Exhibiting city, region and Germanness: Erich Keyser and the State Regional Museum of Danzig History (1927–1939)

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores the work of Erich Keyser, the creator and director of the State Regional Museum of Danzig History, which also functioned as the Museum of the Free City of Danzig. We discuss how Keyser conceptualised exhibitions, organised the collections and interacted with visitors. The article examines the way that Keyser envisioned the role of the museum as an educational and political space, where a transfer of knowledge took place, including right-wing and anti-Polish interpretations of the city’s past. In addition, the museum in Danzig (Polish: Gdańsk) serves as a case study for the analysis of the relationship between urban and rural space in city museums. The ambition of the exhibitions went beyond a representation of Danzig’s urban past, which led to an innovative attempt to combine urban and rural history in the frequently changing displays. Finally, the article discusses the significance of location for this city museum. It was somewhat exceptional, as it was a city museum located in a rural setting in the former Abbot’s Palace in the suburb of Oliva (Polish: Oliwa). Throughout we discuss the intersections of museology, political propaganda, education and nationalism in a city–state setting.