38 museums illuminate the Rhine as a boundary and lifeline

This international network of museums on the Upper Rhine is held together by the Dreiländermuseum in Lörrach (D). This house has already initiated other cross-border exhibition collaborations, such as the First World War in 2014. It is currently exhibiting a general exhibition on the great Rhine project. A media tour was held on Tuesday.

Museum director and network coordinator Markus Moehring said that with the Rhine issue, museums in the Upper Rhine are knocking on their doors. Never before have so many museums been spontaneously encouraged to participate. These include small houses such as the Maison du Patrimoine in Kembs (France), medium-sized houses such as Museum.BL in Liestal, as well as large state museums such as the Museum of Antiquity in Basel.

At the heart of the didactically and design-wise overview exhibition in Lörrach is extremely different perspectives on the “Rhines” of the three participating countries.

It is Switzerland’s longest river and the artery through which most of the water from the Alps flows north from the Knie in Basel. In France, first of all, it is the border line between Alsace as the pawn of the forces and the old enemy Germany. And Germany also embraces the river as Father Rhine, an archetypal German myth.

The exhibition at the Dreiländermuseum also touches on topics ranging from the Rhine, the frontline of warlike conflicts, to its economic use as an electricity supplier and shipping route, to the legendary Rheingold. By the way, there really was and still is gold from the Rhine, as an exhibit at the Baden State Museum in Karlsruhe shows.

Many museums are dedicated to the Rhine as a place and symbol of major conflicts. The National and University Library in Strasbourg recalls the Nazi era on the Upper Rhine, the Kurpfälzisches Museum in Heidelberg displays archaeological finds from long-past wartimes, and the Basel Museum of Antiquities and the Ludwig Collection illuminate the Rhine as one of its most important. Traffic routes for Caesar’s campaigns against the Gauls and Germans.

Other museums present bridge constructions and their social and economic impact, and a surprising number of museums dedicate their exhibits to river power plants and river-related regulations. First and foremost is the Kembs power plant in Alsace.

Prior to the construction of the Kembs power station in 1932, France’s exclusive right to use the hydroelectric power of the Rhine was established in the 1919 Treaty of Versailles – something the Germans were not keen on, as is well known. endure for a long time.

The “Rhine” overview exhibition at the Dreiländermuseum Lörrach will run until 2 July 2023. Other museums will continue their exhibitions until the end of 2023.

(SDA)