What´s in a Name?

• Thu, June 4 – Fri, June 5, 2026 // Dahlem Research Campus, Lansstr. 8, 14195 Berlin

In their early days, folklore museums and academic disciplines were closely intertwined. Since then, they have evolved in different directions—folklore museums have become museums of everyday culture in many places, while folklore has evolved into European ethnology, empirical cultural studies, or cultural anthropology. In recent decades, museums of everyday culture have repeatedly had to redefine their (disciplinary) stance and their social relevance.

On the occasion of Elisabeth Tietmeyer’s retirement as director of the Museum of European Cultures, this event takes a look back at the past decades. It examines the changes, parallel or opposing developments within both institutions, and the self-image of museums of everyday culture today. It discusses key concepts, thematic areas, and interests of museums of everyday culture in the recent past. This overview aims to facilitate an assessment of the current state of museums of everyday culture.

Program

Thursday, June 4, 2026

2:00 PM Arrival and Opening

Gero Dimter (Vice President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation)Jana Wittenzellner (Deputy Director, Museum of European Cultures – State Museums of Berlin)

3:00 PM

Renamed, reimagined? Disciplinary transformations and museum repositioning

Moderator: Jana Wittenzellner (Museum of European Cultures – State Museums of Berlin)

How European? Reflections on the Europeanization of the Collections at the MEK

Magdalena Buchczyk (Institute for European Ethnology, Humboldt University of Berlin)

Subtle Mutations and Change Without a Name. The Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art in Vienna

Magdalena Puchberger (Folk Museum Vienna)

Museum Work in Transition. A Personal Retrospective and Outlook

Konrad Vanja (formerly Museum of European Cultures – State Museums of Berlin)

5:00 PM Keynote: Kulturkampf, the Politicization of Culture, and the Role of Cultural Studies Knowledge

Markus Tauschek (Institute for Empirical Cultural Studies, University of Freiburg)

Friday, June 5, 2026

9:00 a.m.

From Thing to Object: Material Culture and Its Musealization Moderator: Matthias Thaden (Museum of European Cultures – Berlin State Museums)

A Venetian gondola or a kebab skewer in the museum? How material cultural heritage (still) polarizes Nina Gorgus (Historical Museum Frankfurt am Main)

How Things Become Witnesses. Can They Be Trusted? Hans-Peter Hahn (Institute of Ethnology, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main)

Material Encounters. Contemporary Art and the Reinterpretation of Ethnographic Objects

Zvjezdana Antoš (Ethnographic Museum, Zagreb)

11:00 a.m.

Intangible Cultural Heritage Between Practice, Musealization, and Identity Formation

Moderator: Judith Schühle (Museum of European Cultures – State Museums of Berlin)

Participatory, transformative, and future-oriented potentials of intangible cultural heritage in museum work

Gertraud Koch (Institute for Empirical Cultural Studies, University of Hamburg)

Tangible Heritage in Intangible Cultural Heritage Practices: On the Role of Museums in Preserving Objects in Motion

Sophie Elpers (Heritage Department/Faculty of Design Sciences, University of Antwerp & Meertens Instituut, Amsterdam)

Is the Steiger Coming? Mining and Cultural Heritage at the Intersection of Tourism, Preservation of Tradition, and Protest

Ira Spieker (Institute for Saxon History and Folklore, Dresden)

2:00 PM

Interpretive Power and Participation. Participatory Knowledge Production in the Museum Moderator: Sofia Botvinnik (Museum of European Cultures – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin)

Áimmuin. Ancestral Heritage and Modern Meanings Eeva-Kristiina Nylander (Institute for Sámi Studies, University of Oulu)

Between Aspiration and Reality. The Exhibition “We Are From Here” and Participatory Museum Work

Verda Kaya (TAM Museum, Berlin)

The Museum as a Relational Network Léontine Meijer-van Mensch (Rotterdam City Museum)

4:00 PM

Closing and Farewell

• Admission and participation are free
• Registration requested

The conference is made possible with the kind support of the Finland Institute and the Friends of the Museum of European Cultures.