Bayerisches Armeemuseum

About

The Bayerisches Armeemuseum is the Military History Museum of Bavaria. It was founded in 1879 in Munich and is located in Ingolstadt since 1972. The main collection is housed in the New Castle, the permanent exhibition about the First World War in Reduit Tilly opened in 1994 and the Armeemuseum incorporated the Bayerisches Polizeimuseum (Bavarian Police Museum) in the Turm Triva in 2012. Today, part of the former Munich Museum building is the central building of the new Bayerische Staatskanzlei (Bavarian State Chancellery).

The museum was founded in 1879 by King Ludwig II of Bavaria at the suggestion of General Friedrich von Bothmers and the Minister of War Joseph Maximilian von Maillinger. It was to bring together the collections that were scattered throughout Bavaria. First director was Josef Würdinger (1822–1889). Until 1905, it was located in Munich in the arsenal of the Bavarian army and then moved after five years of construction, into a new monumental building at the Hofgarten in Munich; where the Hofgartenkaserne (court garden barracks) had previously stood, and was based on the plans by Ludwig von Mellinger. During the Second World War, the building was partially destroyed. The preserved dome of the old museum building in Munich is the central building of the newly established Bayerische Staatskanzlei (state chancellery) today. From 1946 to 1969, the Armeemuseum was housed in the Bavarian National Museum in Munich.

The collection on military history arrived in the New Castle in Ingolstadt, in 1969. The city had been the seat of the Dukes of Bavaria-Ingolstadt and as a former Bavarian mainland fortress, possessed a rich military tradition and numerous references to the Bavarian army. In 1972 the museum was opened under the direction of director Peter Jaeckel. The permanent exhibition designed and furnished at that time remained unchanged until 2014.

In 1979, Ernst Aichner became museum director and expanded the museum's collections significantly. He paid particular attention to the First World War and the Bavarian military paintings, such as those by artists like Anton Hoffmann or Louis Braun. Even more from unknown artists, who have immortalized the events of Bavarian and European military history through their paintings, were collected by Aichner and represent an important asset of the museum today. Other acquisitions, such as a raffle of 6,000 Nazi propaganda art works seized by the United States at the end of Second world War in 1986, were never processed, even though the United States had made it a condition for the sale that they be processed in a museum. Aichner sent about 700 of the war paintings to the Deutsches Historisches Museum (German Historical Museum) in Berlin and to the Bundeswehr Military History Museum (Military History Museum of the German Armed Forces) in Dresden. The processing of the remaining objects in Ingolstadt waited until he had set up the planned department for Second World War. In the same year, they also set up a Starfighter in the museum court yard, to which other military historians noted that a reference of the exhibit on the history of the 1683 established and 1918/19 disbanded Bavarian army was difficult to recognize. In 1988, the Bavarian state parliament decided that a museum education concept should be created for the museum. In connection with the Bavarian State Garden Show in Ingolstadt in 1992, Aichner developed ambitious expansion plans for his museum. Therefore, in addition to the previous, not yet fully used headquarters in the New Castle, all historic military buildings on the southern bank of the Danube in Ingolstadt's old town were to be used for expansion. Making the Armeemuseum the third largest military history museum in Europe. Ingolstadt lawyers, doctors, teachers and artists feared for Ingolstadt's reputation as a cultural city and founded with the local SPD member of Parliament Manfred Schuhmann, the initiative "culture instead of cannon", the Ingolstadt-based car manufacturer Audi was also concerned about the image of its headquarters. In March 1993, a tin soldier with SS attributes was offered for sale at the souvenir stall of the museum treasury, which led to investigations in the Armeemuseum for use of markings of unconstitutional organizations. Minister of Culture, Hans Zehetmair, said at a parliamentary questioning by the Alliance 90/The Greens Chairman, Manfred Fleischer, that he waits for the outcome of the investigation, but regardless of the decision, he believes that the exhibition of objects that had nothing to do with the history of the Bavarian Army and which were considered as "overzealous", were nothing of the such. An employee of Aichner received a fine on the matter, and the case against Aichner was discontinued by the prosecution. While the 700,000 DM, which was collected by the circle of friends of the museum was being spent on new acquisitions, which were mostly stored in the extensive museum depots, the exhibition for the First World War opened only in the Summer of 1994, more than two years after the scheduled date all because of missing 20,000 DM for educational information boards. For this exhibition, the parliamentary decision on the museum educational concept was also implemented, whereas for the main exhibition only came into effect with the reorganization after the national exhibition of 2015. The Reduit Tilly has become one of the few special museums of the First World War in recent years, and not only because the war reality is made physically tangible there was it universally recognized. The 100th anniversary of the beginning of the war not only increased public interest, but also the lending of exhibits to other museums increased significantly. In addition, in 2007, the police history collection of the Bavarian State Police from Bamberg was transferred to the Armeemuseum. It contains historical information about the Königlich Bayerisches Gendarmeriekorps (Bavarian Gendarmerie), the Bavarian police during the National Socialist era and, in general, the development of the municipal and city police as well as the state, water protection, border and riot police. Under the organizational roof of the Armeemuseum, the collection was opened as its own Bayerisches Polizeimuseum (Bavarian Police Museum) only after several years of delay, on 19 December 2011, with a concept developed under the new director, Ansgar Reiß. The police museum is housed in the Turm Triva in the immediate vicinity of the Reduit Tilly. Aichner pursued his expansion plans until his retirement at the end of January 2010: His last major act was the opening of an exhibition on the history of the Deutsche Gebirgstruppe (German mountain troops) from 1915 to today, in which the foundation Deutsche Gebirgstruppe was founded. The controversial surrounding the group because of its relationship to war crimes of the German Wehrmacht Kameradenkreis (circle of comrades), became the basis for the contribution of all of the mountain troops exhibits and documents to the foundation. Under Aichner's successor, the museum critically took on a special exhibition on the beginnings of the German mountain troops (17 September 2014 to 27 September 2015). Further special exhibitions on this topic are in preparation.

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.