Resumen de Von der kuriosität zum studienobjekt: Völkerkundemuseen in der Bundersrepublik Deutschland
The evolution of Germán Anthropological or Ethnographic Museums is not much difFerent from that of its European neighbours; from 16th century «curiosity cabinets» and/or the royal prívate collections to the present pubÜc edifices. The Germán pubUc collections are dispersed throughout some 40 different museums and universities. Included in this number one does find a small handful of highly specialised institutions such as the Leather Museum and Textile Museum.
The great Germán Ímpetus, in the late 19the century, to construct Pubüc Buildings to house the Ethnographic riches of a nation is directly traceable to the influence of Adolf Bastían. For it was he, who successfuUy argued, that Ethnography was a discipÜne and should have ¡ts own university curricula and the disciplines materials should be housed in its own buildíngs. What is most important and still a very useful guide line for today's museum worker is Bastian's concept of a Museum as a living laboratory, or what we can in today's vernacular term «Dynamic Archiv» for the study of Man.
The growth of Germany's Ethnographic Museums is hardly one of continuity. Like most cultural institutions the Museums have also enjoyed and sufFered periods of expansión, retrenchment, due to wars, unstable governments, depressions, and now the reunification of Germany. The rwo grcatest difficulties facing Bastian's hypothesis, in the present day late 20 th. century, is the curtailment of public spending on culture and the changing public interest leading to a steadily decreasing attendance. Very little can be done about the former except to wait and hope for an upturn in fortune but the latter can and must be squarely met. A few of the more enterprising Museums such as the Rautenstrauch-Joest in Cologne have turned their attention to current day social questions using the anthropological or Ethno-History approach, i.e. «Smoking and Reality-Drug using compared », in an effort to combat the «ivory tower/relic» view.
In my own view, our great laboratories for the study of Mankind, not only in Germany, but throughout the world must open their eyes and utilize the products of the information revolution, much as our predecessors utilized the French and Germán revolutions to bring the «curiosities» out of their royal closets. I am speaking about such things as a world-wide information retrieval network, the meeting of dynamic social and continuing historical questions such as has been attempted in Cologne, and reinvigorating Bastian's concepts but with the added proviso of more strongly emphasizing the Museums as a living laboratory for the youngsters who are just beginning their public school careers which has been attempted here in Berlín.
