 2004 and moved into the newly-built edifice on Sachsenplatz – the first comprehensive construction of an art museum in East Germany since the end of the Second World War.

LEIPZIG MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS

Statues, sculptures, paintings and graphics by Max Klinger make up a significant part of the collection. In 1903, after several site changes, one of his most famous pieces, “Beethoven,” found a permanent home at the Leipzig Museum in an annex designed by Klinger himself.

Immured, the work survived the bombing of Leipzig largely unscathed. From 1982, the work went on display in a foyer at the Leipzig Gewandhaus concert hall. Only when the museum was rebuilt did the eventful journey of Klinger’s “Beethoven” finally come to an end when it was placed in its very own exhibition room.

Max Klinger
“Beethoven,” 1902
Variously colored stone and bronze with glass, metal, ivory and precious gem inserts
H: 310 cm
Photo: PUNCTUM/Bertram Kober

GRASSI MUSEUM OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS (GRASSI MUSEUM FÜR MUSIKINSTRUMENTE)

Among the most valuable items in the Museum of Musical Instruments at the University of Leipzig are one of only three fortepianos in the world to remain preserved in its original form and an associated cembalo (both built in 1726) from the workshop of Florentine instrument builder Bartolomeo Cristofori.

Of the ten Cristofori instruments still in existence, six are found in the Leipzig Collection, which is once again open to the public in a permanent exhibition following the reconstruction of the Grassi Museum.

Sound sample: fortepiano by Cristofori – Sonata IV. in E minor (Presto)

GRASSI MUSEUM OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

Cristofori is considered to be the father of the fortepiano technique, which to this day determines the basic principles of modern instruments.

Each instrument is distinguished by the characteristics of its casework; they were mounted in bright cinnabar, lacquered and richly decorated with chinoiserie motifs. Inside, the cases are painted pale blue. Both instruments were presumably part of a palazzo, now untraceable.

An exact copy of the 1726 fortepiano was completed by restorer Kerstin Schwarz-Damm as part of a research project, and a second copy was commissioned by the Leipzig Museum of Musical Instruments.

This copy is regularly played at concerts to give listeners an insight into the sound of the historical piano, thus supporting the museum’s exhibition of the original.

FÜRST PÜCKLER-MUSEUM PARK AND BRANITZ CASTLE

After selling his ancestral estate of Muskau in 1845, Prince Hermann Ludwig Heinrich von Pückler-Muskau (1785–1871) constructed a castle in Branitz, complete with vast parklands in the style of English landscaped gardens. It is today one of the most notable examples of garden design. It was here that he transformed his aesthetic vision into reality, a vision inspired by long sojourns through Europe, particularly England.

The current Fürst-Pückler-Museum Park and Branitz Castle Foundation at Cottbus focuses on restoring and maintaining the complex, on Pückler’s literary and creative work, as well as on developing the scientific and cultural center in the field of garden design, travel literature and landscape painting in the 19th century.

FÜRST PÜCKLER-MUSEUM PARK AND BRANITZ CASTLE

Between 1850 and 1870, Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau undertook significant reconstruction work inside the castle. The library was also created during this time: a book collection that expanded under the efforts of Johann Alexander, Count of Callenberg, Prince Pückler himself and successive Pückler counts.

The inventory of this historic universal library was split into many pieces in 1945; only a few books remained at Branitz Castle and most were lost during the war. Today, the library holds approximately 4,200 volumes retrieved and brought back to Branitz between 1994 and 2005. Its key sections comprise travel and garden literature, history, philosophy, military history and the natural sciences.

In the mid-1990s, work began on microfilming manuscript collections from the Varnhagen Collection thanks to collaboration between Krakow’s Jagiellonian University Library and the Fürst-Pückler-Museum Park and Branitz Castle Foundation.

Since 1999, the foundation in Branitz has held the private correspondence of the writer, traveler and park designer Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau in the form of approximately 80,000 photos. The portal www.pueckler-digital.de provides indexed and digitized archive materials with metadata, basic transcriptions and digital copies of autographs.

SENCKENBERG NATURE RESEARCH SOCIETY (SENCKENBERG GESELLSCHAFT FÜR NATURFORSCHUNG [SGN])

The Dresden Natural History Collections belonging to the Senckenberg Foundation are some of the oldest natural history museums in the world. Their treasures can be seen at the Japanese Palace in Dresden.

The roots of the collections are found in the Art and Natural Sciences Collection of Augustus, Elector of Saxony (1526–1586), and today hold over six million objects from the animate and inanimate natural world. The collections continue to provide vital source material for research into geological and biological evolution.

One of the key tasks of the modern age is research into biodiversity and climate. The Natural History Collections in Dresden are of major international importance in understanding relationships in nature and for the active protection of endangered species.

SENCKENBERG NATURE RESEARCH SOCIETY

A dedicated, independent natural history museum has stood in Dresden since 1726, the time of Augustus the Strong. Augustus himself had the natural history collection stored at Zwinger Palace. Focus was placed on scientific work under director Heinrich Gottlieb Ludwig Reichenbach (1793–1879). Adolf Bernhard Meyer (1840–1911) introduced a new evolution-oriented mindset — the display and study collections were separated and new methods of specimen preparation were established.

Meyer travelled the Indo-Australian islands and collected — as was usual for expeditions of this kind — bodies of bird. He also focused on the discovery and study of birds-of-paradise species in New Guinea and described 13 types new to science, including the King William bird-of-paradise from northwestern New Guinea. Meyer’s successors have been able to amend his descriptions.

HANDEL HOUSE
2014 Discovery

This portrait very likely depicts composer George Frideric Handel. A direct comparison with other certified portraits of Handel shows a remarkable similarity, also confirmed by Handel iconographer Dr. Edwin Werner. The Handel House Foundation purchased the painting at London auction house Sotheby’s in November 2014. So now, in addition to its 118 depictions of George Frideric Handel, the Foundation’s collection now boasts a total of five paintings of the composer.

The portrait had been owned since 1908 by the director of the Berlin Sing-Academy musical society, Georg Alfred Schumann (1866–1952). Its previous owner, Hermann Held (1836–1914), was from Magdeburg, a royal court engraver and member of the board of the Magdeburg Museum. Held discovered the portrait around 1888 in a Magdeburg junk shop. Any earlier traces of its provenance have been lost.

WARTBURG (EISENACH)

There are more than twelve similar examples of this pair of portraits, known as the “wedding pictures” of Martin Luther and Katharina von Bora. Those found in the Wartburg Collection have the smallest known format. Luther’s portrait is marked with a serpent and the date 1526. The frequent repetition of these portraits indicates that the Cranach workshop had achieved great technical precision in serial production.

Although this is a pair of likenesses, the two figures are cropped differently and do not entirely match. This could mean that Luther’s portrait came earlier. Katharina’s upper body looks squeezed; obviously emphasis was placed on displaying her hand with its wedding ring. Demand for likenesses of Luther and his wife must have been huge, as they were regarded as the model of marriage.

Lucas Cranach the Elder
Portrait of Martin Luther, 1526
Portrait of Katharina Luther, 1526

FRANCKE FOUNDATIONS (FRANCKESCHE STIFTUNGEN ZU HALLE)

The historical orphanage housing the Cabinet of Artifacts and Curiosities in Halle (Saale) is the oldest civil museum space in Germany. The building is one of several owned by the Francke Foundations, which was established in 1698 by the Lutheran theologian and pedagogue August Hermann Francke. Today, it forms the cultural hub of the Francke Foundations, which was re-founded in 1992.

In addition to a permanent exhibition and the historical library, this is the only complete Cabinet of Artifacts and Curiosities that provides a comprehensive insight into the Baroque world of knowledge and August Hermann Franck’s methods of teaching natural sciences.

During the process of restoring the historical orphanage and establishing a permanent exhibition in the early 1990s, an opportunity presented itself: to put back together individual sections of the Artifacts and Curiosities Collection that had been stored in secret. After restoring the original furnishings and the individual parts of the collection, as well as conducting some detailed research, the Cabinet is once again open to the public; as an ensemble it is the only “cabinet of curiosities” (Wunderkammer) surviving from the Baroque era.

“All plaited ropes in the royal fleet, from the strongest to the weakest, are woven so that a red thread runs through them that cannot be extracted without undoing them all, and thus even the smallest pieces may be recognized as belonging to the crown.”

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Elective Affinities

When Marie Wilhelmine Albers, the wife of Bremen physician Johann Abraham Albers, having read Goethe’s novel Elective Affinities, related the fable of the “red thread” to the Scotsman John Forbes, a physician in the Royal Navy, the latter gave the couple a piece of the rope that Goethe describes in the novel. Albers, who was conducting a scientific exchange with Goethe, sent it in a glass receptacle to Weimar in 1814. It survived in Goethe’s collection for decades and was rediscovered in 2008 for an exhibition set up in collaboration between the University of Jena and the Klassik Stiftung Weimar on Goethe’s Elective Affinities.

The twists and turns of history have drawn a similar red thread through Germany’s cultural landscape. From the “strongest to the weakest,” these changes reverberate throughout our museums, collections and archives. As a social and political turning point, the Reunification did not merely open borders, it also offered cultural opportunities with far-reaching consequences.