The Berlin letter museum closes: a sad farewell!

The Berlin letter museum closes: a sad farewell!

An important chapter in the history of the letter museum in Berlin ended with yesterday. After twenty years, the museum closed its doors on October 5, and the future of the collection is in the stars. Voluntary operators, led by Barbara Dechant, are currently looking for opportunities for the long-term storage of the impressive exhibits that document German writing and city history. With around 3,500 letters that are located in stock and mainly from Berlin and other parts of Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the museum was a real treasure for font lovers and history fans. Among other things, visitors were able to admire historical lettering, such as “Zierfische”, an old lettering from a shop at the Frankfurt goal from the 1980s, which belonged to the city's flair.

The premises of the letter museum in the S-Bahn sheet near the Bellevue station must now be cleared, and the number of visitors has also dropped sharply. Since the Corona pandemic, the number of visitors has halved, and the decreasing income together with rising energy costs is a major challenge. Dechant and their team have carried the main burden of work and are now looking for a new location for the collection before the difficult search. "We hope for a mixture of storage and exhibition space," said Dean, addressing a central point, because there is no concrete plans for a new location so far. Initial contacts to potential new locations should be tackled more after the closure, but the future remains uncertain.

Challenges for the cultural institution

A problem that the letter museum is plaguing is the lack of institutional support for the important cultural pieces. Despite the signature of many supporters, the financial situation of the museum is badly affected. In Germany there are various funding programs for museums and cultural institutions, such as the "Museum makes strong" program, which wants to promote fair educational opportunities, but the funds that are particularly suitable for the letter museum are not in sight. The German Museum Association provides 50 million euros annually for projects, and other programs such as Prisma and Ink are also planned that promise networking and support for museums. However, the letter museum has not yet used these options.

In addition to the general funding opportunities, there are also special programs to support museums in areas such as climate protection and sustainability. These could possibly be helpful for future planning when it comes to maintaining the exhibits in a new location in the long term and developing innovative approaches. The operators of the letter museum are required to find creative solutions in order to keep the valuable collection visible.

The closure of the letter museum is a loss for the Berlin cultural landscape and for everyone who was interested in the typographic diversity and the history of writing. It is to be hoped that Barbara Dean and her team will find a place that can give the letters the appreciation and space they earn.