What’s in a Name? Standortbestimmung und Perspektiven alltagskultureller Museen

In the organizer's words:

Conference on the occasion of Elisabeth Tietmeyer's farewell as director of the Museum of European Cultures (MEK) - National Museums in Berlin

Thu. 4 - Fri. 5 June 2026 // Research Campus Dahlem, Lansstr. 8, 14195 Berlin

In their beginnings, ethnological museums and university disciplines were closely linked. Since then, they have developed in different directions - in many places, folklore museums have become museums of everyday culture, folklore studies have become European ethnology, empirical cultural studies or cultural anthropology. In recent decades, museums of everyday culture have repeatedly had to re-establish their (disciplinary) position and social relevance.

On the occasion of Elisabeth Tietmeyer's retirement as director of the Museum of European Cultures, we take a look at the last few decades. We ask about the changes, parallel or opposing developments of both institutions and the self-image of everyday culture museums today. We will discuss central concepts, thematic areas and interests of museums of everyday culture in the recent past. In this way, we want to provide an overview of the position of museums of everyday culture.

Program

Thursday, June 4, 2026

14:00
Arrival and opening
Gero Dimter (Vice President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation)
Jana Wittenzellner (Deputy Director, Museum of European Cultures - National Museums in Berlin)

3:00 p.m.
Newly named, newly thought? Disciplinary transformations and new museum locations
Moderation: Jana Wittenzellner (Museum of European Cultures - National Museums in Berlin)

How European? Reflections on the Europeanization of the collections at the MEK
Magdalena Buchczyk (Institute for European Ethnology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

Delicate mutations and change without a name. The Folklore Museum in Vienna
Magdalena Puchberger (Folklore Museum Vienna)

Museum work in transition. A personal review and outlook
Konrad Vanja(former Museum of European Cultures - National Museums in Berlin)

5:00 p.m.
Keynote: Kulturkampf, the politicization of culture and the role of cultural studies knowledge
Markus Tauschek (Institute for Empirical Cultural Studies, University of Freiburg)

Friday, June 5, 2026

09:00 a.m.
From thing to object. Material culture and its musealization
Moderation:Matthias Thaden (Museum of European Cultures - National Museums in Berlin)

Venetian gondola or kebab skewer in the museum? How material cultural heritage is (still) polarizing
Nina Gorgus (Historical Museum Frankfurt a.M.)

How things become witnesses. Can they be trusted?
Hans-Peter Hahn (Institute for Ethnology, Goethe University, Frankfurt a.M.)

Material Encounters. Contemporary Art and the Reinterpretation of Ethnographic Objects
Zvjezdana Antoš (Ethnographic Museum, Zagreb)

11:00 a.m.
Intangible Cultural Heritage between Practice, Musealization and Identity Creation
Moderation:Judith Schühle (Museum of European Cultures - National Museums in Berlin)

Participative, transformative and future-oriented potentials of intangible cultural heritage in museum work
Gertraud Koch (Institute for Empirical Cultural Studies, University of Hamburg)

Material heritage in intangible cultural heritage practices. The role of museums in the preservation of objects on the move
Sophie Elpers (Heritage Department/Faculty Design Sciences, University of Antwerp & Meertens Instituut, Amsterdam)

The miner is coming? Mining and cultural heritage in the field of tension between tourism, preservation of tradition and protest
Ira Spieker (Institute for Saxon History and Folklore, Dresden)

14:00
Interpretive power and participation. Participatory knowledge production in museums
Moderation: Sofia Botvinnik (Museum of European Cultures - National Museums in Berlin)

Áimmuin. Ancestral Heritage and Modern Meanings
Eeva-Kristiina Nylander (Institute for Sami Studies, University of Oulu)

Between claim and reality. The exhibition "We are from here" and participatory museum work Verda Kaya (TAM Museum, Berlin)

The museum as a relational network
Léontine Meijer-van Mensch (Rotterdam City Museum)

16:00
Conclusion and farewell

Admission and participation free of charge
Registration requested