Hidden Gems with Joachim Marzahn: A man of many talents

Joachim Marzahn is a true all-rounder and has been with the SPK through many exciting years: originally trained as a maintenance engineer, he initially worked in a managerial role, then as a station attendant in the heating system of the Altes Museum. After gaining his A-levels through adult education, he began working as an assistant at the Museum of the Ancient Near East in 1974 and was sent by the museums to study Oriental archaeology at Martin Luther University Halle, graduating with a diploma in 1979. In the same year, he returned to the VAM as a research assistant, later becoming a research fellow and, in 1989, head of the Inscription Collection. Following the reunification of the museums and institutes of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Marzahn became an ‘employee of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation’. The nature of his academic work remained largely unchanged. In 1995 he became curator, in 2009 senior curator, in 2012 honorary professor at the Free University of Berlin, and retired in 2014.

His wide-ranging duties at the VAM included the scholarly supervision and publication of items in the epigraphic collection, the publication of studies on the cultural, legal and social history of the Ancient Near East, the management of the collection, lectures, guided tours, and the organisation and curation of exhibitions. He was also involved in loan arrangements, the organisation of the collection storage facilities, and national and international research projects. As the VAM’s building representative, he represented the VAM in the planning for the renovation of the Pergamon Museum.

What is your favourite place in the SPK?

There are quite a few! The first thing that springs to mind is my old study in the Pergamon Museum, which my colleagues used to refer to as the ‘den’. 

The next place may seem to have nothing to do with my long-standing work at the State Museums, but it dates back to the time when I was still working ‘in the heating system’ before I started my studies: as a handyman, I had the opportunity to roam through all the hidden rooms and corridors of the museums, right up to the roofs. That is why the roof of the Pergamon Museum, particularly the north pylon of the central building, was one of my favourite places.

And finally, the Inscription Repository is also particularly close to my heart. I spent many years there working on cuneiform tablets. For me, the repository was a place of work, study and learning, offering many insights into material writing culture. Furthermore, the cataloguing and processing of other inscribed objects proved inspiring.