To mark the thirtieth anniversary of the reunification of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin museums and institutes, it has produced a participatory exhibition at four locations that presents visitors’ memories and encourages digital dialogue.

For over forty years, there were “twin” museums in divided Berlin, with the east and west parts of the city each having an Egyptian Museum, an antiquities collection, a Nationalgalerie, etc. This unusual constellation ended in 1992 with the merger of the Staatliche Museen in reunified Berlin. None of the venues remained unaffected by this process during the following years. Many were restructured several times, downsized, expanded or moved to new buildings and other parts of the city.

Museum Visitors Take Centre Stage

While the museums and their staff were experiencing major upheavals, Berlin’s residents had other concerns during the reunification. This exhibition focuses on the personal component of museum visits and the visitors’ perspective on the merger of the Staatliche Museen that previously existed in parallel in East and West Berlin. Private memorabilia and photos are presented together with visitors’ stories.

Four Mobile Exhibition Sites in Berlin

Mobile components at four locations draw attention to various aspects of this process, its venues and milestones. These mobile elements in public space can be visited independent of open hours and free of charge:

• Kulturforum: Piazetta
• Charlottenburg: in front of the Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg
• Dahlem: Lansstraße, in front of the former entrance of the Ethnologisches Museum
• Museumsinsel Berlin: in front of the James-Simon Galerie (from 17 October 2022)

Digital Interaction and Participation

The digital level of the exhibition serves to contextualise the mobile components and simultaneously acts as part of the interaction. The reunification of the Staatliche Museen was experienced quite differently by different visitors. Accordingly, the upload and commentary functions allow viewers to choose how they want to augment the exhibition. In this way, the presentation is intended to provide space for different memories and to initiate a dialogue between the Staatliche Museen and its visitors.

The exhibition project is a joint initiative of the Institut für Museumsforschung (IfM, Institute for Museum Research) and the Museum Europäischer Kulturen (MEK, Museum of European Cultures). The interdisciplinary project team comprises staff from various Staatliche Museen museums and institutions.