Heroes behind glass

Musicians, artists and scientists, authors, rulers/politicians and revolutionaries: The places where the predominantly male geniuses and heroes lived and worked have been left as they were at the time, and all across the country they together with their legacy have been turned into museums. Freezing a place in time or re-establishing it as a monument and museum has always been a way of ensuring that a particular person remains in the public’s mind and memory. To this today, it still offers the possibility of preserving personal legacies (as relics) for posterity, research and tourism. We will examine the history and characteristics of representative institutions in this field and will consider what future these heroes behind glass might have: Are these places capable of further development, and what other identities, from pilgrimage sites to research centres, are available to these institutions? What concept and design approaches do new developments follow? How much potential does the personalization of history have for communicating with audiences? And what happens if not only the presentations become outdated, but the individuals themselves are nearly forgotten, and when their achievements are re-interpreted in this new time, they no longer seem as important as they once were?