A Trip to Germany's Biggest and Most Important Museums

For many of us the life changed dramatically in the last few weeks du to the coronavirus. Luckily I can say the not much changed for myself, as I was on holidays anyway. The most annoying however is that I had to postpone/cancel some museum visits I was really looking forward to. To compensate for that let me take you on a small virtual and philatelic trip to some of Germany's biggest and most important museums.

Museums are places to collect artifacts from the past, to conduct research with them and to present them to the public. Germany has nearly 7000 museums and thus it is one of the countries with the highest number of museums in the World. Many of them show internationally important collections, but usually none is among lists of famous museums around the World, as there are no such famous museums like the Louvre, the Met, the Prado or the Uffizi here in Germany. Generally it is also not very easy to actually find a list of Germany's biggest and most important museums, so I decided to make my own list both for future visits and my collection of museum postcards. A good start to make this list is the wonderful German stamp series "Schätze aus Deutschen Museen" (Treasures from German Museums), which started in 2013 and just came to an end this year with a stamp about Van Gogh. While I always wondered why the series just includes art, I now realised that it is actually a small walkthrough of art history with interesting exhibits from some of Germany's leading art museums. 

The stamps show

- Nefertiti Bust, Neues Museum in Berlin (issued 02-01-2013)

- Ishtar Gate, Pergamon Museum in Berlin (issued 02-01-2013)

- The Creation of the Animals by Master Bertram, Kunsthalle Hamburg (issued 05-06-2014)

- Visitation by Rogier van der Weyden, Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig (issued 04-12-2014)

- Mourning Women by Tilman Riemenschneider, Württemberg State Museum in Stuttgart (issued 01-10-2015)

- Adoration by the Shepherds by Martin Schongauer, Painting Gallery in Berlin (issued 01-11-2015)

- Emperor Charles V by Titian, Alte Pinakothek in Munich (issued 07-04-2016)

- Ivory Frigate by Jakob Zeller, New Green Vault in Dresden (issued 07-04-2016)

- The Girl with the Wine Glass by Johannes Vermeer, Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum in Braunschweig (issued 02-01-2017)

- Toucan, Demoiselle Crane und Black Crowned Crane in a Landscape by Jean-Baptiste Oudry, Staatliches Museum Schwerin at Ludwigslust Palace (issued 02-01-2017)

- Goethe in the Roman Campagna by Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, Städel Museum in Frankfurt (issued 07-06-2018)

- Princesses Group by Johann Gottfried Schadow, Old National Gallery in Berlin (issued 11-10-2018)

- The Lonely Tree by Caspar David Friedrich, Old National Gallery in Berlin (issued 02-01-2019)

- Field with Poppies by Vincent van Gogh, Kunsthalle Bremen (issued 02-01-2020)

Keeping this in mind, we now already have a list of important art museums and only other types of museums like natural history or history museums have to be added. Below you can now find my complete list of Germany's big and important museums. All of them surely are worth a visit, this list however can never be really complete, as there are just too many museums in Germany to keep track of all of them. If you know of any other German museum which deserves an addition to the list please post a comment. Under the list you can also see more stamps about German museums both from the series and otherwise.
Bold are the museums which I think also have big international importance.

3Landesmuseen in Braunschweig - include the Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum, the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum and the Natural History Museum; the Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum is among the large history museums in Germany; the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum and the Natural History Museum are the oldest museums in Continental Europa; the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum houses one of the most important art collections in Germany, a highlight in its collection is the original Brunswick Lion
Baden State Museum in Karlsruhe - located in Karlsruhe Palace; important art, cultural history and regional history collections for Baden
Bauhaus Museum Dessau - constructed for the Bauhaus jubilee in 2019, second-largest Bauhaus collection in the World
Bavarian Army Museum in Ingolstadt - museum for the military history of Bavaria
Bavarian National Museum in Munich - one of the most important museums of decorative arts in Europa
Buchenwald Concentration Camp - one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders, one of the better known concentration camp memorials in Germany
Bundeswehr Military History Museum in Dresden - one of the large history museums in Germany and one of the largest military history museums in Europa, after a renovation the old building has a deconstructivist wedge designed by Daniel Libeskind
Cultural History Museum in Magdeburg - known for its special exhibitions, home to the original Magdeburg Rider
Dresden State Art Collections - one of the most renowned and oldest museum institutions in the World; shown at different locations in Dresden; the most famous parts are the Old Masters Painting Gallery, the New Masters Gallery and the Green Vault; the Old Masters Painting Gallery houses paintings from the 15th to the 18th century including major Italian Renaissance works like the Sistine Madonna; the Green Vault houses the largest treasure collection in Europa
European Hansemuseum in Lübeck - largest museum about the Hanseatic League in the World
Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg - largest museum of cultural history in the German-speaking World; large collection of items relating to German culture and art extending from prehistoric times through to the present day
German Historical Museum in Berlin - one of the large history museums in Germany, one of the most important and most visited museums in Berlin, place of enlightenment and understanding of the shared history of Germans and Europeans
German Hygiene Museum in Dresden - follows the spirit of the first International Hygiene Exhibition in 1911, "Cultural Lighthouse" (a cultural institutions of national importance in the former East Germany)
German Mining Museum in Bochum - one of the most visited museums in Germany, largest mining museum in the World, renowned research establishment for mining history
German Museum in Munich - largest museum in Munich, largest museum of science and technology in the World, one of the most visited museums in Germany
German Oceanographic Museum and Ozeaneum in Stralsund - museum about the oceans and everything connected with them, since the opening of the Ozeaneum in 2008 it has become the most visited museum in Northern Germany, the Ozeaneum got the European Museum of the Year Award in 2010
Grassi Museum in Leipzig - includes the Ethnography Museum, Musical Instruments Museum and Applied Arts Museum; "Cultural Lighthouse"
Halle State Museum of Prehistory - one of the large archaeological collections in Germany, highlights are the Nebra Sky Disk and the Hornhausen Rider Stele
Haus der Geschichte in Bonn - museum about the German history from 1945 until the present, one of the large history museums in Germany, one of the most visited museums in Germany
Hessian State Museum in Darmstadt - one of the oldest and biggest museums in Germany, houses exhibitions about art, cultural and natural history

Humboldt Forum in Berlin - a museum dedicated to human history, art and culture, considered the "German equivalent" of the British Museum, houses the non-European collections of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
International Maritime Museum in Hamburg - housed in Hamburg's oldest preserved warehouse, home to a private collection of over 40000 items and 1million photographs with a maritime connection
Jewish Museum in Berlin - largest Jewish museum in Europa and one of the most visited museums in Berlin, shows artifacts from two millennia of German-Jewish history, known for its deconstructivist building by Daniel Libeskind
Klimahaus in Bremerhaven - museum about climate and climate change, offers its visitors the possibility of a virtual journey along the 8th line of longitude
Kunsthalle Bremen - only German museum with an extensive art collection from the 14th to 21st century which is still in private ownership
Kunsthalle Hamburg - one of the largest art museums in Germany, shows artworks from most of the great names of Europa's art history, highlight of the collection is Caspar David Friedrich's "Wanderer above the Sea of Fog"
Lower Saxony State Museum in Hanover - largest public museum in Lower Saxony, shows exhibitions about art, archaeology, ethnology and natural history
Museum am Rothenbaum in Hamburg - one of the largest museums of ethnology in Europa

Museum Barberini in Potsdam - art museum with a focus on Impressionist art showing the collection of Hasso Plattner
Museum Folkwang in Essen - one of the leading museums of modern art in the World in the 1920s and 1930s, heavy losses during the Nazi era, today one of the most visited museums in Germany
Museum Island in Berlin - includes the Altes Museum, Neues Museum, Old National Gallery, Bode Museum and Pergamon Museum; one of the most important museum complexes in Europa; mainly archaeological, art and coin collections are shown; part of the Berlin State Museums; highlights include the Nefertiti Bust and the Pergamon Altar; UNESCO World Heritage Site
Museum Koenig in Bonn - one of the three largest natural history museums in Germany, important site of Germany's democratic restart after World War II
Museum Ludwig in Cologne - one of the most important museums of modern art in Europa, especially famous for its Picasso and Pop Art collections
Museum of Communication in Berlin - housed in the former Imperial Post Office, one of the largest postal museums in the World, highlights include Mauritius "Post Office" stamps
Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig - one of the largest art museums in Germany, often shows special exhibitions
Natural History Museum in Berlin - one of the three largest natural history museums in Germany, highlights include the dinosaurs and the Archaeopteryx
Naturmuseum Senckenberg in Frankfurt - one of the three largest natural history museums in Germany, houses the largest exhibition of large dinosaurs in Europa and many originals from the Messel Pit
Nuremberg Transport Museum - consists of the Deutsche Bahn's own DB Museum and the Museum of Communications, one of the oldest technical history museums in Europa, anchor point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage
Painting Gallery in Berlin - part of the Berlin State Museums, one of the World's leading collections of European paintings from the 13th to the 18th century
Pinakotheken in Munich - includes the Alte Pinakothek, the Neue Pinakothek and the Pinakothek der Moderne; part of the Bavarian State Painting Collections, the Alte Pinakothek is one of the oldest galleries in the World and houses a significant collection of Old Master paintings, the Neue Pinakothek is one of the most important museums of art of the nineteenth century in the World, the Pinakothek der Moderne finally is one of the World's largest museums for modern and contemporary art
Roemer- und Pelizaeus-Museum Hildesheim - third largest museum of Egyptian antiquities in Germany and among the thirty largest in the World, also houses an important collection of Ancient Peruvian art and the second largest collection of Chinese porcelain in Europa
Romano-Germanic Museum in Cologne - houses a large collection of Roman artifacts from the Roman settlement of Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium
Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum in Mainz - important research institution for the Old World and its contact zones from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages
Sprengel Museum in Hanover - one of the most significant collections of modern art in Germany
Staatliches Museum Schwerin - includes branches in Schwerin, Güstrow and Ludwigslust; nationally known for its medieval collections, the main building in Schwerin is a masterpiece of Historicist architecture
Städel Museum in Frankfurt - one of the most important and prominent art museums in Germany, highlights of the collection include paintings by Sandro Botticelli, Johannes Vermeer and Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein's Goethe in the Roman Campagna
State Gallery in Stuttgart - includes the Old and New State Gallery, the New State Gallery is a masterpiece of Post-modernist architecture and turned the once provincial gallery into one of Europa's leading museums
Übersee Museum in Bremen - one of the most visited museums in Germany, houses a collection about natural history and ethnography
Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne - one of the most important art museum in Germany, oldest museum in Cologne
Westphalian State Museum of Art and Cultural History in Münster - known for its special exhibitions
Württemberg State Museum in Stuttgart - main history museum in Württemberg

Bauhaus Museum Dessau

Dresden State Art Collections

German Museum in Munich

German Oceanographic Museum in Stralsund

Haus der Geschichte in Bonn

Kunsthalle Hamburg

Museum Island in Berlin

Natural History Museum in Berlin

Naturmuseum Senckenberg in Frankfurt

Württemberg State Museum
in Stuttgart

The One Big Jubilee of 2020

2020 is once again a year full of jubilees. On the page above you can find a small list of jubilees, which I think are noticeable, but the question about the one big jubilee is much more interesting, also when you look at stamps. 2017 had the Reformation, 2018 the End of World War I and 2019 the Moon Landing (and Gandhi). But what is the One for 2020? I was looking through the stamp programmes of some countries I collect and the three big jubilees you see very often are the 250th birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven, the 75th anniversary of the End of World War II and 75 years United Nations. To choose the One between these three I made a small list:

Notes: These are by far not all countries, but just as I said some of the ones I collect and for which I found stamp programmes. Jersey, the Netherlands and the USA got an asterisk, because their programmes are not complete. Jersey and the Netherlands just announced the programmes for the first half of 2020 and the USA usually add some stamps to their programme during the year. Gibraltar got a question mark for Beethoven, as they plan a set about Birth Anniversaries in September, which might or might not include Beethoven. The World War II issues of Israel, Poland and Ukraine finally got an asterisk, because they do not commemorate the End of World War II, but something connected. Israel will get and Poland got a stamp about the camp liberation and Ukraine will get a "Never again" stamp.
EDIT: The Birth Anniversaries set from Gibraltar was moved to March and will feature Beethoven along Florence Nightingale and Rosalind Franklin.

So with this list my personal winner is Beethoven and I already created a new page at the top, in which I will try to keep an updated list of all Beethoven stamps this year and show my collection of these stamps, although I will not try to get all of them. From time to time some of these stamps might also get extra posts, but I am not sure about that yet. World War II however will also not remain unnoticed here. I have already planned something for that.

So far Beethoven stamps were already released in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Serb Post), Germany, Guernsey, North Macedonia and Ukraine. Portugal will follow on 26th February. This is actually quite interesting, as Beethoven was just born at the end of 1770. Guernsey in fact planned something very interesting for the Beethoven Year, as they will issue four stamps at different dates, which will create a single image. Germany also issued or will issue the stamp in actually every possible form. A gummed version, a self-adhesive booklet and even a souvenir sheet were issued already on 2nd January and a self-adhesive coil will be issued in March. I am sure a prepaid envelope will also follow sometime this year. Also some special postmarks were already available and many more will surely follow. My favourite one so far is this one from Hiddenhausen, which highlights that Beethoven's 9th is actually used as Anthem of Europa.

My Favourite History Stamps of 2019

For years I have selected my favourite stamps of each year on my stamp blog and usually I was contented with my selection. This year however I think I had to exclude too many stamps from that list, mainly history connected stamps. In general my favourite theme for stamps are cartoons, children's books, movies and similar things and this year there were so many great stamps about these themes that there was not enough space for history stamps on the list. That is why I decided to choose My Favourite History Stamps as well and present them here. Below you now find my selection in descending order. What were your favourites?

15. Centenary of the Women's Suffrage in Germany (Germany)

When this stamp was issued in January, it was on the top of my favourite stamp list for quite a while, but during the course of the year it went deeper and deeper and is now finally not among the Top 20. I still like it, but also here it just gets the poor last place. For everyone who is wondering, like I did when it was issued, the woman on the stamp is Marie Juchacz, a German social reformer, member of the Social Democratic Party and in 1919 the first ever female Reichstag member to address a German parliament.

14. 450 years Union of Lublin (Poland)
If I am not mistaken only two stamps were issued this year about European Heritage Label Sites. While I still not have the one about the Historic Ensemble of the University of Tartu from Estonia, I already have the Polish sheet about the Union of Lublin. The scan really does not do justice to this beautiful sheet! It nicely combines the "real" history with "remembered" history. At the bottom it features a passage from the Act of the Union of Lublin, but the main part of the sheet shows a painting by Jan Matejko, which also includes a kneeling Marcin Zborowski. According to Wikipedia Zborowski was already dead in 1569.

13. 500th death anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci (Vietnam)
The 500th death anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci was one of the big jubilees of 2019, but honestly one I did not cared about much, not because I do not like it, but because I wanted to spend my time with Renaissance themes in 2021 (Dante, Dürer, Kepler anniversaries). Still I followed with interest the discussions about the da Vinci exhibition in Paris and also I actually saw one of his paintings, The Lady with an Ermine in Kraków. That is also one of the reasons why I put the Vietnamese stamp into this list, but not the only one. Most of the stamps issued for his jubilee either came in big sets (Italy, UK), were overpriced (France) or were real catch penny issues. Vietnam on the other hand issued just this nice decent set.

12. 500th anniversary of the Beginning of Magellan's and Elcano's Circumnavigation of the Earth (Portugal and Spain)
The Beginning of Magellan's Circumnavigation of the Earth was another big jubilee for this year, but also not my favourite one. These two sheets are actually more on this list as they are a joint issue and shaped than due to the theme.

11. Upright Democrats - Fritz Bauer (Germany)
The German Fritz Bauer stamp was one I was really looking forward to this year. He is an interesting person and even connected to my home town. Easily this stamp might have been on the top of this list or even the main list if not the German Post decided to make it a 2,70€ stamp. Who actually needs this value? I definitely do not. Still it is a nice stamp.

10. Madame de Maintenon (France)
The Reign of King Louis XIV of France is among my favourite themes, so a stamp about his wife really needed to make it on this list, also because it is a special formed one.

9. 80th anniversary of the creation of the Polish Underground State (Poland)
To be honest four months ago I have not heard anything about the Polish Underground State. Luckily during my trip to Kraków there was an open air exhibition across the city which dealed with the early years of this very interesting organisation during World War II. This is definitely a theme I want to learn more about in the next time.

8. Emperor Charles V (Austria and Luxembourg)
Here is another joint issue of souvenir sheets. Not only do I really like this issue, but it also includes a small mystery I tried to solve.

7. Centenary of the Weimar Constitution (Germany)
Actually after World War I in 2018 and planned World War II for 2020 I wanted to delve into the Interwar Period this year. Due to some reasons I did not do that, but still I am working on a post about the Weimar Republic, which I will hopefully publish early next year. Honestly I am not sure, why the German Post often issues text stamps for important jubilees (they already did it for the National Anthem and the German Unity), but I think its easier and safer than trying to find a picture. Also for a constitution this might actually be the best you can do. I still especially like the stamp in combination with this special postmark.

6. 500th death anniversary of Emperor Maximilian I (Austria)
Maximilian I really sweetened my summer, as during my summer holidays I visited some awesome special exhibitions about him in Augsburg and Innsbruck. These exhibitions were representative for so many interesting exhibitions and museums I visited this year. Also I like the plainness of this stamp.

5. Singapore Bicentennial (Singapore)
Colonial history and especially early globalisation are currently among my favourite history themes. The set about the Singapore Bicentennial nicely captures this theme. In addition to that Singapore is one of my dream destination and I really like the design of this set. You can see the complete set on my stamp blog.

4. 450th death anniversary of Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Belgium)
Pieter Bruegel the Elder is my favourite artist and I really hoped that for his 450th death anniversary some stamps would be issued, but unlike for Leonardo there are unfortunately only such stamps in Belgium. Also I did not see any of his pictures this year, although I already saw some of them in Brussels and Vienna some years ago including prominently The Fall of the Rebel Angels, for which I saw an interesting virtual exhibition in Brussels and which is also shown on the Belgian sheet. This year I only saw two paintings of his son in my home town and in Kraków. The one from Kraków was recently even shown on a stamp.

3. 150th anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad (USA)
Especially at the beginning of the year railway history was something that really interested me. Unfortunately it was replaced by other things for the rest of the year just to come back again in recent weeks. Earlier this year I even thought about starting a train stamp collection, but never did so. A train stamp set still deserves a place on this list, my favourite history-themed one however is not from Europa but from the USA. The gold applications are unfortunately not visible very well on the scan.

2. 50 years Moon Landing (Faroe Islands)

The biggest jubilee for this year is definitely the 50th anniversary of the Moon Landing and a stamp about it needs to be on this list. My favourite issue about the theme comes from Austria, as it glows in the dark, but for this list I decided to choose the stamp from the Faroe Islands. It beautifully shows the fascination of this event and its impact on the people even in the remotest regions. Here you can see my complete collection of Moon Landing stamps.

Honourable Mention: 60 years Asterix (France)
If it commemorates a jubilee it is a history stamp, right? This stamp from France, which I like very much, clearly celebrates a jubilee, but I still hesitate to add it to this list as full contestant. If I would it would probably be the first place, but so it is now just a honourable mention.

1. Birth Bicentenary of Queen Victoria (United Kingdom)
In 2019 I am actually a bit ashamed of choosing a stamp set of from the island for the first place, but just look at this beautiful stamp set about Queen Victoria. Victoria was already shown on dozens of stamps during her reign, but interestingly she was rarely on any stamp since her death (if you exclude stamps featuring the Penny Black or Blue Mauritius). That was clearly compensated for this year. The selection of paintings for the stamps is great and I also very much like the sheet about Prince Albert, especially the stamp with the Crystal Palace.

A Mystery about Charles V in 2019

Charles V (1500-1558) was the ruler of an empire on which the sun never sets. Apart from being Holy Roman Emperor he was also Archduke of Austria, King of Spain (Castile and Aragon) and Duke of Burgundy. As King of Spain he was also ruler of the southern Italian kingdoms of Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia and the Spanish colonies in the Americas. He was a proponent of the idea of an universal monarchy and tried to unify the European princes against the Ottoman enemy. His plans however were undermined by both the Reformation and the opposition of France. In 1557 Charles retired to the Monastery of Yuste in Extremadura. His Empire was divided between his son (Spanish Habsburgs) and brother (Austrian Habsburgs). 

500 years ago Charles V became Archduke of Austria. To commemorate this jubilee and the Multilaterale stamp exhibition both Austria and Luxembourg issued a beautiful miniature sheet on 8th November 2019. The sheet shows a painting of Emperor Charles V by Jakob Seisenegger shown in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Beside the years of his reign and life the sheet also include the quote "Quot linguas calles, tot homines vales" ("How many languages you speak, that many people you are worth") and the flags of the countries, which took part in the Multilaterale stamp exhibition. The text is printed with gold plating. 

Luckily I was able to get the Austrian sheet on a matching postcard. While looking at both back and front side of this card, I noticed an interesting difference between the original painting as shown on the card and the sheet. Do you see it?

In the blank space at the upper right corner of the original painting the sheet shows a map. Since I saw it I was wondering where this map comes from. At first I thought that the sheet might show a different version of the painting, but all versions I found on the Internet lacked the map as well. A closer look at the map reveals that it is probably not from the 16th century as the painting. At the end I finally found the map that was used on the sheet on Wikimedia Commons (here). It originates from the Historischer Schulatlas (historic atlas for schools) from the late 19th century. With this question answered there is now actually another one: Why was this map chosen? Especially as this part of the map does not show Luxembourg? The answer probably only knows the designer of the sheet, but I guess they just did not wanted to keep the blank space on the sheet.