Opening hours
Cog hall: Monday till Sunday from 10 am to 6 pm
Ships: daily from 10 a.m. to 5:45 p.m.
how to reach us
Deutsches Schifffahrtsmuseum
Hans-Scharoun-Platz 1
D-27568 Bremerhaven
Prof. Dr. Ruth Schilling, Managing Director
About the person
Prof. Dr. Ruth Schilling has been acting Executive Director of the German Maritime Museum (DSM), Leibniz Institute for Maritime History in Bremerhaven, since January 2022. Together with her team, she is shaping the museum's transformation from a predominantly technical history institution to a place that reflects the past, present and future of man and the sea.
Schilling has served as scientific director at the DSM since 2014 and has been responsible for numerous renowned research and exhibition projects. She holds a professorship in teaching museum-related history of science at the University of Bremen and a PhD in history from Humboldt University Berlin. Her research focuses on knowledge transfer in museums, shipping history from the 16th to the 20th century, political and cultural history, and the history of science in the early modern period.
Current projects
2022
2020 | Managing Director
Continuation of the W1 professorship as W2 professorship "Communication of museum-related history of science (University Bremen) in connection with the program area management "Shipping and Society" (research and exhibition) at the German Maritime Museum/ Leibniz Institute for Maritime History |
2019-2020 | Visiting senior fellow Trinity Hall (Univ. of Cambridge, UK) |
2017 | Positive evaluation of the junior professorship (habilitation-equivalent performance) |
Since 2016 | Lecturer at the Institute of Historical Sciences (University of Oldenburg) |
Since 2014 | W1-Professor on "Communication of museum-related history of science" (University of Bremen) in connection with scientific exhibition and research coordination at the German Maritime Museum/ Leibniz Institute for Maritime History |
2012–2014 | Senior Researcher on the ERC project "Ways of Writing. How Physicians Know, 1550-1950" (Head of the Research Unit Politics and Science in the Early Modern Period; Institute for the History of Medicine at Charité Berlin) |
2009-2012 | Researcher at the DFG Research Network "Medical Practice 17th-19th Century" (Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin) |
2005–2012 | Research Associate, Chair of Early Modern History, HU Berlin |
2011-2012 | Scientific curator of the exhibition "Praxiswelten 17.-19. Jahrhundert" (Medical History Museum of the Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin/German Medical History Museum Ingolstadt) |
2010 | Scientific curator of the exhibition "Medicine Meets History: The Cistercian Medical Science" (Chorin Monastery, Brandenburg) |
2005-2009 | Research associate at the Collaborative Research Center 640 "Representations of Social Order in Transition (HU Berlin) |
2008 | Promotion zum Dr. phil. (HU Berlin) |
2007 | Doctoral thesis "Political concepts of order in ritual - the self-representation of Venice and the Hanseatic cities of Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck around 1600" Chair of Early Modern History, Institute of History, Humboldt University Berlin |
1995–2001 | Studies of Modern and Contemporary History, Ancient History and Graecistics at the HU Berlin (Degree: Magistra artium)
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Books (exhibition catalogs, monographs, anthologies)
in preparation
Contributions to anthologies and journals
Since 09/2014 | Development of the concept for the new permanent exhibition at the German Maritime Museum/ Leibniz Institute of Maritime History (Stage 1: Koggenhalle, opened in 2017; Stage 2: Schiffswelten - die Meere und wir, opening planned for 2024). |
2022 | Change Now! Ships change the world; Steel and Bytes - a ship comes into being (scientific management) |
2021 | Cocoa, coffee, tobacco - intoxicants in former times (scientific management) |
2021 | Room for Conjecture. Of finding and inventing. Of archaeology and literature (scientific advice). |
2020 | Cog meets Playmobil. The story of a ship told anew (scientific direction) |
2020 | Maps Knowledge Sea. Globalization from the water (scientific management) |
2019 | Sea Changes - World and Sea in Transition (scientific director) |
2019 | „Media and the Sea“ (UBRA-Conference, Main host) |
2019 | City, Country, Exhibit. On the Traces of Early Modern Colonies (project management together with PD Dr. Natascha Mehler) |
2019 | 360 ° Polarstern. A virtual research expedition (scientific management) |
2019 | “Post digital Participation” (Leibniz Research Campus, Subproject management) |
2018 | Tooth of the Tide. Maritime treasures under the magnifying glass (scientific direction) |
2018 | "Map Seas. Towards a History of Globalization from the Water" (BMBF Language of Objects, subproject management). |
2017 | Sails, salt and silver pieces. Maritime Trade in the Middle Ages (Project Management) |
2017 | The Blind Spot. Art and Culture of Bremen in the Colonial Era (scientific consulting). |
2017 | Ein frey und offen Landt? - The Danish-Oldenburg Personal Union 1667-1773 (co-curation) |
2017 | (Un-)Peaceful Sea? Of Fat Gaps, Passengers, Counts and Singing Russians (Project Management) |
2017 | Simply Worth Knowing 7 - Health Sciences (Guest Contribution) |
2016 | 8 Objects - 8 Museums - Joint Exhibition of the Eight Leibniz Research Museums (Co-Curation) |
2016 | exhibition-like intervention in the shopping park Duckwitzstraße (Bremen) in preview of the exhibition on the Bremen cog in the DSM (project management) |
2016 | "Concept development for the digitization of ship models as knowledge repositories in the area of conflict between original and digital image" (project management). |
2015 | Ships Tell History(s) - 40 Years of the German Maritime Museum (co-curation) |
2012 | Praxiswelten. On the history of the encounter between doctor and patient (touring exhibition in various European museums) (co-curation). |
2010 | The Cistercians' medicine (special exhibition at Chorin Monastery, Brandenburg) (project management) |
2022 | Karl Ferdinand von Werner-Fellowship - Deutsches Historisches Institut Paris |
2020 | Visiting senior fellow Trinity Hall (Univ. of Cambridge, UK) |
2015 | Fellowship International Museum (Kulturstiftung des Bundes, Project management) |
2011 | Funding of the printing of the dissertation by the Women's Promotion of the Philosophical Faculty I of the HU Berlin |
2003-2005 | Centro Tedesco di Studi Veneziani/ Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst e.V. |
1995-2001 | German Academic Scholarship Foundation |
2018-2019 | Scientific Coordinator of the Expert Group "Marine Pollution" (Round Table of the German Government "Seas and Oceans") |
since 2017 | Chair of the Northern Sea Maritime Museums’ Network |
since 2016 | Reviewer for the 'Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte' (Reports on the History of Science) |
2014-2018 | Scientific Advisory Board of the project "Trade and social life in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries on Danish-Dutch Contacts" (University of Southern Denmark/ Fikseri-og Sofartsmuseet Esbjerg) |
since 2014 | Expert opinion of DFG and German Academic Scholarship Foundation |
2008-2012 | DFG network „Vormoderne monarchische Herrschaftsformen“ |
| AG „Wissensformen“ / Worlds of Contradiction, Humanities network initiative of the University of Bremen (co-initiator) |
Activities in the academic self-administration of the University of Bremen
Completed
Bade, Oliver: "Zwischen Ankommen und Verlassen – Die Auswirkungen sich verändernder Medien auf den Alltag in Seefahrerfamilien" (2021)
Behrend, Joachim: "Robert Warthmüllers Historienbilder über Friedrich den Großen mit einem Werkverzeichnis des Künstlers" (2018)
Running
Berendsen, Helga: "Die Bildgeschichte der Kogge"
Goebel, Tobias: "Akteure in Schifffahrt, Handel und Forschung in Nordwestdeutschland im 19. Jahrhundert aus der globalen Mikroperspektive"
Stamm, Miriam: "Wenn du beten willst, so fahre zur See!“ – Religion in der Schifffahrt des 16. bis 18. Jahrhunderts"
Theinert, Nils: "Das U-Boot als Objekt menschlicher Gestaltungsmacht"
Winter term 2022-2023:
Maritime Geschichte - Theorien und Methoden
Maritime Geschichte in Sammlung und Ausstellung
Winter term 2014/2015-Winter term 2021/2022
Organisation und Durchführung des wöchentlichen Forschungskolloquiums zur Neueren/ Neuesten Geschichte together with Prof. Dr. Rebekka von Mallinckrodt
Winter term 2021-2022:
Museen und Ausstellungen – Quellen für Historikerinnen und Historiker?
Rostige Schrauben in der Vitrine? Erforschung und Ausstellung technischer Kultur in Museen (Modul)
Summer term 2021:
Die Maritime Seidenstraße – aktuelle Politik und historische Argumentationen (Modul)
Winter term 2019-2020:
Leibniz Forschungsmuseen als Orte sammlungsbezogener Forschung und Vermittlung (Modul together with Prof. Dr. Sunhild Kleingärtner)
Summer term 2019:
Die Frühe Neuzeit – eine maritime Epoche? (Modul together with Dr. des. Sarah Lentz)
Winter term 2018-2019:
Kolonien und Kulturtransfer in der Frühen Neuzeit (Modul together with Niels Hollmeier)
Summer term 2018:
Kolonien und Kulturtransfer in der Frühen Neuzeit (Modul together with PD Dr. Natascha Mehler)
Winter term 2017-2018:
In 12 Schiffen durch die Weltgeschichte 16.-20. Jh. (Introductory lecture Neuere / Neueste Geschichte)
Summer term 2017:
Recht und Unrecht zur See in der Neuzeit (Modul together with PD Dr. Jens Ruppenthal)
Winter term 2016-2017:
Recht und Unrecht auf See in der Neuzeit (Modul together with PD Dr. Jens Ruppenthal)
Summer term 2016:
Maritime Geschichte im Museum- niederländische Sammlungen und Ausstellungen (Exercise and excursion in the field of general studies together with Prof. Dr. Sunhild Kleingärtner)
Auf See! Schifffahrt im Spiegel frühneuzeitlicher Objekte (Modul together with Sarah Lentz)
Winter term 2015-2016:
‚Whale watching’: Wal und Mensch im Spiegel materieller Kultur (16.-20. Jahrhundert) (Seminar in the field of the general studies).
Summer term 2015:
Beschreibungs- und Bestimmungsübung zum Fundgut der Kogge (Modul together with Prof. Dr. Sunhild Kleingärtner)
Winter term 2014-2015:
Geschichte des Sammelns (Seminar in the field of ‚Theoretische Methoden und Herausforderungen’)
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The joint project "Digital Materialities. Virtual and Analogue Forms of Exhibition", DigiMat for short, is looking for new exhibition and mediation formats for digital exhibits.
As one of the largest shipping companies of the German Empire, North German Lloyd (NDL) plays an important role in the exhibition and research program of the German Maritime Museum / Leibniz Institute of Maritime History (DSM).
Ports have served as transshipment points for narcotics of all kinds for centuries. In a joint project, students, historians from the University of Oldenburg and the German Maritime Museum (DSM) / Leibniz Institute for Maritime History investigated the routes taken by coffee, tobacco and the like and how their consumption changed.
The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding research into historical nautical charts from the collections of the German Maritime Museum (DSM) and the Perthesforum Gotha.
more
The aim is to make it easier for people with cognitive impairments or dementia to visit museums. Interdisciplinary approaches to digitization from computer science and psychology could lead the way for successful inclusive museum work.
The recovery of the wreck from the harbor area in Bremen Rablinghausen was the start of a research story that continues to this day. We cordially invite you to accompany us on this journey!
Shipping, Logistics, and the Genesis of European Collections in the 16th-20th Centuries.
Cog hall: Monday till Sunday from 10 am to 6 pm
Ships: daily from 10 a.m. to 5:45 p.m.
Deutsches Schifffahrtsmuseum
Hans-Scharoun-Platz 1
D-27568 Bremerhaven