Due to the defusing of a bomb, all museums of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden in the Dresden city area must remain closed on 11 March 2026. If you have any questions, please contact our visitor service on +49 351 4914 2000 or besucherservice(at)skdmuseum.info.
Please note that the Damascus Room as well as the exhibition ‘150 Years of the Museum für Völkerkunde Dresden’ on the first floor of the Japanisches Palais are currently not accessible without steps.
intro
The history of ethnological museums is ambivalent due to the colonial past it is embedded in and requires critical reflection. This spawns a responsibility I want to face. Empathy is an essential engine when dealing with collection inventory. Talking with and not about communities of origin is an important premise so that we as museum staff turn into learners and consider ourselves participants of this process, as part of a community of implication. We see the Japanisches Palais as a place where we can reinvent and rethink the museum together again and again – a platform for restoring our relationships, where we test new exhibition formats and create a free space that also largely includes the civil society.
Presentation at Japanisches Palais
Upcoming Events
Currently no dates
History of the exhibition
The museum traces its origins to the Kunstkammer founded by August I, Elector of Saxony, in 1560. The nearly 100,000 objects held by the Museum für Völkerkunde Dresden come from the most diverse regions of the five continents of the world.
