In addition to numerous local exhibitions on German cultural heritage in Eastern Europe – mostly in the form of local history museums or local history rooms – there are a number of specialist regional museums in the Federal Republic of Germany that focus on regional history and culture. The latter are funded by the federal government, the Federal State in which the museum is located and, in some cases, the local authorities, in accordance with Section 96 of the Federal Displaced Persons Act (BVFG).

The Pomeranian State Museum in the so-called ‘Grey’
monastery in Greifswald [Photo: PLM].

The Pomeranian State Museum in Greifswald is responsible for the region of Pomerania; the East Prussian State Museum in Lüneburg covers historic East Prussia and the Baltic states; and the West Prussian State Museum in Warendorf covers historic West Prussia. The regional and cultural history of Silesia is presented at the Silesian Museum in Görlitz/Zgorzelec and at the Upper Silesian State Museum in Ratingen-Hösel.^[1] The regions of South-Eastern Europe are covered by the Transylvanian Museum in Gundelsheim and the Danube Swabian Central Museum in Ulm. The Bohemian regions are not yet represented by a single overarching state museum, but by three regional museums funded by the Free State of Bavaria: the Egerland Museum in Marktredwitz, the Bohemian Forest Museum in Passau and the Jizera Mountains Museum in Kaufbeuren.^[2] The Sudeten German Museum in Munich has a supra-regional focus.

Following the establishment of numerous ‘Heimatstuben’ in the fledgling Federal Republic, the regional associations in particular campaigned for the creation of larger, centralised museums. The political framework for this was provided by the ‘Basic Concept for the Continuation of East German Cultural Work’ (1982), adopted by the Federal Government. The document lamented “the fragmentation of East German cultural heritage within the Federal Republic, the precarious future of the ‘Heimatstuben’, and the narrow scope of existing museums and collections”.^[3] From then on, the state museums were to serve as central institutions for each historical province or settlement region of the Germans in Eastern Europe, comprehensively presenting their cultural history and professionally archiving the associated cultural heritage. In contrast to the other, regionally based state museums in the Federal Republic of Germany, however, their subject matter was and remains in most cases (see below) a cultural landscape that is geographically and mentally distant, and even unknown to many Germans. With the passing of the so-called ‘experience generation’ associated with these landscapes, the museums face an increasing responsibility to convey the culture, history and natural environments of these historical landscapes to new audiences.

The ‘Concept for the Research and Presentation of German Culture and History in Eastern Europe’, presented by the Federal Government in 2000^[4] emphasises the role of state museums as pivotal points for broad-based cultural outreach, as it is anticipated that in future “a significant part of engagement with German culture in Eastern Europe will take the form of museum exhibitions”.^[5]

Furthermore, this concept led to the decision to create posts for cultural officers for the former German settlement areas in Eastern Central Europe. These cultural officers are institutionally linked to the state museums,^[6] which demonstrates, through the affiliation of the cultural attaché, the prominent position of the state museums in the field of cultural outreach. As “forums for dialogue between neighbours in Europe on the one hand, and between the past, present and future on the other”, the state museums are assigned a “key role between scholarship and the dissemination of knowledge”.^[7]

According to the definition of the ‘International Council of Museums’, museums have the task of collecting, preserving, researching, presenting and communicating material evidence of people and their environment.^[8] Accordingly, the task of the regional museums is to collect, preserve, scientifically catalogue and make the cultural heritage of their respective regions accessible to a wide audience. Furthermore, the expected closure of many local history rooms and museums due to the passing of the so-called ‘experience generation’ assigns the regional museums the role of potential ‘safeguards’^[9] for these collections.^[10]

Conceptually, some of the larger museums initially modelled themselves on the ‘Heimatstuben’ – which focused on local history and remembrance – when they were founded. The Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie, on the other hand, saw itself unequivocally as an art museum.^[11] Initially receiving little recognition from the academic community and, in some cases, lacking effective networks, the state museums initially found it difficult to engage with the current scholarly discourse. This was also due to the fact that they did not regard “the belongings taken during flight and the material culture that had survived flight and expulsion as material goods brought along […], as evidence of cultural, historical or intellectual history”^[12] . The “nostalgic retrospective” was ill-suited to providing points of connection for visitors who had no personal connection to the region depicted.

Danube Swabian Central Museum in
Ulm [Photo: DZM].

Current strategies for promoting cultural work therefore stipulate that the presentation and interpretation of the exhibits should focus “less on nostalgic retrospectives and more on raising awareness and fostering an appreciation of this specific part of German cultural heritage”.^[13] Thematic expansions have also contributed to a gradual modernisation over the past two decades: Contemporary history since 1945, the integration of refugees and displaced persons into German society, and the history of the regions in question after 1945 are increasingly featured in the exhibitions, thereby enhancing their international reception.

In the current self-image of the state museums, the traditions of Germans in Central and Eastern Europe are presented within the multi-ethnic and European context of the regions and in co-operation with local institutions. Over the past two decades, a wide range of international partnerships have been established. In addition to the State Museums’ contacts with local institutions, the West Prussian State Museum, for example, opened a branch in Krockow/Krokowa in 1999, in collaboration with the Regional Museum in Putzig/Puck; its exhibitions focus equally on the Polish, German and Kashubian heritage of the region.

The state museums embody the efforts of the federal and state governments to present the cultural heritage of the regions in Eastern Central Europe – which were shaped, amongst others, by Germans – within a broader context, and to archive and document the collections appropriately. It was initially the regional associations that played a key role in driving this objective forward and initiated the establishment of supporting associations and the first museums in the 1960s and 1970s. Despite the Federal Government’s adoption of the policy framework for the continuation of East German cultural work in 1982, the establishment processes of some museums came to a standstill (see below), partly due to financial constraints, and partly due to differing expectations between the regional associations on the one hand and other founding members on the other. In the 1990s, the establishment of these museums was given fresh impetus, not least against the backdrop of the changed political situation in Europe. The regional museums dedicated to the culture and history of Germans in Eastern Europe have since become institutions operating on an international scale.

The East Prussian State Museum in Lüneburg grew out of the East Prussian Hunting Museum, which was founded in 1958 and was initially renamed the East Prussian Hunting and State Museum in 1981. Finally, in 1987, the East Prussian Regional Museum was opened in a new building constructed specifically for that purpose. Since 1994, the museum has been run by the East Prussian Cultural Foundation. Currently (since 2012), the permanent exhibition is being revised and expanded to include a German-Baltic section.

The West Prussian State Museum was founded in Münster-Wolbeck in 1975. It is run by the West Prussia Cultural Foundation. Following the signing of a long-term tenancy agreement in January 2012, the museum will move from the Drostenhof in Münster to the former Warendorf monastery, where it will present its new exhibition from 2014 onwards.

Transylvanian Museum,
Horneck Castle, Gundelsheim.
[Photo: Transylvanian Museum]

The Transylvanian Museum at Horneck Castle in Gundelsheim had its origins in a local history room established there in the 1960s, which was followed in 1973 by the founding of the Transylvanian Museum Association. In 1991, this largest contiguous collection of cultural artefacts belonging to the Transylvanian Saxons outside Transylvania was granted the status of a state museum; in 1997, the newly designed permanent exhibition was opened.

The Danube Swabian Central Museum in Ulm opened in 2000 in a redoubt of the Ulm Federal Fortress. It is run by the Danube Swabian Central Museum Foundation.

The Upper Silesian Regional Museum in Ratingen-Hösel has its origins in the Haus Oberschlesien foundation, a supporting association established in 1970. The Upper Silesian Regional Museum was established in 1983 and has been displaying its exhibitions in a purpose-built museum building since 1998. Since 2000, the museum has been funded by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The Pomeranian State Museum Foundation, which runs the Pomeranian State Museum, was established in Greifswald in 1996. It took over the collections from the Pomerania Foundation in Kiel, which had been founded in 1967 and dissolved in 2000. In 2000, the new museum’s picture gallery was opened, and in 2005 the entire museum complex, housed in the so-called ‘Grey Monastery’, was finally opened.

The Schönhof, headquarters of the Silesian
Museum in Görlitz. [Photo: SMG]

The Silesian Association had been striving since the 1970s to establish a central museum based in Lower Saxony. When the Lower Saxony red-green state government withdrew from the project in 1990, plans to establish a museum in Hildesheim were abandoned. Following reunification, the opportunity arose to establish the museum in Görlitz. After a difficult start-up phase, the project gained momentum with the establishment of the Silesian Museum Foundation in 1996. The ‘mini-opening’ at the Haus zum goldenen Baum in 2001 was followed in 2006 by the official opening of the museum at the Schönhof. The Pomeranian State Museum and the Silesian Museum are exceptional in that they are not located in their so-called ‘sponsor states’,^[14] but in the parts of the regions they represent that remained part of Germany after 1945 – in Greifswald and Görlitz. The decision to choose these locations was certainly controversial, not least because members of the regional associations of the ‘sponsor states’ – Lower Saxony (for Silesia) and Schleswig-Holstein (for Pomerania) – had campaigned for years for museums to be established in the regions of arrival. Others, including Polish voices, argued – in view of the institutions being established in the regions of origin – that the cultural artefacts should be returned to their historic capitals: to Stettin/Szczecin (from where the majority of the collections of the Pomerania Foundation in Kiel originated) and Breslau/Wrocław.

The Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie foundation in Regensburg, as an art museum with a supra-regional remit, occupies a special position amongst the museums funded under Section 96 of the Federal Funding Act (BVFG). The supporting association of the same name was founded in 1966. Four years later, the museum moved into the exhibition centre by the Stadtpark and, in 1993, following extensive renovation of the buildings, was able to expand to four building complexes. The core of the collection was formed by holdings from the Artists’ Guild (Esslingen) and the Adalbert Stifter Association (Munich).

Cultural centres featuring ‘museum-style display windows’ include the Haus Schlesien in Königswinter-Heisterbacherrott, founded in 1978, and the East Prussia Cultural Centre, established in 1981 within the Deutschordensschloss Ellingen. Both see themselves as centres for documentation, information and community engagement.

• Kurt Dröge: The ‘East German’ Museum and East Central Europe. In: Yearbook of German and East European Folklore 43 (2000), pp. 1–27.
• Markus Bauer (ed.): The Silesian Museum in Görlitz. A Museum for a European Cultural Region. Muzeum Śląskie w Görlitz. Muzeum europejskiego regionu kulturowego. Dößel 2006.
• Jutta Fethke (ed.): 25 Years of the West Prussian State Museum 1975–2000. Münster-Wolbeck 2000 (Publications of the West Prussian State Museum 60).
• Christian Glass (ed.): Museums in Europe: DZM. Marking the tenth anniversary of the Danube Swabian Central Museum, Ulm. Ulm 2010.
• Horst H. Grimm (concept and editor): Pomeranian State Museum, Greifswald. Munich 2005 (Edition Logika 8).
• Ronny Kabus (ed.): East Prussia. Landscape – History – Culture in the East Prussian State Museum. Husum 1997.
• Jürgen Martens: Museum Policy for the Heritage of Formerly German Territories. In: Museumskunde 58 (1993), pp. 123–130.
• Martina Pietsch: The Silesian State Museum in Görlitz. In: Order of Merit for Science and the Arts. Speeches and Commemorative Addresses 35 (2006/2007), pp. 37–45. URL: www.orden-pourlemerite.de/plm/publikationen/35_jahresband.pdf.

• www.dzm-museum.de/
• www.hausschlesien.de/
• www.kulturzentrum-ostpreussen.de/
• www.kunstforum.net/home.php
• www.ostpreussisches-landesmuseum.de/
• www.pommersches-landesmuseum.de/
• www.schlesisches-museum.de/
• www.siebenbuergisches-museum.de/
• www.westpreussisches-landesmuseum.de/

[1] Since 31 December 2000, the Upper Silesian State Museum has no longer received institutional funding from the Federal Government, but is now funded solely through project grants.

[2] For several years now, there have been plans for a central institution in Munich to be funded by the Free State of Bavaria; the federal government withdrew from these plans before the year 2000. The Munich-based Adalbert Stifter Association receives federal funding.

[3] Pietsch: The Silesian Regional Museum in Görlitz, p. 40.

[4] Concept for the Research and Presentation of German Culture and History in Eastern Europe, Parliamentary Paper 14/4586 of 26 October 2000. URL: dipbt.bundestag.de/dip21/btd/14/045/1404586.pdf (accessed 1 November 2012).

[5] Concept (as in note 4), p. 4.

[6] This concerns the Silesian Museum in Görlitz, the Pomeranian State Museum in Greifswald, the Danube Swabian Central Museum in Ulm, the West Prussian State Museum in Münster-Wolbeck and the East Prussian State Museum in Lüneburg. The cultural officer for the regions of Bohemia, Moravia and Sudeten Silesia is affiliated with the Adalbert Stifter Association (Munich), as there is no regional museum for this region (see note 4).

[7] Report by the Federal Government on measures to promote cultural work in accordance with Section 96 of the Federal Budget Act (BVFG) in 2007 and 2008, Parliamentary Paper 17/381 of 23 December 2009, p. 6. URL: dipbt.bundestag.de/dip21/btd/17/003/1700381.pdf (accessed 1 November 2012).

[8] Quoted from: German Museum Association: Guide to Sustainable Collecting. URL: www.museumsbund.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/leitfaden-nachhaltiges-sammeln.pdf (accessed 10 January 2022).

[9] Martens: Museum Policy, p. 127.

[10] For example, the Danube Swabian Central Museum in Ulm has taken over the collections of four local history museums from Baden-Württemberg. See Henrike Hampe: ‘The Acquisition of Local History Museum Objects by the Danube Swabian Central Museum’. In: Federal Institute for Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe (ed.): Documentation of the Colloquium ‘What Will Become of the Local History Collections?’ Future Prospects for the Historically East-German Local History Museums and Local History Rooms in Germany and the Collections and Archival Holdings Preserved There. Oldenburg 2006, pp. 69–76. The Pomeranian State Museum in Greifswald, on the other hand, has taken the opposite approach and decided against taking over the collections of the ‘Heimatstuben’. In general, various options for preserving the collections from the local history rooms are under discussion, such as their takeover by the local authority, central consolidation within the Federal States in which the local history rooms are located, or the return of the cultural heritage to its place of origin. See Federal Institute: Documentation (ibid.).

[11] Dröge: The ‘East German’ Museum, p. 4.

[12] Dröge: The ‘East German’ Museum, p. 5.

[13] Report by the Federal Government on measures to promote cultural work in accordance with Section 96 of the BVFG in 2009 and 2010, dated 19 April 2012, p. 7.

[14] As a rule, these are the Federal States in which the largest number of refugees and displaced persons from a particular region have settled.

Berit Pleitner: Regional Museums. In: Online Encyclopaedia on the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe, 2012. URL: ome-lexikon.uni-oldenburg.de/p32707 (accessed 10 January 2022).