From Kunstkammer to Museum
The conception of the Humboldt-Forum is informed by three historical examples: The concept of a knowledge theatre as conceived by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz with regard to the Kunstkammer of the Berlin Palace is fundamental. For Leibniz, this collection, which marked the origin of Berlin's museums, was a site that unified universally oriented collecting and research, exhibition and spectacle. The second conceptual foundation of this unique project is constituted by the ideas of the Humboldt brothers: Their enlightening gaze at the cultures of the world as well as Wilhelm's notions on education and museum-related politics. Finally, recollections of the rich tradition of ethnological collecting in 19th century Berlin that culminated in the establishing of the Royal Museum for Ethnology by Adolf Bastian in 1873 refer to the collection history of the material that will constitute a large portion of the exhibits in the newly constructed City Palace.
