When building “type Berlin” meets “type Leipzig”

A diversity of objects for teaching

The Kustodie is in charge of a dozen of the 30 scientific collections at TU Bergakademie Freiberg. These collections cover a large thematic spectrum and a diversity of object types. Beyond the famous mining collection, they hold mathematical models, physical devices and historical iron casting plates (Benz 2019). Although these collections are no longer used for specialised scientific institutes, they all retain a teaching function. 

Administratively, the Kustodie has been a part of the Institute of Industrial Archaeology, History of Science and Technology (IWTG) for over thirty years – a great opportunity for involving its objects into the Institute's courses. Over the last ten years, the creation of the Bachelor of “Industrial Archaeology” and of the Master of “Industrial Culture” degree programmes have strengthened this collaboration. The museological modules anchored in the curriculum are supervised by the curator and mostly take place in the premises of the Kustodie.

One place, many teaching opportunities

The two-semester seminar “Practical Museology” is compulsory in the M.A. “Industrial Culture”. The aim of the course is the autonomous conception – with a degree of instruction –, the planning and realisation of a museological project, encouraging students to practise the implementation of collection and exhibition concepts.
The course meets in the Kustodie for work sessions in which students are assigned tasks or present their results. The final outcome of the course is a joint effort, yet a number of individual tasks invite participants to make the best use of their own strengths and knowledge.

A slightly different approach was chosen for the “Preservation of Cultural Heritage” seminar, a two-part compulsory course in the M.A. “Industrial Heritage” and a compulsory elective module in the B.A. of “Industrial Archaeology”. After a lecture-style introduction, a practical component constitutes the focus of the course, made up of several group and individual appointments. Students acquire basic knowledge in handling collection objects, through an examination of the history of the objects on the one hand, and of  the materials on the other hand – in terms of historical materials science. The seminar also aims to raise students' general awareness of cultural assets and to address questions of preventive conservation and storage. A ten-pages written report with illustrations is produced at the end of the semester.

In addition, sessions of the project seminar in the B.A. “Industrial Archaeology” occasionally take place within the Kustodie. This practical module has to be repeated throughout the B.A. degree and offers a space for students to apply the skills they have acquired during their study. These include site investigations, object photography and archive research. To complete the course, students have to present their results and write a term paper.

Why teach at the Kustodie?

Essentially, the Kustodie  aims to arouse interest and understanding of museological aspects by offering students a hands-on approach to the diverse objects of the collections. Students learn to “read” the objects – to discover, distinguish and interpret traces of manufacture, use and neglect. They are also trained to assess how endangered and how significant an object is, and thus to produce a recommendation for further handling (cf. Benz 2020a).

Giving students sufficient opportunities to engage with the objects during the seminars is key. After getting to know the depot in a joint session, they can make individual appointments to come on site, examine and describe the objects in detail. The depot plays an important role as a teaching venue, especially because it makes it possible to include non-mobile objects in the seminar, as in the case of the scale model collection. This format is a departure from the traditional 90-minute course rhythm and thus implies a high degree of independent work for the students  (Benz 2020a).

Each course uses the engagement with the collections in a different way, serving its specific outlined purposes. This also applies to the presentation of the results, wich are sometimes shown in a museological exhibition and sometimes presented in a written essay.

The “MLK models”: a collection of scale models from the VEB Metalleichtbaukombinat Leipzig (MLK)

“Deaccessioning” – the removal of an object from a collection, a taboo yet common practice in the museum world today (Heisig 2007) – was the topic of a “Practical Museology” seminar in the Winter Semester 2018/2019. In a secondary depot, students were given the task of closely examining a series of objects that had never been assigned to a specific collection. Beyond the usual documentation steps, students had to compile arguments for the preservation of the objects and identify a potential alternative use for them. Among the objects under review were two particularly large building models, suspected of belonging to the so-called “MLK models”.

Both models could be identified and contextualised within a wider collection. They did in fact originate from the VEB Metalleichtbaukombinat Leipzig (MLK) and were once used at international trade fairs to present MLK products. Almost eighty of these models had been transferred to the Kustodie in 1995 (cf. Weinhold 1997), but a majority had so far remained in their custom-made wooden boxes, in a place difficult to access.

Along with the problematic storage and the considerable amount of space required by the models, the students mentioned in their analysis the lack of a direct link to the TU Freiberg. However, it became clear that the models are high-quality, very well-preserved originals which offer great potential for specific aspects of the history of GDR technology. Suggestions were also made for possible alternative uses. The main message was obvious: disposal without further use should be avoided at all costs and the entire collection assessed as soon as possible.

When university collections, academic research and student work join forces

This was to happen in the summer 2019. Inspired by the students' preliminary work, the Kustodie  took the opportunity of construction works on site to open the 28 wooden boxes and move the models to the main depot. For the first time, it became possible to view and evaluate the entire collection. It became clear that the models not only varied enormously in size, but also in content. The objects range from greenhouses and prefabricated buildings to large power plants and bridges. With regard to both the thematic scope and the quality of the craftsmanship of the models, this collection of structural steel and lightweight metal construction from the GDR era is probably unique (cf. Benz 2020b, p. 384).

A fortunate coincidence was the call for proposals published in the summer 2019 by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), for a research program on industrial buildings of the high modern era. Together with the Institute of Steel Construction at the TU Braunschweig, a research proposal was submitted with the aim of tracing the technical development of steel and lightweight metal construction in the GDR from the end of the 1960s to the Fall of the Berlin Wall, based on the Kustodie’s models.

Parallel to this, efforts were intensified to integrate the models in teaching. In addition to the “Preservation of Cultural Heritage” seminar, the  project seminar in the B.A. “Industrial Archaeology” worked with the collection during the summer semester 2020. Students tackled and explored fundamental aspects of the project proposal in greater depth, particularly in identifying the buildings depicted, through on-site assessment of the models, using the proven methodological approach.
In autumn 2020, the DFG gave us the positive news that the project had been approved as part of SPP 2255. Since March 2021, the model inventory has been analysed by a project team member, which has revealed a number of new findings.

Working together: a strength

The story of the MLK models is a good example of how teaching with university collections can shape and dynamise their future use. First, students may find it motivating to see their work directly contributing to academic research. Second, it is crucial that the task of teaching comes back to the priority of university collections – for their legitimacy within the university: it is the only way to counteract a one-sided historicisation.