“Memory of the nation”: making and re-making German history in the Berlin Zeughaus

Abstract

The Berlin Zeughaus (Armoury) has served for over three centuries as a principal site for the self-representation of the Prussian state and German nation. Though the museal history of the site only began with the opening of two small Schinkel-designed display rooms in 1831, it has always held a primary display function as a place for the presentation of war trophies—a function that is inscribed in the very fabric of the building. This thesis examines the way in which national historical narratives have been enacted at the site via an investigation of the changing perception and presentation of its collections across time. Taking a primarily museological approach, this thesis considers museum practices at the Zeughaus in the context of German historiographical developments and their connection to political and ideological imperatives, the evolution of the museum landscape in Berlin, and the broader relationship between these developments, the emergence of the modern public museum, and the changing conception of the role and function of museums over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Treating the Zeughaus itself as an “object,” it examines the shifts and continuities in the interpretation and mediation of the site and the collections that have been housed there, revealing an intimate relationship between the two. The current inhabitant of the Zeughaus, the German Historical Museum, bears the legacy of these layered histories. As the national historical museum of the Federal Republic of Germany it is both a separate entity, created under specific political circumstance and designed to address a set of historical-political needs, and the successor institution of its East German counterpart, the Museum for German History. The tensions inherent in this dynamic necessitate critical reflection on the history of the institution as a vital pre-requisite for an understanding of how nation is reified in the museum and the role of the national museum today.