„Tiefenbohrung“ (“Deep Drilling“) marks the start of an intensive investigation by the German Museum of Books and Writing into the provenance of the holdings it has collected over more than 140 years. The investigation will focus on the publication „Tiefenbohrung. Eine andere Provenienzgeschichte” (“Deep Drilling. A Different Provenance Story”), which will be published in the autumn of 2022. It consists of 33 essays that will draw the reader's attention to the pathways and detours which have brought this cultural heritage to the museum. At the same time, we will be releasing a virtual exhibition and a small series of films presenting a selection of stories.

The theme day on 6 November 2022 will be marked by guided tours and events offering insights into provenance stories chosen from among the almost 1 million objects in the collection. The talk series DBSM:meet invites the audience to join in discussions with guests who view the topic of “Homeland and Origins” from various perspectives. The guests will include creative artists from Ukraine who, as war refugees, give the subject of origins and homeland a painfully topical focus.

Publication

„Tiefenbohrung. Eine andere Provenienzgeschichte” (“Deep Drilling. A Different Provenance Story”) tells the story of the origins of cultural assets housed in museums. The book takes a close look at the paths, detours, and dead ends that the items collected since 1884 by the German National Library's German Museum of Books and Writing over a period of nearly 140 years had to navigate before finding a home in the Museum’s repository in Leipzig. Theft and destruction are just as much a part of this story as donations and other strokes of good fortune.

Whether underground comics, floppy disks, early prints, posters or letters, digital estates, Hollywood photos and the silver trophy awarded to a publisher: The the biographies of 33 typical objects open the reader’s eyes to the intentions, ownership claims and lasting traditions of memory institutions. At the same time, the richly illustrated publication inspires a fascination with the beauty and also the historical fracture lines of cultural heritage.

Virtual exhibitions

The virtual exhibition „Woher? Weshalb? Warum? Provenienzgeschichten aus dem Deutschen Buch- und Schriftmuseum" (“Where from? What for? Why? Provenance stories from the German Museum of Books and Writing”), hosted by the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (German Digital Library), is open since 14 October 2022. It showcases a number of objects with biographies that have been verified or cannot be wholly determined. It is intended as a digital accompaniment to the book „Tiefenbohrung. Eine andere Provenienzgeschichte” (“Deep Drilling. A Different Provenance Story”) and presents some of the content in an interesting format.

Another virtual exhibition, opened in November 2022, presents a piece of museum history from exactly 100 years ago: “Art and crisis. Klee, Kokoschka, Kollwitz & Co. save the Book Museum from closure“. The hyperinflation of the 1920s drove the “German Museum of Books and Writing” to ruin. What now? The last resort is to sell the museum’s most precious object: the Gutenberg Bible. But resistance emerges and the museum’s assistant has an ingenious idea...

Provenance theme day

The German Museum of Books and Writing was holding a theme day from 11:00 to 15:00 on 6 November 2022. This event will include guided tours of the German National Library’s hidden places, a look inside the poison cabinet and the closed stacks, exciting provenance talks in the stacks, a presentation of our new animated films, the hands-on workshop “Make the book your own. Linocut bookplates”, and insights into the stories of some of the almost one million objects in our collections.

Six-part film series

What if our objects could speak? The film series accompanying the book „Tiefenbohrung” (“Deep Drilling”) puts the spotlight on six exceptional provenance stories and immerses the narrative in a contemporary animated visual world. The stories are brought to life in a social and political context. The films premièred on the DBSM’s theme day on 6 November 2022 (only availabe in German).

Gutenbergbibel

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Gutenbergbibel

Pagination

: Sperrbestände …