“Germany – Memories of a Nation”
The British Museum’s successful exhibition “Germany – Memories of a Nation” is now on show in Berlin.
An external view: the British Museum attracted a great deal of attention with its exhibition on “Germany – Memories of a Nation” in 2014/15. Neil MacGregor, the Scot who was the museum’s director at that time, created it to enable Britons to better understand the Germans. However, Germans also liked how MacGregor presented their country. Now the exhibition “The British View: Germany – Memories of a Nation” can be seen at the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin.
A history in fragments
Unlike Great Britain, a country that has grown over many centuries, there is no uniform story for Germany, a country that was long fragmented. That is why Neil MacGregor attempts to represent German history in a fragmentary way. Using roughly 200 objects that were made in Germany during the last 600 years and are typical of the country, he sketches a differentiated picture of German history and creates new connections.
Ranging from the reinvention of porcelain in Meissen to Gutenberg’s letterpress printing, Luther’s translation of the Bible and the avant-garde Bauhaus to Buchwald concentration camp and the VW Beetle that rolled from the assembly line during the years of the economic miracle, the exhibition shows how Germany became what it is today. Incidentally, Neil MacGregor now lives in Berlin, where he is artistic director in charge of the Humboldt Forum, which is currently being established.
Exhibition “Germany – Memories of a Nation” until 9 January 2017 at Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin
