Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte

Description

In the heritage-listed building of the former Städtische Sparkasse dating from 1924, the Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte (MKK) in Dortmund houses collections that provide insights into the cultural history of the city and the region. The collections include painting, sculpture, furniture and applied arts and span chronologically from prehistory and early history to the 20th century.

The municipal collection traces back to a resolution of the city council in 1883 and moved several times in the following decades, including around the turn of the 20th century to the Old Town Hall and, from 1911, to the so-called Oberbergamt. In the 1930s the collection underwent a substantive reorientation with a stronger emphasis on the visual arts; in 1937 the archaeological department was separated. In the same year numerous works fell victim to the National Socialist campaign “Degenerate Art.” During World War II the holdings were relocated and thus preserved from destruction; it was during this period that the collection received its present name.

After 1945 the secured collection was exhibited from 1946 at Schloss Cappenberg and was supplemented by ecclesiastical art from destroyed Westphalian churches, including the Marian altar by Conrad von Soest. The museum workshop participated in restoration and research. For lack of funds for a new building, a permanent presentation developed in Cappenberg, which was supplemented by historic Westphalian furniture to document domestic interiors from the Gothic to Art Nouveau. In 1977 the city council decided to move into the building of the old Stadtsparkasse on Untere Hansastraße; the building was opened in 1983 as the new museum. The integration of artworks with applied and historical objects, as well as the museum education work with children and young people, was particularly commended.

The MKK also uses its rooms for exhibitions that extend beyond the region. A permanent exhibition on the history of surveying is overseen by the Förderkreis Vermessungstechnisches Museum and displays rare geodetic instruments.

The Deutsche Kochbuchmuseum at Ostwall 60 is affiliated with the MKK as an external branch. The collection areas include Prehistory and Early History, Antiquities, Christian art of the Middle Ages, culture of the 16th–18th centuries, 19th-century paintings (including Caspar David Friedrich, Max Slevogt, Lovis Corinth, Anton von Werner), a pharmacy from Ahlen preserved in its original condition, as well as domestic and applied arts up to the 20th century, among them a Mercator terrestrial globe from 1541.