Geschichte der Sammlung

CHRONOLOGY: THE EGYPTIAN MUSEUM OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LEIPZIG

1840
The history of our collection starts with a stroke of luck. A mummy-shaped coffin is offered for sale in Triest. Gustav Seyffarth, professor of archaeology at the University of Leipzig, learns about it and manages to persuade Saxony's Ministry of Culture to fund the purchase price of 289 thalers.

1842
The coffin arrives at the antique collection of the University of Leipzig which, so far, has predominantly housed plaster casts of Greek and Roman art. The new addition lays the foundations for the future museum and is still part of the collection today.

1870
The Egyptologist Georg Ebers is appointed to the newly established professorship of Egyptology at the University of Leipzig and as an inspiring teacher he manages to draw in large audiences to his lectures. With his historical novels, including ones about Egypt, Ebers becomes famous worldwide. He purchases the medical Papyrus Ebers, a medical papyrus named after him, for the University Library.

1874
The collection of Egyptian exhibits keeps growing and has to be moved from the archaeological museum into a wing of the main building of the University. There are now rooms for the collection itself, for lectures and for the board of directors. The collection becomes an independent institution under the name “Aegyptologischer Apparat”.

1889
Georg Ebers retires on health grounds.

1893
Georg Steindorff is appointed as Ebers’ successor at the University of Leipzig. The Egyptian collection gets its essential character through him as he expands the small educational collection into a proper museum. On his expeditions to Egypt, he starts purchasing objects for domestic and funerary use as well as smaller works of art. He has other objects, such as a limestone head of Queen Nefertiti, excavated on site, and with the permission of the French-administered Egyptian Antiquities Aervice, brings them home to Germany.

1903-1931
Also worth special mention is Steindorff‘s exceptional excavation work during his expeditions in Giza, Qau and Aniba where numerous objects of the Egyptian Museum are from.

1934
Because of his Jewish heritage, Steindorff is forced to resign by the National Socialists. He emigrates to the USA in 1939.

1939
Walther Wolf, Steindorff’s former assistant, continued his museum work and teaching after Steindorff is forced to leave and is appointed to the Leipzig professorship. However, in the same year he is called up for military service. His duties have to be performed by substitutes, and teaching can continue only partially. The institute's rooms and part of the museum inventory that has not been removed are destroyed during an air raid.

After 1945
During the war years, Siegfried Morenz, a research assistant, is significantly involved in maintaining teaching and recovering the museum’s collection. He undertakes the retrieval of parts of the collection from safe storage as well as the reconstruction of the institute. The new location is a university building on Schillerstraße 6 with rooms on the ground floor and in the basement.

1951
A part of the saved museum collection returns to Leipzig, and Morenz is able to set up a small exhibition. The rest of the collection is considered lost until 1958 when it is discovered that it is in the possession of the Soviet Union. In the course of the normalisation of relations between Moscow and the smaller states under its rule, the collection items are returned.

1976
It is possible to reopen the Egyptian Museum. Unfortunately, Morenz is unable to experience it as he has already passed away in 1970.

After 1976

The reopening signifies the end of a phase while at the same time marking the beginning of a new one, and from now on the focus is on consolidating and building on what has been achieved. Visitors have access to the museum for several hours a day, and they need to be provided with information. The restauration and research work that has been started needs to be continued systematically, but this is difficult since some of the museum’s records were burned during the war and excavation documentation was published either only partially or not at all.

The museum manages to quickly occupy a fixed place in the cultural life of the city and becomes such a showcase for the university that it manages to loosen the politically motivated restrictions and make contacts throughout the international research community.

1987
Around 100 original small pieces of art from the Early Dynastic to the Ptolemaic period are purchased for the museum, including a few outstanding items.

After 1989
The Fall of the Berlin Wall (the political turning point) in 1989 and the Reunification of Germany open up communication and information exchange as well as specific development opportunities for the institute and the museum. With funding from the university and from outside, especially from the Volkswagen Stiftung, tools used for restoration and documentation can be updated and for the library can be modernised.

2002
The museum moves from the Schillerstraße location to an interim location on Burgstraße 21 where it reopens in 2003.

2010
After moving again, the new and permanent exhibition of the Egyptian Museum opens in the Krochhochhaus at Augustusplatz.

• Text in Auszügen nach E. Blumenthal, in: Das Ägyptische Museum der Universität Leipzig. Renate Krauspe (Hrsg.). von Zabern: Mainz am Rhein, 1997.

• Dr. F. Seyfried - Curator (1999-2010)

The Krochhochhaus

The plans for the Krochhochhaus were drawn up by German Bestelmayer (1874-1942) and its construction directly on Augustusplatz was commissioned by the banker Hans Kroch. It was built in 1927/1928, when the building’s height of 43 metres was a hotly debated topic among the citizens of Leipzig. It was, after all, the first high-rise building in the heart of a city centre characterised by historicism, renaissance and baroque town houses, and gothic hall churches.

The inspiration for the building came from another large trading city. The concept, influenced by Art Déco, reinterprets the famous St. Mark’s Clocktower in Venice (1496-1499). The high-rise building’s silhouette is characterised by the 3.30‑metre tall bellringer statues; the massive lions of St. Mark in relief on the façade are also reminiscent of the Venetian landmark.

Personifications of Europe, Asia, America and Africa frame the large skylight of the former bank’s counter hall and shed light on the most important pieces in the Egyptian collection. At half storey height, the Italian-inspired terracotta panel decorations continue, complemented by the yellowish-beige reflective stucco lustro which originally also belonged to the large main hall. Artefacts from the excavations in Nubia can be found in front of the panelling of the old meeting room. The former office of the bank's director now houses the funerary ensemble of the priest Herischef-Hotep (ca. 2000 BC).