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 came to an end yesterday. After twenty years, the museum closed its doors on October 5th, and the future of the collection is up in the air. Volunteer operators led by Barbara Dechant are currently looking for ways to store the impressive exhibits long-term, which document German written and urban history. With around 3,500 letters in its inventory, mostly from Berlin and other parts of Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the museum was a real treasure for font lovers and history fans. Visitors were able to admire, among other things, historical lettering, such as “Zierfische”, an old lettering from a shop at Frankfurter Tor from the 1980s, which was part of the city's flair.

The premises of the Letter Museum in the S-Bahn arch near Bellevue station now have to be evacuated, and with the closure the number of visitors has also fallen sharply. Since the coronavirus pandemic, the number of visitors has halved, and the decline in operating income combined with rising energy costs pose a major challenge. Dechant and her team have borne the brunt of the work and are now faced with the difficult search for a new location for the collection. “We are hoping for a mix of storage and exhibition space,” said Dechant, addressing a central point, as there are currently no concrete plans for a new location. Initial contacts with potential new locations will be made more intensive after the closure, but the future remains uncertain.

Challenges for the cultural institution

One problem plaguing the Letter Museum is the lack of institutional support for the important cultural pieces. Despite the signatures of many supporters, the museum's financial situation has been severely affected. In Germany, there are various funding programs for museums and cultural institutions, such as the “Museum Makes You Strong” program, which aims to promote fair educational opportunities, but there are no funds specifically suitable for the letter museum in sight. The German Museum Association provides 50 million euros annually for projects, and other programs such as PRISMA and INK are also being planned, which promise networking and support for museums. However, the Letter Museum has not yet taken advantage of 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 potentially be helpful for future planning when it comes to preserving 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 to keep the valuable collection visible.

The closure of the Letter Museum is a loss for Berlin's cultural landscape and for everyone who was interested in typographic diversity and the history of writing. We can only hope that Barbara Dechant and her team will find a place that can give the letters the appreciation and space they deserve.