The Badisches Landesmuseum

About

The Baden State Museum (German: Badisches Landesmuseum) in Karlsruhe is the large cultural, art and regional history museum of the Baden region of Baden-Württemberg. With its globally significant collections, representing more than 50,000 years of international cultural history, it conveys history and historical living environments. Its collections range from prehistory and early history to the Middle Ages and the 21st century. The museum was founded in 1919 and opened in 1921 in the rooms of Karlsruhe Palace.

In 1873, Frederick I. had a Collection Building built on Friedrichsplatz for his library and his extensive collections. Here they were open to the public as the Grand Ducal Collection of Antiquities and Ethnology in Karlsruhe. After the Abdication of the Grand Duke of Baden Frederick II., the Karlsruhe Palace, located in the center of the baroque city complex, was taken over by the Baden state in 1918 and designated as the seat of a newly founded cultural history museum.

The museum was founded in 1919 and was created by merging the "antiquities collection" with the Baden Museum of Decorative Arts. It was opened on 24 July 1921 in the rooms of the palace. Hans Rott was the first director until 1938. In 1936, the ‘Baden coin collection‘(Badisches Münzkabinett) was incorporated into the museum. The director was Friedrich Wielandt until 1971. Karlsruhe Palace was destroyed in 1944 during the Second World War. Most of the museum's holdings were saved. Reconstruction of the burnt-out palace began in 1955. The exterior was faithfully reconstructed, while the interior was designed to meet the requirements of a modern museum. The Baden State Museum was reopened in 1959 and the castle café opened in 1965. Jürgen Thimme was the first archaeologist to head the antiquities department from 1959 to 1982. From 1992, under the direction of Harald Siebenmorgen, all fifteen departments of the Baden State Museum were successively completely refurnished according to a concept based on contextualization and staging of the objects, most recently the "World Culture" department in 2013. All departments were made accessible through collection guides. From 1992, large museum festivals were organized, and the Baden State Museum was opened to a wide audience through numerous other museum education and cultural mediation measures. A high-calibre and closely timed special exhibition program, which was partly based on the newly concluded cooperation agreements with Tunisia, Algeria and other Mediterranean countries, attracted international attention. The number of visitors quadrupled. In 2009, the Baden State Museum Karlsruhe had around 300,000 visitors. As a pilot project, the Baden State Museum was the first museum in Baden-Württemberg to introduce a business management structure with a commercial directorate, thus gaining new scope for action. In 2014, the German Museum of Music Automatons in Bruchsal and the museum in Salem were opened with new concepts.

At the end of April 2017, a diadem of Grand Duchess Hilda of Baden made of gold and platinum by the Baden court jeweler Schmidt-Staub around 1907 and set with 367 diamonds was stolen from a display case in the throne room on the second floor of the museum. As it became known in June 2017, a theft had already taken place in October 2016. It was an ivory sculpture from 1620 worth 500,000 euros by the sculptor Leonhard Kern. It shows the Roman woman Fulvia with the severed head of Cicero. The public prosecutor saw no connection between the two incidents.

In 2019, the museum celebrated its 100th anniversary with a large museum festival.

From 2027, the museum in Karlsruhe Palace will be closed for several years due to a general refurbishment. This is necessary as much of the building technology dates back to the 1960s.

The various collections can be seen partly in the Karlsruhe Palace and partly in several branch museums.

The museum's collections are presented on four floors in Karlsruhe Palace. The most important antiquities collection in Baden-Württemberg and the Karlsruhe Turkish booty, most of which Margrave Ludwig Wilhelm von Baden brought back from the Turkish Wars in 1691, are well known. To mark the 100th anniversary of its founding, the latest exhibition of the collection, Archaeology in Baden - Expothek¹, was opened in July 2019.

Archaeology in Baden - Expothek¹: Vessels, weapons, tools and jewelry from the early cultural history of Baden from the Palaeolithic period (approx. 650,000 BC) to the Carolingian period (8th century AD). The collection exhibition is a pilot project for the new museum concept of the Baden State Museum and offers digital research tools and virtual reality. The Expothek at the center of the exhibition resembles a research laboratory. Here, registered users can have original objects presented to them by trained staff by prior appointment.

History of the Romans on the Upper Rhine: Roman culture and way of life on the Upper Rhine. Mithras relief and cellar of a Roman villa.

Ancient cultures of the Mediterranean region I and II: Exhibits from the ancient Greek and Roman cultures. Etruscans, Lower Italy and Sicily. Furnishings from Roman villas. Early Christian Byzantine objects.

- Renaissance and Early Baroque: From the Reformation to the Wars of Succession. Sculptures.

- Karlsruhe Palace and Court: Building history of the palace, street system. Portraits of the princes of the House of Baden who reigned from 1715 to 1918. Insignia. Gifts to the House of Baden.

- "So-called Turkish booty":' Equipment from the time of the Turkish Wars. Weapons, riding gear and armor.

- Weltkultur/ Global Culture: The theme is the mutual influence of European and non-European cultures and the role of mediating cultures. There are collaborations with museums in Tunisia, Algeria, Turkey, Greece, Italy and France.

- Baden and Europe (1789 to today): The permanent exhibition features showpieces on the history of Baden from 1789 to the present day, including Napoleon, Grand Duke Charles Frederick and revolutionary Friedrich Hecker.

The museum has a reference library for the collection areas and exhibition themes, a museum store and the "Schlosscafé" with Baden specialties.

In addition to the palace, the Baden State Museum has eight branch offices and museums.

- Museum at the market (Museum beim Markt), Karlsruhe The Museum at the market houses the comprehensive collections of applied art since 1900. Works from the most important centers of European Art Nouveau, from the Deutscher Werkbund and the Bauhaus as well as from the twenties and thirties are on display. Contemporary design testimonies are represented by artists such as Jasper Morrison and many others.

- Museum in the Majolika, Karlsruhe The Museum in the Majolica documents the history of the important Karlsruhe majolica manufactory from its foundation in 1901 to the recent past. Throughout its existence, this production site has reacted to almost all art-historical trends and cultural-historical events. The products on display therefore reflect the artistic and cultural-historical changes of the past century.