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Mühlhausen / Weimar / Gotha / Erfurt (dpa / th) - How do you plan museum exhibitions in view of the recurring lockdown closings?

The museums in the Free State are currently facing this question.

"Any form of planning is currently a game of chance," explains Thomas T. Müller, President of the Thuringian Museum Association and Director of the Mühlhausen Museums.

Temporary exhibitions are usually several years in advance.

Planning within the usual framework is currently impossible.

In many places, exhibitions have been postponed from 2020 to the coming year.

Sometimes these would be reduced somewhat if, for example, loan contracts for objects had expired in the meantime.

The number of exhibitions will also be reduced in many houses.

Many facilities used the time of the corona-related closure to take stock of their objects and do other work that was left idle during day-to-day operations, says Müller.

Many would have also expanded the digital offering during the forced break.

So does the Klassik Stiftung Weimar: A new project is to make Goethe's study accessible in three dimensions.

"You can move freely around the room and rummage through the drawers or leaf through folders," explains Kai Fischer, department head for exhibition and collection management.

Things that would be unthinkable in the real office.

"For the coming year, we are also planning rather small and medium-sized events in our 26 houses that do not require as many loans," explains Fischer.

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According to spokesman Marco Karthe, the planning for the coming year at Schloss Friedenstein is running without major compromises - but of course subject to hygiene requirements and reservations.

Among other things, the masterpieces that were stolen in 1979 and returned to Gotha after 40 years will be shown.

"We have to react flexibly for the year 2021," says Karina Halbauer, main clerk for cultural management in the cultural department of the city of Erfurt.

The exhibitions that were actually planned for autumn 2020 or spring 2021 in the state capital have been extended.

Further funding is dependent on the budget negotiations, which will drag on well into 2021.

Film portraits of exhibitions were published on the website of the city of Erfurt.

In the summer of the Buchenwald memorial, visitors had to wait up to two hours before they were admitted to the exhibition on the history of the Buchenwald concentration camp due to the high demand and the corona restrictions, said foundation director Jens-Christian Wagner.

The special exhibition "Children in the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp" planned for April has been postponed to autumn 2021.

In April / May there will be a new website on the subject of “Children and young people in Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora”.

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Despite the good support from the federal and state governments, association president Müller sees great dangers for the Thuringian museum landscape.

Currently, facilities that are heavily self-financed - for example through entrance fees - have been hit hard by the closings.

As soon as the visitors can come again, this money will flow again.

In the long term, however, the municipal financed museums threatened major dangers.

The crisis arrives there with a delay because the budget is dependent on municipal budget planning.

“At some point you will start to cut back.

The focus is then of course on voluntary services such as museums, ”explains Müller.

The museums often only make up a small part of the overall budget.

«Eliminating these expenses will not save a household.

But the effects of that would be fatal. "

In rural regions in particular, museums are often the only place of culture alongside the libraries.

“In rural areas, access to education and culture is often provided by museums; they are part of the basic cultural provision.

To deal with it lightly would be a disastrous sign. "