The Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation) is an internationally renowned cultural institution and an important player in the humanities and the social sciences. The Foundation’s name reflects the cultural heritage entrusted to it. It was founded in 1957 to preserve the collections of the Prussian state, which was dissolved after the war, as heritage for all of Germany. Since that time, the Prussian cultural heritage has evolved a far-reaching appeal that is felt well beyond Germany’s borders.
The Foundation includes museums, libraries, archives, and research institutes. Its collections have a universal character. They document the evolution of human culture from its beginnings to the present in Europe and on other continents. They began in Brandenburg and Prussia and have grown encyclopedically. Today the Foundation is contributing crucially to the redesign of Berlin’s historical center.
Five institutions are united under the Foundation’s roof: the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (National Museums in Berlin), the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (Berlin State Library), the Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz (Secret State Archives Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation), the Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut (Ibero-American Institute) and the Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung (State Institute for Music Research). All aspects of cultural tradition are represented within the Foundation.
Moreover, all its institutions conduct independent research. They take part in numerous national and international networks, cooperations, and projects.
The Institut für Museumsforschung (Institute for Museum Research) is attached to the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. It is the partner in the PREFORMA project.
The Institute was founded in 1979 as Institut für Museumskunde (Institute of Museology), and renamed in 2006. It provides services to museums throughout Germany as well as to the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin in the areas of research, practical dissemination of knowledge, and documentation. It supplements the activities of the regional museum associations as well as the advisory and public bodies in each of the German states.
The scope of the institute’s work includes visitor research, support and consultancy for museums in digitisation, development of tools, long-term archiving, museum management, documentation, thesauri, new media and education. The Institute co-operates with national and international partners in many projects to achieve these goals.
Findings pertinent to the museums are published in three serial publications: ‘Berliner Schriften zur Museumsforschung’, ‘Materialien aus dem Institut für Museumsforschung’ and ‘Mitteilungen und Berichte aus dem Institut für Museumsforschung’. The institute also publishes annual statistics on museums in Germany.
Website: www.smb.museum/en/museums-and-institutions/institut-fuer-museumsforschung/home.html, www.preussischer-kulturbesitz.de/en.html
ROLE IN THE PROJECT
The Institute/SPK will bring into the PREFORMA project the viewpoint of museums. It will contribute its experience about the possibilities and problems in museums regarding digital preservation. It will organise an experience-workshop in Berlin.
KEY PERSONS
Prof. Monika Hagedorn-Saupe studied mathematics, sociology, psychology, and education with a focus on adult education at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, at Kings College London, and at the Freie Universität Berlin,. Since 1985, she has been staff member of the Institut für Museumsforschung (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz), overseeing the annual visitor statistics of all German museums. Since 1994, she has been Head of the department “Visitor related museum research and museum statistics”, is responsible for several European projects and acts as the Deputy Director of the Institute. Since 2007 she is a member of the Board of the German Museum Association, since 1997 she chairs the Special Interest Group on Documentation (FachgruppeDokumentation) in the German Museum Association (Deutscher Museumsbund e.V.) and chairs the Information Centres Working Group in CIDOC, the documentation committee in ICOM. In 2001, she was nominated from the German Federal government to participate in the European NRG (National Representatives Group on Digitisation in Culture) and is now a member in the MSEG. She is Professor in museology at the University of Applied Sciences HTW in Berlin/Germany, and teaches terminology in museums in Krems/Austria.
Dr. Stefan Rohde-Enslin studied ethnology and political science. He is a member of staff of the Institute for Museum Research, State Museums in Berlin responsible to support museums in questions of digitisation and long term preservation of digital data. For many years Dr. Rohde-Enslin worked in the historical photo archives of the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum of Ethnology, Cologne. Dr. Rohde-Enslin was involved in a project entitled, “Digitisation of Photographic Collections in German Museums”. Another professional interest of Dr. Rohde-Enslin is the gathering of information pertaining to historical collections of photographs housed in German cultural organisations. The project URL is: www.fotoerbe.de. Dr. Rohde-Enslin is involved in digital preservation since 2004 when he joint the German competence network “nestor” as a representative of German museums. Inside the “nestor”-network he is heading a working group for “non-textual media”.