The scientific and technological culture of divided Berlin as reflected in the museums

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Arne Schirrmacher
• Subject Area: History of Science
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 525152060

Not only literature, theatre, film, art and music shaped the self-understanding and identity of people in modern societies, but also science and technology, which increasingly determined them. A comprehensive cultural history should therefore include the culture of science and technology. Berlin and its post-war development seem predestined for a more profound understanding of these societal and political conditions. After all, this is the place where two systems collided after 1945 and where, in a city that was divided but always closely related to one another between its parts, cultural competition took place in various constellations of permeability and isolation. In the atomic and space age and in the times of Sputnik and the "scientific-technical revolution", this competition was fought out, especially in the arena of science and technology. Just as there was a specific Berlin music life, an art, cinema and literature scene and a theatre landscape, there was a science and technology culture in the form of museums and exhibitions, too. Their place in Berlin's cultural history has so far remained open. The project aims to fill this desideratum for the post-war period and to analyse the institutions of exchange and knowledge circulation between science and society - in particular, museums, exhibitions and other forms of public presentation of science and technology such as observatories and science centres. As exhibition media, they made a unique contribution to the societal discourse on science and technology. Nowhere can these be experienced more directly, discussed more vividly, but also more easily instrumentalized ideologically and politically than in museums and exhibitions. Before the Second World War, Berlin, which had rapidly risen from a residential city to an industrial metropolis, had developed a rich landscape of science museums and technology exhibitions that were part of the everyday life of its citizens. But the reconstruction of this museum landscape proved difficult after the war. In order to fill the continuing demand for the cherished old museums as well as for new institutions, it was often civil society actors in West Berlin and individuals and initiatives of (state-controlled) organizations in East Berlin who became involved in their re-establishment. Given the central role of science and technology within the competition between the systems, and due to the unique constellation that existed until the construction of the Wall, which allowed Berliners to benefit from the offerings of two political systems with a permeable border, and which continued to exist in a close mutual relationship even after the Wall was erected, the case of divided Berlin provides particularly far-reaching insights into the societal role and political conditions of the culture of science and technology.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants