After eight years of general renovation, the State Archaeological Collection in Munich shines again in new splendor. Our excursion tip for young and old!
It's a celebration for Markus Söder. After eight years of general renovation: the State Archaeological Collection in Munich is reopening. Indiana Jones references are obvious, as the Bavarian Prime Minister can emphasize what a great history expert he is (“I consistently had the best grades in this subject”); can show how much culture is important to him. And he can have many, many photos taken of him as he tours the new rooms. Conveniently, Science and Art Minister Markus Blume brought two Indiana Jones hats with him to the press event. Collection director Rupert Gebhard (Söder: “Our Indiana Jones of Munich”) is also allowed to put one of them on his head. For a funny social media picture, very Instagrammable, as the youngsters say. Gebhard's tortured smile seems as if he's thinking of another youthful word: pretty cringe, this self-dramatization.
In fact, all the political noise distracts from what is really important that day. After eight years, Munich has one of its most beautiful museums back - to stay in the Indiana Jones image: the lost treasure has been recovered and can shine even more sparklingly than before in the public eye. And delight all generations from toddlers to great-grandmothers from April 17, 2024. The Munich State Archaeological Collection has always been a fantastic museum for the whole family. Now, extensively renovated at a cost of 66 million euros, it stands there like a new building and offers Gebhard and his dedicated team the opportunity to convey the fascinating history on which we stand in a modern way to young and old.
But fortunately, “modern” here does not mean digitality everywhere. It was possible to carefully combine the classic exhibition of more than 15,000 objects with new approaches to museum education on 1,200 square meters. You can go on an expedition into the past in a sensual way. Can smell what Cleopatra might have smelled like, can leaf through a digital cookbook and imagine what the smoked fish, roast veal or Punic porridge might have tasted like. You can walk through floor display cases and feel like you are on an excavation site; you can use a touchscreen to control the stories behind the objects, which you can listen to with fascination via loudspeakers. Anyway, stories. That's what this house thrives on. From old shards, vases and coins, an entire cosmos emerges before the visitor's inner eye. We learn that some of the oldest finds are keys and locks - because where people come together and settle down, they begin to protect their property. Greed and envy, not a modern phenomenon. Or the magnificent carriages: Even in ancient times, they were considered a status symbol and were particularly decorated. Joy of driving in the early days. Luise Kinseher tells Munich stories about finds from the Bavarian capital using an audio guide.
As he continues to spin the stories about the exhibits, Frank Schmolke further pushes the imagination forward. The Munich comic artist has created life-size drawings that make the journey through the past even more vivid. Works like cave painting: everyone understands pictures - they immediately hit the heart, without any prior knowledge.
Frank Schmolke also made several drawings for the Peitingen bog body. The young woman, who was once buried in Schwarzlaichmoor in the Weilheim-Schongau district, is shown in the permanent exhibition. A tightrope walk. The intimate area of the woman known as “Rosalind” is covered. But the question remains whether a dead woman, especially one who, like Rosalinde, crossed her hands in prayer, should be publicly displayed. Brigitte Haas-Gebhard, head of the Middle Ages/Modern Period department in the State Archaeological Collection, made a conscious decision to do so. “You always have to ask yourself whether the deceased herself would have agreed to it. Since this is a presumably arch-Catholic woman from the 14th century, we can assume that it would be her. Her body acts like a memento mori that had significant meaning in her time,” says Haas-Gebhard. It was important to her to tell Rosalinde's individual story and to preserve her memory. In a digital station you can click through a quiz and find out how scientists researched Rosalinde's life, under what circumstances she died, and why she was buried in a moor rather than in a cemetery. This is exciting and coherent. Leather samples are available so you can feel what Rosalinde's perfectly preserved boots (size 38) felt like. “We wanted to preserve their dignity,” emphasizes Haas-Gebhard. This is precisely why Frank Schmolke's comic installation seems inappropriate at this point. When he stages the pregnant Rosalinde with a deathly grimace and a sickle in her hand, it doesn't seem very dignified.
The Munich State Archaeological Collection is a festival for young and old
The only point of criticism about an otherwise thoroughly successful new concept. They want to be a “cultural hub in the heart of Munich,” says Rupert Gebhard. And show that archeology is not a cerebral, dusty matter, but rather touches, stirs, and can encourage us to question our own lives. “In order to understand what is, it is worth taking a look back at what was,” says Markus Söder. It's not just a celebration for him - but for the whole of Munich. Whether you're wearing an Indiana Jones hat or without: Head on down Lerchenfeldstrasse, explorers big and small can experience a lot here.