World Museum of Printing Art: More than Gutenberg and his Bibles

The task seems extremely interesting: Around 100 internationally active planning offices have expressed their interest in making their own proposals for the conversion and new construction of the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz.

However, that was far too many.

Only a quarter of them were lucky enough to stay in the running in the pre-selection, which was carried out under the supervision of a notary.

At the beginning of October, the jury is to meet and evaluate what they think of the designs for a modern world museum of printing art on the traditional Liebfrauenplatz that have to be submitted by then.

Markus Schug

Correspondent Rhein-Main-Süd.

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One of the special challenges is that the large-scale project has to be implemented on a comparatively small area in the middle of the old town.

In addition, only the 60-year-old main building, named after the former architect Rainer Schell, is to be demolished.

On the other hand, the Haus zum Römeren Kaiser, which also belongs to the entire complex and has already been renovated, is to be retained, as is the Hotel Schwan, which the city only recently acquired because it is directly adjacent.

This also applies to the extension building moved into in 2000 with the printing shop on the other side of Seilergasse, which has been heavily frequented ever since.

There is often talk of a small-scale solution, of a museum with district character and of new visual relationships - including between Rotekopfgasse and the cathedral.

Gutenberg Museum subtenant for the time being

The competition has to show how all this could look and fit together.

Meanwhile, it is certain that the Gutenberg Museum will vacate the field next year and temporarily move to the nearby Natural History Museum as a subtenant.

According to Marianne Grosse (SPD), head of the building department, the aging Schellbau will then be demolished as quickly as possible.

Up to this point, the financing of the million-euro project, which has been discussed controversially for many years and in the past, has already been secured via the city's double budget.

Ein erster Versuch der Stadt, das lange Zeit unter Wert verkaufte kommunale Museum durch einen alles überragenden Bibelturm aufzuwerten, war aus unterschiedlichen Gründen gescheitert; vermutlich auch wegen des die Kritiker seinerzeit nicht wirklich überzeugenden Finanzkonzepts. Im April 2018 wurde das Turmbauprojekt mittels Bürgerentscheid jedenfalls noch vor der Grundsteinlegung zu Fall gebracht.

Dabei haben die unstrittig vorhandenen baulichen Mängel, die wiederum Einschränkungen bei der Präsentation der Exponate nach sich ziehen, das Besucherinteresse kaum schmälern können. In Vor-Corona-Zeiten seien bis zu 160.000 Interessierte pro Jahr, darunter viele Schulklassen, gezählt worden, sagte Ulf Sölter, der seit Mai zuständige neue Direktor des Gutenberg-Museums.

Ausstellen auf einem zehntel der gewohnten Fläche

At the selected interim location on Reichklarastraße, he and his team will only have to make do with 600 square meters during the construction work, i.e. about a tenth of the exhibition space that has been used up to now.

But "the highlights" will be shown there, and according to Sölter, a few special shows should also be possible.

In principle, it is important to have found suitable answers to the question of one's own self-image or a mission statement by the time the museum is intended to reopen in four years at the latest.

A task on which his predecessor, Annette Ludwig, who had moved to the Klassik Stiftung in Weimar, had already worked intensively.

According to the 50-year-old art historian, who worked as director of the Gustav Lübcke Museum in Hamm before moving to Mainz, the Gutenberg Museum is home to several museums: on the one hand, it is about Johannes Gutenberg as the “Man of the Millennium”, about his life story and above all about his groundbreaking invention of book printing with movable metal type, which made the mass distribution of writing and information possible in the first place from the 15th century onwards.

In addition, the Gutenberg Bibles, which for security reasons had to be shown in a cramped vault, should be presented in the way they deserve thanks to their uniqueness.

This also applies to other art treasures, such as early prints, incunables and works from the graphic collection.

Modification of the support structure necessary

Last but not least, Sölter is also the head of a technology museum that wants to make printing history clear.

Although this has so far mainly been about books, the question arises again and again as to how far one should and wants to go in order to be able to increasingly take up current developments in the information society in the future: whether the Mainz museum will remain a printing museum or rather be perceived as a media museum want to become.

This has been pondered and discussed for a long time.

As well as the modernization of the museum, which is now within reach, and the urgently needed changes in the support structure, for which the city would most likely want the state, possibly also the federal government or a large foundation to be at its side.

For the first time there is now a binding date by which all these questions should be finally clarified: 2026 - when the reopening of the World Museum of Printing Art, which is to be built and designed by then, is to be celebrated.