When it comes to cultural attractions and the diversity of a museum landscape, Kassel does not have to hide from Berlin, Dresden or Munich. Not only the World Heritage ensemble around Wilhelmshöhe Palace and Bergpark, Löwenburg and Hercules, is unique; Kassel also offers solitary cultural sites and museums from the Fridericianum to the Neue Galerie, Ottoneum, Orangerie and Grimmwelt to the Karlsaue. The “Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel” has officially got a new name and a new image since 1 May this year. “Hessen Kassel Heritage – Museums, Palaces, Parks” now stands – not without controversy – for one of the largest art and cultural institutions in Germany. The foundation stone for the new building of the German Wallpaper Museum at Brüder-Grimm-Platz is also to be laid at the end of June – just in time for the 100th anniversary of the German Wallpaper Museum Association.
Founded in 1923, the museum is the youngest offspring in the family of Kassel’s museum landscape. On the initiative of the Hamburg wallpaper retailer and private councillor Gustav Iven and other leading wallpaper manufacturers and retailers, a museum was created that is unique in Germany. It houses around 23,000 objects from the early modern period to the present day – from 500-year-old gold-leather wallpaper to 17th-century velour wallpaper, room-sized panoramas from the 19th century to designs from the Bauhaus period and contemporary designs. The collection is not only of interest to private wallpaper fans: heritage offices or castle administrations also receive support here when it comes to insights into historical wallpapers and their restoration.
Praised and welcomed by the mayor of Kassel at the time, Philipp Scheidemann, as “proof of the vitality of the German people”, Kassel was the only possible location for the museum. After all, the city had a tradition in this field: as early as 1791, the first and, for a long time, only German paper wallpaper factory started production here and existed for almost 100 years. Its founder, Johann Christian Arnold, is considered the pioneer of printed wallpaper. He supplied the landgravial court in Kassel as well as King Jérôme Bonaparte from his own production, which was located in the house at Brüder Grimm-Platz 4 from 1815.
Currently, the unique wallpaper collection is only accessible online or in special exhibitions. That is why the celebrations to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Wallpaper Museum will take place on 30 June following the “Wallpaper Summit” of the Association of the German Wallpaper Industry (VDT e.V.) in Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe.
More on ndion
Discover more articles on the topic of design.
Share this page on social media:
