Salvage, safeguarding, redistribution - relocation of cultural assets in the province and state of Brandenburg 1945-1952 with a focus on museum collections in the former district of Potsdam

After the end of the Second World War, Brandenburg’s museum landscape faced enormous challenges. Far-reaching changes resulted on the one hand from the sometimes enormous loss of collections due to the effects of the war and on the other hand from the often chaotic circumstances under which museums had to be put back into operation in the shortest possible time in accordance with occupation orders. The museum landscape was reorganized and restructured in very different regional and local ways. Not least as a direct and indirect consequence of the „Bodenreform“ (land reform), large quantities of cultural property found their way into numerous museum collections in ways that are still unclear in
some cases. This influx continued even after the founding of the GDR in 1949.

The aim of the research project is to shed light on this complex field of action and conflict for the state of Brandenburg (here with a focus on the former district of Potsdam) based on sources, to open up new written sources and, with a detailed collection of sources, to provide the basis for further research into seized, salvaged or generally relocated cultural property from the post-war period in Brandenburg and beyond.

© Museumsverband des Landes Brandenburg e. V.