How can you present the universal themes and global developments of the human race in a museum? That and nothing less is the task of the Humboldt Forum, which is currently under construction in the heart of Berlin. The backbone of the mammoth project: the non-European collections of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (National Museums in Berlin).
It was the guiding principle of Alexander von Humboldt's life's work: the idea of a holistic view of the world. This is precisely what can be experienced in the new Berliner Stadtschloss (Berlin City Palace) named after the famous explorer. And even more, complementing the Museumsinsel (Museum Island), global art and cultural history can be found in Berlin's historic center since 2021 thanks to the Humboldt Forum. The collections of the Ethnologisches Museum (Ethnological Museum) and the Museum für Asiatische Kunst (Museum of Asian Art) of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (National Museums in Berlin) take up two-thirds of the exhibition space. But what does the new presentation of the objects look like? What do the objects from all over the world actually have to tell? And how does one deal with their origin from colonial contexts? A dossier provides answers.