The value of the past: DSM is involved in the research network

What value does the past have for societies in history and the present? And how is this value created and communicated? These questions are the focus of the Leibniz Research Alliance “Value of the Past,” in which the German Maritime Museum (DSM) / Leibniz Institute for Maritime History is also participating with projects. The Senate of the Leibniz Association has now decided to fund the Leibniz Research Alliance for another four years until September 2029. The continued funding demonstrates the high regard in which the Alliance's successful research is held and the strategic importance of research alliances within the Leibniz Association.

Since its founding in 2014, the DSM has been a partner of the Leibniz Research Alliance “Historical Authenticity.” In 2021, this alliance was further developed and has since been renamed “Value of the Past.” For the new funding phase, which began in October, Prof. Dr. Ruth Schilling, Director of the DSM, was appointed one of the deputy spokespersons. Together with the Hans Bredow Institute and the Georg Eckert Institute (GEI), she will coordinate the research group on participation and appropriation of history and the role values play in this process.

"In the newly approved funding period until 2029, we will devote ourselves in seven research groups to topics such as the significance of concepts of space and time for the understanding of history and discuss questions of documentary evidence formation, for example in the field of digital history. We want to develop new forms of participation and appropriation of history in museums, memorials, and other places of public history and introduce them into society,“ explains Dr. Achim Saupe, managing scientific coordinator of the Leibniz Research Alliance ”Value of the Past."

The DSM played a key role in shaping the content of the research network during the first funding phase, which runs until August 2025. Together with the Deutsches Museum, Prof. Dr. Ruth Schilling headed the “Digitality and Materiality” lab. Within the focus area “Sensory Knowledge,” the DSM organized an international conference on “Sounds of History” in December 2024, which explored the effect of sound in museums.

Furthermore, the network successfully acquired third-party funding for several projects, including the “SEEFALKE Pilot Study” and the research project “Museum Practices and Strategies for Valorizing the Past in the Context of Industrial Structural Change,” for which a film is being produced in collaboration with the Rostock Maritime Museum, the Institute for Museum Studies, and other partners, shot by students from the University of Applied Sciences Bremerhaven. In addition, the cog publication with the working title “Late Medieval Sea Vessels in Northern Europe” was supported.
 
Prof. Dr. Ruth Schilling: “For the DSM, networking within the research network is fundamentally important for developing and testing innovative ideas and approaches in an interdisciplinary manner.”