Hartmut Dorgerloh Is Reappointed at Humboldt Forum

The contract with General Director of the Humboldt Forum and Chief Executive Officer of the Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss Hartmut Dorgerloh will be extended until the end of May 2028. The Foundation Council of Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss chaired by Minister of State Claudia Roth voted unanimously to prolong Dorgerloh’s contract. As General Director, Dorgerloh determines the overall concept and the programmatic direction of the Humboldt Forum. An art historian, curator of monuments, and cultural manager, Hartmut Dorgerloh has held the post since June 2018. During his time in office, he has established structures for a sustainable and productive collaboration between the institutions working at the Humboldt Forum and geared the Humboldt Forum’s program more closely to contemporary global issues.

Claudia Roth, minister of state for culture and media and chairwoman of the Foundation Council, welcomed the extension of Dorgerloh’s contract. “The Humboldt Forum should be a place for democratic, open-minded debate, a place of exchange and multiple voices – that is our goal as federal government. Hartmut Dorgerloh keeps us on track in achieving this goal. Despite the challenges occasioned by the Covid-19 crisis, he has succeeded in keeping visitor numbers high at the Humboldt Forum and firmly establishing its place in Germany’s cultural landscape. For the future, the emphasis will be on continuously developing the Humboldt Forum, especially in terms of content. It will also entail continuing to improve the collaboration between the institutions at the Humboldt Forum. I wish Hartmut Dorgerloh every success in this endeavour in which the federal government will continue to support him”, said Claudia Roth.

Hartmut Dorgerloh, general director of the Humboldt Forum: “I am delighted to be able to continue my work for the Humboldt Forum and I would like to thank the Foundation Council for the confidence it has shown in me. In the less two than two years since the opening, my team, our partners, and I have been able to establish the Humboldt Forum as a new venue for exhibitions and cultural events, for the arts and sciences, for educational programs and conferences, and as an initiator of important debates of our time: in Berlin, nationwide, and internationally. Despite the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, we have managed to make it a lively location for people in Berlin and to develop strong partnerships worldwide – and in the process, we have achieved a deeply gratifying level of public interest.

For me the construction and opening of the Humboldt Forum was above all the beginning of some very special and instructive new relationships: with the people in Berlin, in all their diversity and with our national and international partners as well as between all of us at the Humboldt Forum itself. As General Director, I would like to build on and develop these relationships in the coming years: staying open to what emerges, embracing debate, and remaining self-critical.

What is finished is far from complete – this applies in equal measure to the area surrounding the building and to the structures and processes inside the Humboldt Forum, but also to forthcoming challenges, such as securing the financial resources required to offer an attractive program and to run a sustainable operation. Together with all institutions we will continue to shape the Humboldt Forum as a place that openly fosters relationships and encounters. In our crisis-ridden times this is more important than ever.”

Among Dorgerloh’s goals as both former and new General Director is to create a structural framework capable of meeting the demands placed on the Humboldt Forum: international cooperations, relationships with different regions across the globe, and a more sophisticated understanding of the museum as forum. These things will now warrant a stronger focus, says Dorgerloh, making resources and intensive dialogue with international creatives all the more important. This calls for an organisational structure that not only facilitates but also actively promotes viable and innovative work – a structure tailored to the desires and requirements of a diverse public. With an eye to the reform process underway at the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (SPK), Hartmut Dorgerloh is therefore endeavouring to intensify collaboration with the Ethnologisches Museum and the Museum für Asiatische Kunst and thus sharpen the Humboldt Forum’s unique programmatic profile.

Image : Hartmut Dorgerloh, General Director of the Humboldt Forum © Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss / David von Becker