A palace for the cultures of this world
The Humboldt Forum will give Berlin a new centre for culture, science and education – fully in line with the "spirit of the Enlightenment, open-mindedness and tolerance" said Minister of State Monika Grütters. At the opening press conference, she stressed that the new forum is to provide a yardstick and be exemplary in terms of dealing with cultural artefacts from the colonial context.
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A new forum for art, culture and science. The Humboldt Forum was opened in Berlin on 16 December.
Photo: SHF / Foto: David von Becker
It has been a long path from the original decision of the German Bundestag to rebuild the Berlin Palace until its completion. On 16 December 2020, Minister of State Monika Grütters opened the Humboldt Forum at a joint press conference with Michael Müller, the Governing Mayor of Berlin, Members of the German Bundestag and Members of the Foundation Council.
Communicating knowledge about the world’s cultures
The Humboldt Forum is to be a new sort of museum, that will communicate knowledge about the cultures of the world. The legacy of the Humboldt brothers is to point the way forward and show how to bring peoples together, as well as promoting the ideal of a dialogue of equals among cultures, said Monika Grütters.
"The Humboldt Forum is to be exemplary and provide a yardstick in Germany for dealing with cultural artefacts from colonial contexts – presenting their historical background, providing access to the objects and working together to reappraise collections," she added.
Online opening ceremony for the general public
In the evening the Humboldt Forum staged an online public opening ceremony. Anyone who was interested could take a livestream tour of the building. A varied programme was offered on four different video channels.
Exhibitions to open in the coming year
In view of the pandemic, there was no big opening ceremony with an audience. The building is not currently open to visitors.
But, the new outside sites, at Schlossplatz and on the banks of the River Spree will be open to the public. The different exhibition areas and other parts of the building will open next year.