Anticipation not only in Berlin

The new research environment for the "Berlin Kunstkammer" provides access for the first time to the most important inventories, catalogs and descriptions of this collection in digital and transcribed form. It thus translates the historical collection into a digital knowledge network. As of Dec. 15, 2022, it will be available at the URL: https://berlinerkunstkammer.de/.

The Berlin Kunstkammer existed between the 16th and 19th centuries and experienced constant change. The research environment makes this visible by means of the objects and thus allows new perspectives on the history of the collection and the museum. Historical orders and spatial constellations become just as clear as the perceptions of the visitors. How did the objects get into the collection? In what way were they placed in ever new taxonomic, narrative, spatial, and use-related contexts? What assignments of meaning went hand in hand with these processes?

The virtual research environment is a result of the DFG-funded project "The Window on Nature and Art. A Historical-Critical Reappraisal of the Brandenburg-Prussian Kunstkammer," which was carried out by the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, and the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin from 2018 to 2022.

At the same time, the second result of the project, the book Marcus Becker, Eva Dolezel, Meike Knittel, Diana Stört and Sarah Wagner: Die Berliner Kunstkammer. Collection History in Object Biographies from the 16th to the 21st Century, Petersberg 2023. It presents the results of the research project in interwoven object histories.