22. Februar 2015
Humboldt-Forum im Kenianischen Nationalmuseum in Nairobi

Redebeitrag von Klaus-Dieter Lehmann
 
 

The palace square in the center of Berlin was the place of the royal castle. It was a ruin after the second world war and even the ruin disappeared completely in the following years. So the center of Berlin became a blind spot, surrounded by some historical buildings. With the unification of Germany 1990 new considerations were made what to do with the blind spot, the most prominent place, but without any meaning. The discussions referred to the question reconstruction of the palace or a modern architecture, but nobody asked for the content – maybe a hotel, a shopping mall or something else. It was a real helpless discussion without a relation to the past and the future. But what is more exciting than culture for a society! And in our times – what is more exciting than a dialogue of cultures and the palace square as a focal point of the cultures of the world. This was our proposal in an international commission. The commission agreed to this concept and the idea of the Humboldt-Forum was born.

The Humboldt-Forum should become an institution, which tells the story of the non-European cultures, offers a dialogue of a changed, more reflective historical and contemporary approach to what is our own and what is aliens to us, bringing a global perspective to both, it will offer insights into pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial times, but also look into the future from our present point of view.

It should become the heart and soul of the city and the world will become the stakeholder. The German parliament discussed the concept in 2002/2003 and accepted it in 2006 with an impressive majority. In the meantime the construction work has started, in June next year there will be the topping and the reconstructed palace will be finished in 2017/2018. The Humboldt-Forum is the new owner, consisting of the collections of the Museum of Asian Art and the Ethnological Museum, the Berlin Central Library and the collections of the Humboldt-University. Not the political power is in the center of the capital in future but culture and science. This is the new Berlin.

Important for the concept  is the unique chance to have a direct intensive dialogue between the European cultures and the non-European cultures. Just opposite the prospective Humboldt-Forum you will find the museums island. On less than a square kilometer of ground, a temple city of the arts and culture grew forth on the island in the river Spree within a period of 100 years – from 1830 to 1930 – a cultural ensemble of five museums presenting six thousand years of human history. It is the story “How Europe was born”.  The whole island was damaged and scattered during the Second world war. The buildings were partly ruins. The unification of Germany 1990 gave us a second chance to unify the collections and to restore and reconstruct the buildings. Museums island returned to its rightful place. It is a truly urban setting – not an institution and not a national monument, but a place of personal exploration and discovery for everyone in the heart of Berlin.

The next step will be to relate the two components museums island and Humboldt-Forum to each other as a focal point and a dialogue of world culture. At a point in time at which the structure of the world is leading to a new lack of clarity, at which new relationship patterns between inside and outside are being formed, at which new communication techniques are creating new connections  – at such a point the dynamics of new centers and peripheries must be taken into account. New alliances and new instruments are needed in order to organize the expedition of modernism. Inside and outside are not separate worlds anymore. If the museums island is a concept  belonging to the view of the 19th century, the Humboldt-Forum is the position of the 21th century, especially the dialogue between both.

If the Humboldt-Forum wishes to become effective in such a context, then it will not suffice to conserve historical wrappings or just storing collections in a museum. The Humboldt-Forum must make intellectual and artistic products and presentations available for a broad interpretation in a continual process. It must try to formulate a critical and imaginative discussion in and with the world.
The Humboldt-Forum will present the collections with permanent exhibitions and changing exhibitions, and will add a program of events with film, theatre and music. All these parts has to build a unity. Not a free-floating think tank, but using the wealth of the collections – inventory-oriented, across subject boundaries, discovering and correlating with experts and curators from the various regions of the world.
 
The Humboldt Forum is not a knowledge community, but a learning community. The greatest challenge is to identify diversity and respect it, to want processes of change. Arrogance and the hierarchisation of cultures are not an option in our time.
 
The Humboldt Forum cannot do without research; not only into ethnology but also more and more into regional sciences in order to develop new perspectives and to identify relationships.
 
What the Humboldt-Forum needs too is the involvement of foreign experts, one which facilitates an open and multi-perspective view of things. The Forum can only be successful if it has alongside its focal point in Berlin a close-knit international network of partners . Therefore two components are necessary: (1) the house in the centre of Berlin and (2) a close international network of partners, to have an interchange of knowledge and experience.
 
The Goethe-Institut would like to offer its worldwide network to link the various regions and to bring the experts together. It is closely in tune with the age, people and cultures. It is exciting to experience the world, how art and culture are developing on the spot, are asserting themselves, are part of identity. The Goethe-Institut initiates - together with partners - artistic processes and coproductions in countries, promotes cultural diversity, organises exchange programmes etc.
 
It may be bold to erect a Humboldt Forum behind baroque facades. On the other hand it shows in a special way the transformation of a place which has been reserved for political power into one which will in future house the autonomy of culture. The world's cultures are, in their autonomy, important elements in the design of a new, global society. Culture is what remains when everything else has been forgotten, but culture will also be the future.
 
The Humboldt Forum as a meeting point for schools, groups, institutions and generations.
 
The Humboldt Forum as a place of learning and education.
 
The visitor to the Humboldt Forum as a traveller who chooses his route according to his interests. If he seeks access to a certain subject he will look for a cultural comparison, art (historical or contemporary), a talk, a film, theatre, the deepening of his own knowledge. Museum, library and science in a new kind of integrative structure. Textual and graphic art.
Urban living – world art – cultural comparison – 'Schaulager' (art warehouse).

Curiosity – imaginative dialogue – readability of the world. That's the idea of the Humboldt-Forum.
 
Es gilt das gesprochene Wort.