Entertainment - Museums

    

    A big form of entertainment for people is museums because they are a way for people to observe the history of not only the city they are in but from all over the world. Berlin is special because of the number of museums available for people to explore. There is a famous museum hub in the center of Berlin called "Museum Insel" or Museum Island, which has 5 museums and this is a UNESCO World Heritage site. This area is always busy with people, and most are not Berliners but this shows the attraction that Berlin has to international audiences. There are around 170 museums in Berlin and what is really nice is that many museums or free or they offer a pass that allows you to go to a lot of museums for a one-time fee. 

    In my program, I am taking a class called 'Museums and Memories" and I have had the opportunity to go to many cool museums with my class. I have been able to go to the Nueus Museum, the Pergamon, the Humboldt Forum, and the Topography of Terror. It is interesting to see how the public history and memory of Berlin are practiced and put on display in museums. Each museum has different exhibitions or collections on display that are focused on different themes. For example, the Pergamon has three collections:

1. Antikensammlung (Collection of Classical Antiquities) - like Green and Roman antiques

2. Vorderasiatisches Museum (Museum of the Ancient Near East)

3. Museum für Islamische Kunst (Museum for Islamic Art)

The Nueus Museums presents two fascinating collections:

1. Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung (Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection)

2. Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte mit Objekten der Antikensammlung

(Museum of Prehistory and Early History with objects from the Antiquities Collection) 

  There are many more different types of collections throughout the other museums. I have enjoyed my Museums and Memories class because we have been learning and investigating how museums in Berlin specifically present their own history. This is a complicated subject because Germany has been involved in a very fatal and destructive history. There are also parts of German history that are not widely acknowledged/recognized - like their colonial past in Africa and the genocide of the Nama and Herero people. Recently though, Germany has been working to come to terms with their past through museum exhibitions. There is a word in German -  Vergangenheitsbewältigung - which means coming to terms with the past. This is something Germany has most definitely needed to do, especially with the events of the second world war and the genocide of millions of innocent people. Their response to WW2 and the holocaust has been approached with an attitude of it never happen again, which is why there are so many museums dedicated to the victims and horrors of the war. On the other hand, there are also places that are not dedicated to the victims but rather work to educate the people about the perpetrators of history. The Topography of Terror is known as a "documentation center," not a museum or memorial because it focused on the SS and Gestapo and the terrors and war crimes they committed. This is a different approach to history but is a good example of how Germans are presenting their past to the people and coming to terms.

    The Humboldt Forum is an interesting topic because there has been a lot of debate on it and its purpose. I would recommend reading about the history of the palace and the controversy today (link to great article on Humdolt Forum) because it is hard to cover the entire topic. Essentially, the place where the forum now stands was once a "Schloss" or palace for the royal family of the Prussian Empire then it was rebuilt after being damaged from the war. Its construction was debated also (not many Berliners are very happy with how it looks because it does not blend into the city well) and in the end, was decided it would house the forum. In an attempt to come to terms with the past, the forum is actually under a lot of fire because" instead of practising ‘openness’ and ‘multi-perspectivity’ artworks and the question of their origins were to be buried ‘like atomic waste’. Savoy pointed to a fundamental contradiction: the palace proved that historical reversals were possible, but those demanding the restitution of objects robbed by colonial powers were told that history couldn’t be reversed" (Müller). When I visited the Humboldt Forum with my class, there was a display at the entrance of the "Ethnological Museum" which was the forum's attempt at showing people that it is acklowdgeing their past and that the artifacts (not all) in the forum were stolen or taken from other countries (like the Benin Bronzes). It did have sufficient context in explaining the history of Germanys' colonization and recognizing their wrongs, so I do believe it is a step in the right direction but this needs to be expanded to the rest of the museum.  There is a lot more to discuss on this topic and how museums in Berlin Practice public history but it most definitely would not fit into this blog. I would definitely recommend watching this video - Chimamanda Adichie on the Humboldt Forum because it gives good insight about what is right and wrong when practicing public history and how it pertains to the forum. 

    I have learned so much in Berlin through discovering museums and I am really looking forward to visiting more. I recommend shifting your perspective the next time you visit a museum and asking yourself questions such as "To whom do these artifacts really belong?" and "What is the story behind them?"