MUSEUM AND PARK KALKRIESE
The Varus Battle Site looks forward to your visit!
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“Varusschlacht im Osnabrücker Land”
AD 9
Roman troops occupied vast areas of Germania which included the region north of the river Lippe up to the river Weser.
The Roman Army is lured into an ambush in the woodlands by the Germanic warriors. Arminius, a Cherusci nobleman, is the instigator.
Within 3 days the 17th, 18th and 19th Legion are defeated and slaughtered – more than 10,000 people perish.
The battle goes down in history as the Varus Battle, named after the Roman commander Publius Quinctilius Varus.
1987
Coin finds over a period of several centuries arouse suspicion: The British Army Officer, Major Tony Clunn finds Roman denari in Kalkriese, and the following year, 3 lead sling shots – the first weapons, the first signs of fighting between Romans and Germans.
1989
Archaeological excavations commence: scientists unearth coins, weapons, the facial mask of a Roman helmet, fragments of Roman armour, bones of humans and mammals.
And the scientific experts discover remains of an ambush: a rampart that can be traced back over a length of more than 400 metres. It provided the Germanic warriors ideal protection and concealment during their attack on the Romans.
For centuries historians, local researchers and explorers have searched for the location of the Varus Battle. The archaeologists find it in Kalkriese. Today Kalkriese is said to be one of the most significant archaeological sites in Europe.
2005
The Varus Battle in the Osnabruck region (“Osnabrücker Land”) is an internationally acclaimed place of research. Scientists of 5 German universities support the archaeological team.
Furthermore, Kalkriese is a place where history, art and architecture can be experienced. In 2002 the Park, Tower and Museum opened to the public.
An exceptional exhibition allows the visitor to experience the history of this unique site by the means of modern media. 3,000 of the approx. 6,000 finds which have been uncovered so far are exhibited in the museum – including the expressive facial mask of a Roman helmet. The park leads the way into the past and the present.
In an old farmhouse, which belongs to the museum complex, a special children’s museum offers children a playful introduction to history. The museum’s shop provides literature, reproductions of archaeological finds as well as sausages and wine. You can also “give us away”: with the entrance ticket gift service.
The Restaurant and “Beer-garden” Varusschlacht invite you to enjoy moments of relaxation in idyllic surroundings. Treat yourself to our culinary treasures or plan your own celebrations at our establishment.
All around the museum and park you can find walking and cycling paths, hotels, guesthouses, camping sites and an 18-hole golf course at the Golfclub Varus, which is open all year round.
We look forward to your visit!
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Events beginning May 2005:
Whitsun: Sunday and Monday, 15. & 16. May 2005,
10:00 am until 18:00 pm (on both days)
International Roman Days
With enactment groups from 5 nations, Romans and Germanics at the location of the Varus Battle, camp life, presentations on horseback, join-in-actions around the museum.
Opening hours:
Daily: 10:00 am until 18:00 pm
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Entrance fees:
Adults:
5.00 €
Children under 16, school children and students, disabled / handicapped:
3.00 €
Annual ticket for 2 adults and children under 16:
including entrance to all events
50.00 €
Annual ticket for single adults:
including entrance to all events
25.00 €
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Public guided tours:
1. November until 31. March
on Sundays and public holidays
11:00 am and 14:30 pm
on Wednesdays and Saturdays 14:30 pm
1. April until 31. October
on Sundays and public holidays
11:00 am and 15:00 pm,
daily tours at 15:00 pm
Guided tours for groups:
To be arranged individually;
Bookings under tel.: (0049) (0) 5461-61826
Special offers for visitors of all ages:
Museum programmes in line with educational theory;
“The special thank you” for managers, colleagues and customers; programmes for individuals, themed guided tours,
programmes for school classes, children’s’ birthday parties.
Address:
VARUSSCHLACHT im Osnabrücker Land
Museum und Park Kalkriese
Venner Straße 69
49565 Bramsche-Kalkriese
Tel: (0049) (0) 5468-92040
Fax: (0049) (0) 5468-920445
Email: info@mupk.de
www.kalkriese-varusschlacht.de
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THE EXHIBITION
The round tour
„Hallo there! Just a moment! I want to show you something. I am one of the investigators here. Just call me Stahnke.”
With these words Mr Stahnke invites the visitor to listen to his latest big case. When you think how simple it had all begun. These weird objects which his colleague had handed in reminded Stahnke of “mouldy old peppermint sweets…”! But made of lead? The diagnosis “Roman sling shots” gets him a step further. But how did Roman sling shots come to Kalkriese? With this question Stahnke finds himself in the midst of much activity. His initial investigations seem very promising but the results are also contradictory. Stahnke makes a decision with far reaching consequences: “All my colleagues laughed. I could understand why. I can still see us standing there: meadows and fields, for endless kilometres, and nothing in our hands but a few lumps of lead and some bright ideas. But we had made our decision: we will dig! Later on nobody laughed any more.”
Very soon the remains of a wall (rampart) were discovered. Why did the Germanic tribes want to put up a wall exactly in that spot? Slightly irritated Stahnke, standing at the bottom of the Kalkriese Berg, lets his thoughts wander. “Again I remembered the thickets and swamps Tacitus had described a long time ago. What could it have looked like here 2000 years ago?”
Geologists and expert botanists begin their search. The results are astonishing: 2000 years ago this area must have been ideal for an ambush. “It took a long time until I understood: a warrior sees the world with other eyes. Strategically! Berg and moors as obstacles. The foot of the Berg as bottle neck. He knows the enemies’ strong points ...so? No open battle ground! Instead he needs to make the landscape his ally ... close off the exits ... erect a rampart. Exactly here!”
During his investigations Stahnke gets a few more surprises. Astounding – the results of the phosphate tests. Unexpected – the intact skeleton of a mule. Sensational – the face mask piece of a helmet. But when? Why? And how? Mr Stanke is left in the dark. Only the large amount of coin finds leads him onto the right track. “Coins, coins, coins. Wherever we started digging they came to the surface. I must admit: I exaggerate. But it was the coins which proved to be the most important evidence. All of them were minted before AD9, none of them at a later date. Some of them even bore the stamp of Varus “VAR”!”
Stahnke vaguely remembers his long gone school days. He remembers something about Caesar and his battle with the Gauls, and the Emperor Augustus and his conquests in Germania. A look into the school books refreshes his knowledge. Back in Kalkriese everything makes sense, becomes clear. “I looked down the slope and envisaged: Varus and his troops on their march; the heavy baggage weighing them down, their feet aching. They knew they had to watch out. But they were overconfident - that was their weakness.”
On his way back to the winter camp Varus received a message of an uprising of Germanic tribes. He decided to settle the dispute before returning to winter camp. Varus did not suspect anything when his loyal friend and leader of the German auxiliaries – Arminius – made his farewells in order to subdue the uprising. But the message Varus received was only sent to lure the Romans into unknown territory. Unknowingly they marched straight into the ambush. “Wherever the Legionnaire sets his foot is Rome. That is what they tell the soldiers. When they stand on wounded feet, the moors to the right, the wall to the left and “Barbarians” storming towards them – then Rome is far away.”
According to historical archives the 3 Roman Legions of Varus were totally defeated in a battle with the Germanic tribes in AD9 during which Varus commits suicide. The devastating defeat finds its way into the history books as the Varusbattle. Arminius is the victor of this battle and is credited by Tacitus as the liberator of Germania. “Arminius had a lot to thank Rome for: his education, his expertise, his career. And then it had to be him who prepared this ambush. Is someone like him a hero? A liberator? A traitor?”
Stahnke takes up his search again. There are a lot of trails. Since the 16th century Arminius has inspired peoples’ imagination and in the 19th century he develops into a national hero. But what was the real Arminius like? We don’t know. Arminius was always as he was needed – forceful, melancholic, warlike and in the end driven to despair. At the end of the play “Hermannsschlacht” by Heinrich von Kleist, he lifts his sword with all his remaining strength only to drop it again leaving no doubt –his time is passed. For Stahnke everything is crystal clear. Kalkriese is the site of the Varusbattle. But he is still working on the case as a lot of questions remain unanswered.
THE CONCEPT
Since 1987 archaeological excavations are being carried out in Kalkriese. The archaeologists and scientists use criminological methods to detect any traces of the events 2000 years ago. A search trail is therefore the theme of the exhibition. More than 3,000 finds are displayed in an area of 600 m². The layout was designed by Heidrun Derks in cooperation with “intégral ruedi baur & associés”, Paris. The word “Spurensuche” (search for trails) arouses various associations: vague evidence, interweaving paths, unforeseen discoveries. Of course it is difficult to transfer the excitement of a true search into the inside of a building. Aspects like security, fire protection and emergency exits mean that space and room for creativity are restricted considerably – but not totally: The visitor enters a dark room. Walls obscure his vision, are in his way, diffused light falls onto the surfaces … and as he ventures further into the labyrinth his path seems to get narrower and darker. The search for trails begins in the library, leads on to the excavations, into the landscape, into the laboratory and into the trap. After that the narrator’s perspective changes – the search for trails turns into the securing of evidence: the human bones and various finds, including hundreds of torn and shredded metal pieces and bent nails, verify the extent of this tragedy. They are the silent witnesses of the battle.
PICTURE - TEXT - MEDIA
A diverse system of communication, consisting of text, pictures and media is available, as it is not expected that every visitor will actively take part in the “search for trails”. The text is divided into three levels: investigation – summary of the contents – thematic interpretation. The investigation is driven forward by Mr Stahnke. This fictional character – there never was a Mr Stahnke in Kalkriese – is the spokesman for all those people who have taken part in the scientific “search trail” in Kalkriese since 1987.He describes how the Varusbattle was discovered, which questions provoked which actions and how the individual results could be combined to create a larger picture. Stahnke brings a human touch into the presentation and always remains on “eye-level”. He is subjective, doesn’t always articulate himself in a perfect manner and now and then lets his mind run wild. 20 stations spin a thread through the exhibition and allow the hasty visitor an overall view of the results of the investigation. The large text plates with white backgrounds supply an introduction and a summary of events. Smaller text boards aid the more interested visitor and provide the enthusiastic trail searcher with further “evidence” as well as additional explanations and background information. The sequence of pictures conforms to the same pattern as the text. Larger pictures visualize the general theme of the exhibition. Medium-sized pictures provide the information, small formats submit additional extras. This is complimented by installations, which allow the visitor to actively search and discover – books with sliding mechanisms, drawers, looking glasses, hearing devices, table-top folders, picture plates and computer stations. They provide increased knowledge and further explanation. In contrast to text and pictures, film clips prompt the visitor to pause and think. The visitor will not find a multi-media battle production. A visual reconstruction of the events and a 3-dimentional presentation of participants have been avoided deliberately. The same applies to the exhibition: pictures of the battle, of soldiers and warriors, of attackers and the dead, of aggressors and victims, of victors and losers, of fear and pain, chaos and defeat, triumph and victory – depending on the point of view, these kind of pictures can, should or must be made by the visitor himself.
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THE ARCHITECTURE
The beginnings
In 1993 the first Information Centre opened to the public in Kalkriese. Due to the large amount of interested visitors the museum complex was totally reorganized and extended leading to the re-opening of a new exhibition concept in 1997. As even the new museum soon proved to be too small, plans for a totally new museum building and park were initiated in 1998 followed by an architectural competition.
The first prize went to the Swiss architects Annette Gigon and Mike Guyer (Zurich) as well as the landscape architects Zulauf, Schweingruber and Seippel (Baden/Switzerland). The design convinced the jury due to the successful integration of space and construction of Museum and Park. Special interest was placed on the abstract metaphorical execution of the dialogue between architecture and history as well as landscape, as the competition had requested. Instead of using naturalistic pictures to depict historic reality Gigon/Guyer preferred clear shapes/lines without dramatic effects. They consider their design as an artistic interpretation and want to invite the visitor to reflect on and interact with the site of the Varusbattle.
The Park was opened in the year 2000 in accordance with the Expo in Hannover; the new Museum was opened in spring of 2002.
The Museum
Like a landmark the new museum and its 40 metre high tower seem to mark this historic site once again. The building’s reduced language of shape – a single-storey body with an attached tower – and the eye-catching building material combine a strong aura and attraction. The slender stilts which support the rather heavy demeaning building achieve a surprising image of lightness.
The distance the stilts have created between the modern building and the historic grounds symbolizes one of the major aspects of this design: all buildings are to be seen as an addition to the historic landscape, not as an intrusion. The building is in direct contact with the ground at only 3 points: the main entrance, the staircase of the tower and the ramp.
The steel frame of the building’s constructive support system consists of double-T-supporting girders and is planked with 15 mm strong weatherproof construction steel-plates (WT-ST 37). This construction can be clearly recognized at the tower. In total more than 700 tons of steel were used.
The most unusual detail of the building is the material of the facade. The construction steel of the facade is lacking of carbon and has been enriched with elements like phosphor, copper, chrome or nickel. These elements ensure that under the influence of weather the surface of the plates are coated with a layer of oxide – commonly known as rust. This increases the material’s ability of resistance against corrosion. A similar reaction is known of the Cor-Tensteel (WT-ST 52) which has a different chemical consistency but is more widely known.
Steel is not only an important element of the outside of the building, it also plays a major part in the design of the inside of the museum. The floors consist of untreated stainless steel plates, walls and ceiling of the foyer area are coated in corroded, cold pressed steel plates. The exhibition hall consists entirely of mat lacquered and warm pressed steel plates. The flamed surface is the natural consequence of the pressing process under great heat. A total of 200 tons of steel were used to create the inside of the building. The exhibition hall has a size of 600 square metres and is constructed as a “black box” with 3 window fronts and simple stands/racks.
The Park
In accordance with the museum building, weatherproof steel is also the most frequently used building material within the park. On the one hand it represents the archaeological finds, which mainly consist of iron but have generally highly corroded surfaces and therefore resemble the same colour and structure as the construction steel. On the other hand the widespread use of large plates of steel has only been possible since the industrial revolution and therefore brands this type of steel as a “modern” building material.
The park is divided into two areas: the “Germanic woods” in the south and the “Roman path” in the north. In between these areas you can find a row of stilts. They mark the course of the archaeologically proven wall, which was used as a rampart by the Germanic warriors during their ambush of the Romans. The Germanic woods are currently being re-forested with almost 2,000 trees and bushes reaching down to the row of stilts. North of the row of stilts the antique battle field begins. At its northern edge eroded breaks cut into the woodland allow the visitor a view into the marsh and the former moors.
A system of 3 paths runs through the park on a total length of 3,000 metres: the Germanic paths, the path of steel plates and the gravel led paths. The individual material of each path represents the different eras, which have been of great importance for this site. The interweaving paths of the Germanic woods, for instance, run through the woodlands in all directions on a total length of 1,280 metres and enable the visitor to envisage the room of activity the Germanic warriors had whilst attacking from and retreating behind the wall.
The path of steel plates, which runs over a length of 400 metres in front of the wall, symbolizes the way the Romans took through the bottle neck at the bottom of the Kalkriese Berg – for them a path into misery, leading to their end. 38 of the 500 steel plates also provide further information about the historic event in form of imprinted text. The erratic and outwardly drifting way in which the plates have been laid out allows the visitor various associations: a visual impression of shields thrown away in panic and the sudden chaos of battle? A metaphorical suggestion of gravestones and therefore a symbol for the countless casualties of the battle? A ...?
The third part of the system of paths is the gravel led paths. They are distributed over a total length of 1,370 metres throughout the whole area and represent the typical boarders of estates, fields and meadows as known in the modern age of agriculture and administration.
A 1,600 square metres large “time capsule landscape” can be found in the centre of the 24 hectare large park. The time capsule is a reconstruction of the landscape 2000 years ago including plants which were commonly known in that time and the wall/rampart. The rusty steel bulkheads which surround the time capsule provide a harsh dividing line between today’s ground and the historical reconstructed landscape. They create the impression of a window allowing the visitor at first only a glimpse into the past before he can approach it step by step guided by the steel walls to his left and right.
The 3 pavilions – seeing, hearing, questioning – are situated along the Roman path. They provide the opportunity to gain a different perspective of the events of the battle but avoid delivering ready-made pictures or simple answers. The aim is to transfer the presentation of the battle into the imagination of the visitor. Every visitor has his own idea of the Varusbattle and depending on the point of view, these kinds of pictures can, should or must be made only by the visitor himself. In this sense the pavilions can be seen as instruments of perception.
When the visitor enters the “Pavilion of Seeing” he finds himself in a dark room. Through the “eye of the camera” he can gaze into the park. But the picture is upside down – a sign to remember that the park outside is not the usual kind of park but the site where history was written, where a tragedy happened that can be seen and explained from different angles.
The “Pavilion of Hearing” can be recognized from afar by the mighty ear trumpet made of galvanized steel. Once inside the pavilion the ear trumpet can be turned into all directions. The sounds from outside are amplified and transmitted into the pavilion. Sound collages support the sounds from two directions: the waiting Germanic warriors in the north and the approaching Roman legionaries from the east.
The “Pavilion of Questioning” lies in the west of the park. The visitor’s gaze first falls back onto the battle field through observation slits before the video sequences start. “The Varusbattle is history. War isn’t. Why?”
The architects
Annette Gigon (born 1959 in Herisau, Switzerland) and Mike Guyer (born 1958 in Columbus, Ohio, USA) have been running their office in Zurich since 1989. They have made a name for themselves with several projects since then – from residential buildings to sport centres, from lecture theatres to restaurants. Museums enjoy a very high rating in Gigon/Guyer’s work. The most impressive museum buildings include the Kirchner Museum in Davos, the Museum Liner in Appenzell, the extension of the Art Museum in Winterthur and the Oskar Reinhart Collection “Am Römerholz”. The extension of the Art Museum in Basel is in preparation, the Alber-Honegger Museum in Mouans Sartoux, France, is under construction.
The buildings of Gigon/Guyer impress by their precise design ideas which are mainly based on simple functional solutions. The basic idea is the factuality but it still promotes a strong visual aspect which can interpret meaning and emotion by the use of shape/outlining and material.
The volumes and facades reflect the composition of their buildings and stress the regularity of the construction and the grammar of the material.
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