The German Collection: Emotions and Narratives

Abstract

The article presents the history of origin, as well as the structure and content of the German collection belongs to the Dnipro Historical Museum. The information potential of the collection is proven in the context of museum exhibitions and while using it as a source for theoretical historical research. The collection of the Dnipro National Historical Museum includes about 600 items of German origin or related to Germany. Due to the peculiarities of the formation of the German state and changes in its borders, a lot of Czech, Austrian, Polish and Ukrainian origin objects from the museum catalogs are also identified as German. A large part of the collection tells about the life and culture of the German colonists who settled in the South of Ukraine in the second half of the 18th century. For a long time, their faith, lifestyle, and farming methods kept their unique features and were very different from their surroundings. Therefore, the study of the history of colonists in our region has not lost its relevance for more than 30 years. University historians made the main contribution to the research, but museum workers also tried to record historical information and preserve the object component of the culture of the German colonists. For this, in 1990, an ethnographic expedition was conducted to the village of Dniprovs’ke (the former colony of Yamburg). Then the collection of the museum was replenished with a unique complex of sources – memories, photographs, household items of local production or use. Another separate sub-complex is comprised of the things related to the history of the Second World War. Most of the items from the "German collection" are, for the most part, similar household items used by local residents (dishes, decorative things, cameras, musical instruments, etc.). The time of their use and arrival at the museum varies from the 18th to the 21st centuries. Museum objects (books, furniture, porcelain etc.), the circumstances of their using and entering to the museum collection demonstrate potential for exploring and presenting the history of everyday life, social and political life of the region, the history of local and international relations.