Ideas and money for the Museum of Hamburg History

Status: 02/12/2021 4:05 p.m.

The Museum of Hamburg History is turned inside out – old out, new in. Director Bettina Probst has 36 million euros available.

by Annette Matz

Bettina Probst took one of her first walks in the hotel’s central depot – and discovered it straight away: the burned-out car from the G20 summit. “I was thinking, what is there covered under tarpaulin? We can’t unpack it and put it somewhere, but it still has to be treated in terms of conservation. But of course it’s a strong object that you associate a lot with or about which you can talk about a lot Protest culture can show. ” In any case, this car wreck from 2017 should be included in a new historical tour of the house on Holstenwall. In general, the new director wants to bring things into the museum that have never been seen here before. She has already secured a corona spacer from theater rehearsals. Or the vial that contained the very first Corona vaccine dose. “That too is of course an object where the whole cosmos of this pandemic opens up, so to speak,” Probst said.

Probst wants to attract neighborhood audiences

–

The new director Britta Probst wants to redesign the Museum of Hamburg History – she has 36 million euros at her disposal.
–

Bettina Probst wants to turn the museum inside out and be present in the district differently: “One problem that all museums I know grapple with is how do we get the neighborhood into the museum. If you have a radius of one or two here When the pandemic allows it, it will be on my agenda to introduce myself here and say ‘hello’. “

New focus: Hafenstrasse, sport, media

The house should change – the rooms should become airier, fewer exhibits overall, fewer ship models in particular. The aim of the new leadership is to extend history to the present. “The cannons are in the depot” – these are the words Probst has often been quoted as saying. The quote is a synonym for the fact that the Museum of Hamburg History wants to set a different focus. Hafenstrasse, sport and media should take place much more. “Some time ago we also received a few copies of the ‘Stern’. A larger bundle. We are also planning to expand the library with a reading room,” reports Probst.

From the Berlin Humboldt Forum to Hamburg

Further information

Wooden captain figure in the Hamburg Museum © NDR Photo: Irene Altenmüller

–
–

1,200 years of city history: a tour of the Museum of Hamburg History leads to pirate skulls, through old trading offices and on a steamboat bridge. more

–
–
–
–

Most of the people in the house work from home. For the new boss, the museum is more like home, her think tank. She herself came to Hamburg in the middle of the pandemic – from the Humboldt Forum in Berlin. Bettina Probst has been here since November. “For me personally it is of course a completely curious situation to take over a museum without visitors. Sometimes it feels like a ghost castle,” says Probst with a laugh. The native Hanoverian has known Hamburg for a long time and has been visiting a good friend in the city for many years. “It feels fantastic to go for a walk along the Elbe,” she says.

36 million euros for renovations

She is sad about the latest decisions to extend the lockdown, but understands. The 55-year-old hopes that after schools and day-care centers have opened, it will be the turn of the museums: “A museum without visitors is only half a museum – if no one is looking at it and people don’t talk about it and don’t talk to each other Dialogue doesn’t take place at all, that’s only half the battle, of course. ” The new director has 36 million euros – half from the federal government and half from the city – available for renovations and conversions. The new permanent exhibition and the renovations should be ready by 2026. You will notice that outside too: A second entrance is planned on the park side.

Further information