Herrenhausen Palace Museum opens its doors

Opening exhibition provides a vivid picture of the gardens' eventful history

As of now, the Herrenhausen Gardens will be attracting visitors with a further cultural gem - and enriching Hannover with an added piece of museum culture. This historical location has today, 14 May, seen the official opening of the new Herrenhausen Palace Museum (HPM) after several years of planning by the responsible Hannover City Council functions, a good twelve months of construction work and with the support of the Federal State of Lower Saxony and a diversity of further sponsors. The new museum rounds off Herrenhausen Palace, the rebuilding of which was completed a few months ago.

Together with the Volkswagen Foundation, Hannover City Council decided in 2009 that the time had come to rebuild the palace which had been destroyed in World War II, and developed a multi-faceted concept for its usage. The Volkswagen Foundation integrated a modern convention centre into the palace, while Hannover City Council installed state-of-the-art exhibition premises in the side wings of the building - under the responsibility of the Historical Museum Hannover.
The HPM was funded by the Federal State of Lower Saxony and Hannover City Council with amounts of EUR 1 million each, as well as with a donation of EUR 1.25 million from the Landesverband Metall Niedersachsen/ Hansestadt Bremen (state metalworking industry employers' association) for the construction and furnishing of the basement section. 

As from 15 May 2013 the Herrenhausen Palace Museum will be welcoming guests to the opening exhibition entitled "Palaces and Gardens in Herrenhausen. From Baroque to the Modern Day". It provides a vivid insight into the history of the Herrenhausen Gardens and their palaces from the 17th century through to the present. 

The exhibition:
The Spanish painter Pablo Picasso once said: "Give me a museum and I'll fill it". Under the supervision of museum director Prof. Thomas Schwark, the staff of the Historical Museum Hannover and designers from museum design agency "hg merz architekten museumsgestalter" adopted this statement as their commitment in putting this opening exhibition together. It shows why Herrenhausen has what is unquestionably one of Europe's finest and most beautiful Baroque gardens and how it developed. At the same time the exhibition answers the questions as to why an English-style landscaped garden came into being literally right next door, and why the Berggarten botanical gardens with their wealth of exotic plant life became known throughout Europe. It also presents the key protagonists of that splendid era, including illustrious personalities such as Duke Johann Friedrich, Electress Sophie of Hannover, Elector Ernst August and, of course, the universal scholar and polymath Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.

However, the master gardeners - in many cases caring for and stewarding the gardens from generation to generation - are also featured. Their histories merge to help form the unique success story of the Duchy of Braunschweig (Brunswick)-Lüneburg with Hannover as its centre, which was elevated to the status of Electorate in 1698. The House of Hannover was given the crown of England in 1714, and Hannover became a kingdom one hundred years later.
How did this powerful Guelph state come into being? What roles did the spheres of business, politics and culture play, and what significance did the thinking of universal scholar Leibniz have?

Visitors to the Herrenhausen Palace Museum can discover the answers and a lot more among over 500 valuable exhibits and paintings dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries - and transpose themselves into the enthralling world of Baroque court life. The precious objects and documents from Hannover's great history are served up as if on a long festive table. In a "Chamber of Art and Wonders" visitors can admire unexpected exhibits which document the light and shadows of that era in which the House of Guelph gained such power and influence. The most beautiful exhibit is and remains the fascinating Great Garden which Electress Sophie so dearly loved - and will possibly be seen in a new light after the visit to the museum. 

A brief tour of the Herrenhausen Palace Museum:
Visitors enter the exhibition in the east wing of the palace. This room is designed in regal red and gold, and provides a fascinating insight into the beginnings of the Great Garden and its function in the court culture of representation. In the 17th and 18th centuries the Guelphs used it to a great degree as place of festivities and as a dazzling demonstration of power and prestige. A portrait gallery suspended against a backdrop of heavy green velvet provides a visual impression of the people who commissioned and designed the Great Garden, and of its guests. Maps and views visualize the spatial dimensions in which the development of the Herrenhausen Gardens took place. Exhibits typical of the times provide indications of the political, economic, military and cultural fundaments of Herrenhausen's history. At the end of the room we see the bust of Leibniz. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, a resident of Hannover between 1676 and 1716, who was among the illustrious guests of the Great Garden. He is said to have spent many hours there in intellectually stimulating dialogue with Electress Sophie. Sophie loved the Great Garden dearly. "The garden is my life", she said of it. History has it that she, stricken in years, died in 1714 while on a walk through those grounds.

Serenaded with Baroque table music in the background, visitors to the new museum now go down a stairway and find themselves in a unique room mysteriously bathed in dark lighting. Fine and precious objects emerge from the darkness here: the magnificent sedan chair of the Countess of Yarmouth, paramour of King George II; a richly carved and colourful sledge with which the aristocrats amused themselves in the garden and which, having been painstaking restored to its original condition, is now on show to the general public for the very first time; fine silk shoes worn by the fashion-conscious noblewomen of the court. Besides these objects of luxury from the world of dukes and the aristocracy, the visitor will also find objects from the everyday life of the bourgeoisie and commoners. Though seemingly randomly arranged, the exhibits are nevertheless strictly grouped according to pairs of terms such as "near and far", "leisure and toil" or "life and death". They illustrate the typical extremes in the living environment of people in the Baroque era.  

On coming back up from the "Chamber of Art and Wonders" in the basement, the visitor then enters the west wing, bathed in fresh white and  green shades of light. Here, the story of the palace and garden world of Herrenhausen continues - from the Enlightenment through to the present day. The exhibition explains the "revolutionary" progression in garden design, the changes to the palace buildings and their usage, the opening of the gardens to the general public and their transition into municipal ownership. There is many a surprise to be encountered here, for example the garden of Monbrillant Palace or the cultivation of exotic plants in the Berggarten botanical gardens.

Outlook:
Next year, in 2014, the Palace Museum will be presenting an important part of the Lower Saxony state exhibition on the history of the Hannoverian Guelphs. Entitled "When the Royals came from Hannover. Hannover's Rulers on England's Throne 1714-1837", the exhibition will be spread among five locations and focussed on the 123-year period of shared monarchy.

Statements:
Marlis Drevermann, Head of Hannover City Council's Department of Culture: "I am delighted that we are able today to open one of northern Germany's most exciting cultural history museums. The Herrenhausen Palace Museum will tell the Gardens' guests from Hannover, Germany, Europe and overseas the story of the Great Baroque Garden and the personalities of its times. Accentuated by the marvellous design concept developed and implemented by "hg merz architekten museumsgestalter", over 500 selected collection items enable a journey through time into an eventful three hundred years of history."

Dr. Annette Schwandner, Head of the Culture Department of Lower Saxony's Ministry for Science and Culture: "The new museum in Herrenhausen Palace closes the gap in the presentation of our state and intellectual history. The two palace wings and the connecting aisle make an ideal location for presenting the core topics of our large-scale state exhibition entitled "When the Royals came from Hannover. Hannover's Rulers on England's Throne 1714-1837". It was with this in mind that the Federal State of Lower Saxony was pleased to invest one million euros in the establishment of the Palace Museum towards enhancing our museum landscape in Lower Saxony." 

Prof. Dr. Thomas Schwark, Director of the Historical Museum Hannover: "'Once in a lifetime...'; within the beautiful mantle of Herrenhausen Palace the Historical Museum has been enabled to create, with its exhibition, content and perspectives on one of Europe's  most beautiful garden ensembles. A onderful task!" 

Markus Betz, Project Manager, "hg merz architekten museumsgestalter": "Rebuilding Herrenhausen Palace has reunited this history-laden place with its architectural centrepiece. The "Chamber of Art and Wonders" designed by our company provides an environment in which the aesthetics, the world of emotions and the enlightening stimuli of the Baroque era can flourish once more. The visitors immerse themselves in a world which, though seemingly far distant with its music and buildings, its science and art, nevertheless still shapes our perception today." 

Dr. Volker Schmidt, Chief Executive Director, NiedersachsenMetall, on behalf of all donators and sponsors: "Cultural monuments like the palace in Herrenhausen are important witnesses of human history. It is our common task to preserve and fill them with life. This calls for decision makers in state and society and for institutions and people to act as role models, to set an example. We sponsors accept this responsibility. In doing so we are strengthening Hannover as a centre of science and culture with which our federation has been inseparably linked for 123 years. As the biggest employers' federation in northern Germany we are at the heart of society, for which reason we support and sponsor a diversity of educational activities at more  than 150 schools, lend ongoing support to the Ideas Expo and in this case to the rebuilding of our palace in Herrenhausen. After all, education and culture lay the foundations for the future." 

Hans Christian Nolte, Managing Director, HMTG (Hannover Marketing und Tourismus GmbH): "The building of a new museum today is something very special. And what better place could there be than Herrenhausen, a place which literally breathes culture and history. With its various exhibitions, the Herrenhausen Palace Museum will enhance the appeal and charisma of the Herrenhausen Gardens even further."

Hannover City Council wishes to express its thanks to the following bodies, companies, institutions and people for their valuable assistance towards the construction and establishment of the Herrenhausen Palace Museum:
NiedersachsenMetall - Verband der Metallindustriellen Niedersachsens e.V.
Federal State of Lower Saxony
Anheuser-Busch Inbev
The Federal Government's Representative for Culture and media
Niedersächsische Sparkassenstiftung (Savings Bank Foundation of Lower Saxony)
Sparkasse Hannover
VGH Versicherungen
Fritz Behrens Foundation

(Press release/Pressemitteilung LH Hannover, 14.05.2013)