Cooperation: Danish and German museums have founded the NORDMUS network

Three Danish and German museums signed a contract for close cross-border cooperation in the new Danish-German association NORDMUS.

It was a historic day when three museums from Denmark and Germany recently founded a network at a conference in Nykøbing-Falster with which they committed themselves to close cross-border cooperation across the Baltic Sea.

The three museums are the Lolland-Falster Museum and the Vestsjælland Museum on the Danish side and the Oldenburg Wallmuseum on the German side. The NORDMUS museum network is also open to all other relevant museums and cultural institutions. The wish is that as many people as possible participate in the cooperation.

The NORDMUS network is a network of museums in Denmark and Germany that deals with Danish-German cultural heritage as well as cultural and art history. Its aim is to strengthen cooperation between the institutions so that NORDMUS can bundle forces for joint projects.

Verbund is involved in initiating and coordinating Danish-German museum projects and creates favourable conditions for the cross-border exchange of knowledge and experience through the provision of information and contacts.

At the same time, the NORDMUS network can support PR, marketing and cultural tourism in the museum sector across the Baltic Sea, and can advise its members, municipalities, cultural administrations, associations and politicians in this field. The lead partner is the Museum Lolland-Falster, and the director of the museum, Ulla Schaltz, is looking forward to starting the joint work in order to present the different perspectives on the common history to even more museum visitors.

“We live in a border area. On the Danish side we tell the Danish history, and on the German side the German history – but in the museum network the focus is on telling the common history.”

The director of the Oldenburg Wallmuseum, Stephan Meinhardt, is pleased that the association will give the museums “more muscles”.

“Together we are stronger. We have more votes and thus a greater impact in both Germany and Denmark. This is especially important for the smaller museums,” says Stephan Meinhardt.

Eskil Vagn Olsen, director of the Museum Vestsjælland, is looking forward to improving the work with the volunteers, and that the museums on the other side of the border will also be better perceived.

“The exchange of experience on working with volunteers at the museums is profitable for all of us. I am also looking forward to making the museums more visible and to making us more attractive and interesting for German tourists in Denmark in particular,” says Eskil Vagn Olsen.

The first applications for membership were accepted at the founding conference.