Ulrich Wilhelm was spokesman for Angela Merkel and director of the Bavarian Radio, communication skills can be assumed there. He used this last December to initiate a necessary debate as head of the board of directors of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum (GNM). If the house were in London or New York, “it would be a hit, the flagship of a cosmopolitan city”. In fact, he, Wilhelm, often had to be asked what he was up to. GNM? That says nothing to his friends in Rome or Paris.
Wilhelm identified the house name as one of the tricky points. Unlike in the 19th century, the “Germanisches Nationalmuseum” is no longer self-explanatory. One asks oneself: “Germanic, what is that?” At the request of Nuremberg Newsasked whether the GNM should be renamed, Wilhelm answered: “You really have to ask the question.”
Now, Wilhelm didn’t unleash a storm with it, but rather a simmering discourse for those in the know – but that’s exactly part of the problem. No other institution in Bavaria is likely to suffer from such a disparity between abstract relevance (“largest cultural history museum in the German-speaking world”) and concrete audience reach. And yes, the name helps.
Admittedly only to a lesser extent. From the outside, the house largely resembles a hermetic citadel. Inside, you’re partly in modern rooms, partly in a musty Adenauer setting. There is actually always a construction site in the GNM, this labyrinthine building of all sorts. It can be reached on a maximally inhospitable old town street (grey, cruel, Grasersgasse). And the extremely heterogeneous house collection – more than 1.3 million objects – would probably best be subsumed under the label “Museum for things, older and newer”.
Nobody is to blame for this, nobody can do anything for the equally fascinating and intricate history of the house. And even the most ingenious museologist could not turn the GNM into a totally hip location in the blink of an eye. It is all the more important, as Wilhelm did, to spark debates about this (not just) theoretical jewel. But it is just as true that GNM boss Daniel Hess – a smart Swiss – is not aiming for a completely new house name, at most an addition. After all, German Studies will not be renamed just because someone might think it is about Germanic tribal studies.