History 101 in Berlin's Revamped National Museum
June 6, 2006
Near the entrance, a Roman artifact welcomes visitors to the exhibition. On the way out, Christo's wrapped version of the Reichstag building points toward the future. Two thousand years of history and 8,000 square meters (86,111 square feet) of exhibition space, covering both main floors of Berlin's historic "Zeughaus," lie between the two.
"The exhibition is organized in a special way," said Hans Ottomeyer, director of the German Historical Museum (DHM)."It is a passageway through history that is neither chronologically nor thematically structured. Instead, visitors are invited to wander through the historical context that has grown and changed a people. Then in the various thematic rooms there are enclosed areas that offer more answers and depth of information."
No national bragging
Museums, said Ottomeyer, are Europe's visual memory. But, in contrast to the 19th century, they are no longer a kind of national showcase. For this reason, the Berlin exhibit not only deliberately places German history in a European context but also acknowledges blunders, contradictions and aberrations as well as contemporaries' varying assessments.
"History is cyclical. We need it in order to better find our way in a controversial world and to understand long-term developments that intrude in our lives. World history is not the foundation for happiness, and we cannot change what is in the past. Only our view of history can be changed," commented Ottomeyer.
The peoples of Central Europe, bound together by a common language, the Judeo-Christian belief in the afterlife and the value system of the Greco-Roman intellectuals form the basis of the exhibit's presentation of German history. These people formed communities that, hundreds of years later, would become a monarchy, territorial states, an empire, a republic, and then a nation-state.
A history lesson
Eight thousand pieces -- paintings, manuscripts, coins, coats of armor, posters, tools, china -- illustrate the ever-changing path of history and reveal how hate has led to war, which strategies have brought peace, how wealth has been painstakingly collected and then quickly lost again and how politicians have concentrated power in their hands and shifted the focus to themselves.
"We decided not to reconstruct scenes … instead we wanted to place the objects as they had originally been intended," said Ottomeyer.
All this sounds a bit academic. In fact, a walk through the museum does seem more like a history lesson that demands a great deal of the visitor's attention than a delightful stroll through centuries past. A search for insights into former ways of life is also unavailing. And the only light shed on some of history's black holes tends to come from the insignias of the rich and powerful.
Just another day behind the Iron Curtain
The 20th century is the only exception. Not only the pictures of the annihilation campaigns and the Holocaust, but also the symbols of Germany's division -- the Berlin Wall, the East German Trabi and the VW Bug, pop icons, television stars, leading politicians and their self-declared enemies -- pay tribute to the everyday suffering and success of the little people.