Research

The National Socialist and colonial legacy still poses legal problems for German museums today. As a result of the so-called "Aryanization" of Jewish property during the Nazi era, cultural assets, some of which were of considerable value, ended up in exhibitions and depots through forced purchases below value or expropriation. Due to the often deliberately incomplete inventory of the objects, it is difficult to identify the rightful owners. Research into the provenance of objects from colonial contexts is also necessary.

More on provenance research.

The cultural history of clothing was the great passion of Eva Larraß (1917-2005), a graduate librarian from Darmstadt. She collected over 4000 books and also owned a large number of fashion graphics and fashion magazines. When the collection was handed over to the Historisches Museum Frankfurt in 2003, together with the museum's own holdings, it became the most extensive library with a focus on the region. Now its collection is digitally indexed and can be searched in the online catalog of the Southwest German Library Network (SWB). None of this would have been possible without the voluntary work of Ms. Martina Sichelschmidt.

Eva Larraß created Germany's largest private costume library from 1953 until the 1990s. She was a sought-after fashion expert and anyone who was interested in fashion, traditional costumes or costumes from antiquity to the present day benefited from her knowledge and her unique collection. After her retirement, she devoted herself entirely to her passion and published the book "Zeit und Kleid. 900 Jahre Kostümgeschichte in Darmstadt".
Shortly before her 80th birthday, she decided to donate her treasures to the HMF, which had already made a name for itself in the field of dress research. Knowledge and objects were to come together and her library was to be combined with the museum's large textile collection. It is thanks to the then textile curator Almut Junker that she decided in favor of the HMF.

Digital collection documentation and digitization of objects makes it easier for researchers worldwide to access historical sources. In the digital collection database, the object is classified into a subject group, assigned to an artist, a workshop or an industrial company, dated, researched for previous owners, for possible reworking of the object after its creation and, not infrequently, its authenticity is determined. The inventory also includes identifying materials and techniques and finally determining the condition of the object, ideally in close cooperation with the responsible conservator.

The direct examination of the museum object can thus also contribute to the preservation of the collection if necessities are recognized and conservation measures are initiated. Only once this inventory work has been carried out can the museum's further work begin. High-performance scanners and even AI-searchable data sets are currently accelerating this basic work.

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The connection between clothing, movement and the body is thought of as a self-evident symbiosis, but one that is always culturally shaped, gendered and given new connotations and definitions. However, research has long paid little attention to the actual connection between clothing, movement and the body. Between 2015 and 2019, the textile science cooperation project between the University of Paderborn and the Historical Museum Frankfurt took place.

The core topic of the project was interpretive clothing research: the cuts, seams and fabrics of clothing from the collection of the Historisches Museum Frankfurt from the period between 1850 and 1930 were examined. The extensive collection provides information about the movement, speed and mobility of the human body in this era. What scope and forms of movement did materiality and cuts allow - or not?

The research findings were incorporated into the exhibition "Dresses in motion. Women's Fashion since 1850", which was presented at the Historisches Museum Frankfurt from May 2020 to January 2021. An exhibition catalog with numerous large-format illustrations has been published, in which further results of this research work can be found.

More information on the research project here.

In 2008, a small depiction of St. Joseph from the Prehn Collection was identified as a fragment of an altarpiece by the Haarlem painter Geertgen tot Sint Jans. The question immediately arose as to what other art-historical surprises the Prehn Cabinet had in store. The idea of a scientific catalog of this extensive collection of small-format paintings of all schools and genres from the Middle Ages to the 19th century was born.

Like all other forms of applied art, fashion must also be able to be practiced freely without restriction. In times of restricted freedom of expression, such as during the National Socialist era, the state also intervened in the free creative sector with a controlled national economy. During this time, a unique institute was established in Frankfurt, which was also intended to steer state dictatorship into the field of fashion: the Frankfurt Fashion Office.

Founded in 1933, the municipal office was tasked with developing guidelines for a German fashion that was appropriate for National Socialism and would be internationally competitive. The aim was to weaken the importance of the dominant French fashion. Behind this ideological goal were decidedly economic interests. The intention was to strengthen the German tailoring trade while at the same time squeezing out Jewish clothing companies. With the emergence of German fashion in Frankfurt, the city was to become a German clothing center.

A professional exchange among academic speakers on the current topics of interdisciplinary revolutionary research on 1848 and an updated remembrance of the revolution will take place over two days with contributions for an academic and educationally interested public of up to 100 participants. The conference will take a gender-sensitive and up-to-date approach to the history of democracy. In addition to thematic perspectives, biographical approaches and the history of reception will also find their place.

The academic conference is being organized by Forum Vormärz e.V. (Bielefeld), the Institute for Social Movements at Ruhr University Bochum, the Archive of the German Women's Movement (Kassel), the Historical Museum Frankfurt and the Federal Archive Memorial to the Freedom Movements in German History (Rastatt).

Program of the conference here.

In cooperation with the Hessian State Agency for Civic Education, the Fritz Bauer Institute, the History Department of Goethe University and the Frankfurt Historical Commission, the Historical Museum Frankfurt hosted a public conference in September 2022.

Understanding the history and ideology of National Socialism in order to resist the promises of right-wing populists and radicals: This must remain a key objective of historical and political education today. How did Frankfurt and its city administration, judiciary, police and university behave during the Nazi era? What scope for action did local authorities have under the Nazis and what role did they play in the implementation of Nazi policies?
In 2018, the HMF decided to develop a major exhibition project on "Frankfurt and the Nazis". Three exhibitions were developed simultaneously and in close relation to each other: In addition to the exhibition in the Young Museum "Nachgefragt", which is aimed at a young audience aged 10 and over, the historical exhibition "Eine Stadt macht mit" ("A city joins in") attempts a comprehensive overall view with pre- and post-history on a large area, while the participatory city laboratory exhibition "Auf Spurensuche im Heute" ("In search of traces today") was addressed to the numerous citizens* with an active interest in the culture of remembrance.

The conference on February 26 and 27, 2021 was dedicated to new spaces for action and methods of dealing with today's racism and the diversity of misanthropies. Where minorities become a majority, there is no longer a majority to tell a minority who they are and what they are allowed to feel. How do we strengthen ourselves and become allies on the way to recognizing multiple discrimination and its intersections? What steps do we need to take to put society and, above all, its institutions on a path that is critical of racism? How can the voices of those affected be strengthened?

The symposium opened up spaces for thought and reflection in which a diverse urban society can be redefined. Various forms of empowerment and power sharing will be discussed and experienced in practice. The target group includes people from racism-critical and intersectional fields of work as well as all people who (want to) get involved against racism.

The exhibition "Forgetting - Why we don't remember everything" makes the many dimensions of forgetting visible and interlinks findings from the social sciences, cultural history, neuroscience, psychoanalysis and art. The conference on 23 and 24 May 2019 delved deeper into the topics of memory - biography - identity, cultural changes in remembering and forgetting, forgetting as repression of the past and dreams in a dialog between experts. Talks lasting 30 minutes alternated with moderated discussions.

In preparation for the exhibition on the period from 1933 to 1945 in Frankfurt, the Historisches Museum Frankfurt organized the conference "Frankfurt and National Socialism" on 21 and 22 March 2019, which brought together academics and practitioners.

In a total of 16 lectures on the first day, they presented current research projects on Frankfurt under National Socialism and reported on the second day on how people elsewhere are dealing with the challenges facing remembrance today. The museum, which has not only been committed to participatory mediation since its redesign, also incorporates the expectations of Frankfurt's urban society in such an exhibition. At a preliminary meeting, Frankfurt's history initiatives and committed individuals sharpened their ideas in the areas of persecuted people, topography, resistance, economy and war as well as historical culture after 1945. They presented their findings at the conference.

The topic met with great interest in urban society. More than 200 participants attended the event, which was organized by the museum in cooperation with and with the support of the Fritz Bauer Institute and the Hessian State Agency for Civic Education. Other cooperation partners include the Institute for City History, the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, the Anne Frank Educational Center and the Jewish Museum Frankfurt.

On the occasion of Visually Impairment Day 2018 on June 6, the HMF presented its offers for blind and visually impaired visitors together with the Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Hesse.

As part of the "inclusive museum" project, the museum has developed numerous offers for people with visual impairments in close cooperation with the association. A guidance system through the service and exhibition areas, tactile models, objects to touch and a new type of audio-descriptive tour on the museum's multimedia device could be tried out and discussed during an event. Following the presentation of the project, the organizers invited visitors to a "round table". There, museum educators from Frankfurt's museums who want to develop their own offers for people with visual impairments were able to meet with experts in their own field to exchange ideas.

Conference from September 13 to 15, 2017

Around 100 years ago, women in Germany took part in political elections for the first time. The conference served not least to support the major exhibition on women's suffrage in Germany, which was on display at the HMF in 2018/19.

On Friday, May 17, 2017, the new building of the Historical Museum, designed by Stuttgart-based architects LRO Architekten, was handed over to the user. This was the first time that the public had the opportunity to view the new building.

To mark the occasion, the Historisches Museum Frankfurt, the BDA Hessen and the City of Frankfurt hosted a colloquium on May 19, 2017 to discuss the developments of the current museum building and its significance for the city and society.

A museum is not a building like any other - it has a special symbolic, representative and public character. What role does architecture play today as the materialization of the institution of the museum for the identity of the city? How can it contribute to being a place where social issues are negotiated? How does the museum become a house of the city?

The event kicked off with a guided tour of the building. Afterwards, the architects Arno Lederer (LRO Architekten, Stuttgart), Volker Staab (Staab Architekten, Berlin) and Jose Zabbala (addenda architects) gave an insight into their work and their position on the question of how a museum becomes a house of the city.

The conference "With all senses - the inclusive museum" took place on December 12 and 13, 2016 at the Historisches Museum Frankfurt.
The conference brought together experts, innovative companies, museum representatives and people with disabilities to discuss the new requirements of an inclusive exhibition culture in museums. The event provided impetus for museum management and outreach concepts.