Bernisches Historisches Museum

FROM THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES TO THE ANCIEN RÉGIME

Taking up approximately 1200 m2 the exhibition gives an overview of the history of the city and republic of Bern using important exhibits. The objects documenting the period between about 400 and about 1700 are displayed throughout 16 rooms. Some 500 exhibits with many different provenances include paintings, sculptures, furniture, weapons, items of everyday use and textiles, all bearing witness to past living environments. 

Immerse yourself in the history of Bern and follow it on a journey that led from a rural settlement at the time of its found- ing to the mightiest municipal republic north of the Alps. 

GLORY AND DECLINE OF THE ANCIEN RÉGIME

The exhibition takes up approximately 330 m2 and focuses on 18th and 19th century Bern. Unique objects tell us about the golden age of the educated and gallant citizens of Bern. However, they also show the decline of the Ancien Régime and the struggle for a new constitution. Some 300 exhibits including written documents, musical instruments, porcelain figurines and costumes bring the era back to life.

Discover Bern‘s golden age and learn of the relationships between power, know- ledge, upheaval and awakening at the time of the Helvetic Revolution.

CAPTURED TREASURE – COURT ART IN BERN (1250–1520)

The exhibition, extending over some 360 m2, features works that arrived here as a result of Bern’s successful military campaigns and territorial expansion in the 15th and early 16th centuries.The top quality materials used in these items, their technical sophistication and their often unusual aesthetics set them apart from anything known or produced in Bern at that time.

Let yourself be dazzled by the magnificence of our star pieces, and plunge

into the luxurious world of late medieval princes.

FRAGILE TREASURE – CONSERVING COURT TEXTILES (2012– )

To have textiles permanently on display at a Museum is a great challenge. Before we bring our Caesar tapestries back into an exhibition for instance, it is essential to inspect and document their current condition. After that, measures to con- serve them will be decided on. For this purpose a temporary workshop, measur- ing about 190 m2, has been set up.

Look over the shoulders of our textile conservators as they work, and see just how 15th century tapestries are preserved for future generations.

BERN‘S SILVER TREASURE

Taking up some 30 m2 the exhibition presents approximately 90 gold and silver works of art dating from the 16th to 18th centuries. The goblets, figurative drinking vessels and testimonials from the Renaissance and Baroque periods offer an account of important events in the political, social and economic life of Bern.

Marvel at the splendour and magnificence of Bern‘s silver treasure and let yourself be enthralled by the imaginative and detailed craftsmanship.

BERN AND THE 20TH CENTURY

Taking up approximately 580 m2 the exhibition relates Bern‘s journey to modernity from 1900 to 2001 in the form of a time bar. Each year is represented by an event or pioneering feat, which makes the zeitgeist of that particular time more tangible. Some 200 original objects and numerous replicas give visitors an insight into a wide range of topics which include everything from politics to the economy, society, sports, technology, science, everyday life, and art and design.

Tell your children and grandchildren stories about the days of your wild youth and discover a creative and surprising side to Bern.

STONE AGE, CELTS AND ROMANS

Taking up approximately 360 m2 the exhibition uses archaeological finds to display 50,000 years of human history. 1,500 original finds offer an account of the Early and Late Stone Ages, the Bronze Age, the pile dwellers, the Iron Age, the Celts, the Romans and the Early Middle Ages.

Experience firsthand the development and transformation of the first humans in this region. Whether child or adult, you learn that there can be no future without a past.

TREASURES FROM THE TOMBS OF ANCIENT EGYPT

Taking up some 40 m2 the exhibition introduces the mortuary cult and concepts of the afterlife that prevailed in ancient Egypt. Approximately 110 objects from the period between 3000 and 30 BC outline the cultural history of the 30 dynasties of pharaohs.

Travel to the empire of the pharaohs and learn more about their mortuary rituals. Discover a culture whose pyramids, hieroglyphs and mummies still fascinate today.

ORIENTAL COLLECTION HENRI MOSER

Taking up approximately 330 m2 the exhibition offers information on Central Asia, Persia and the Ottoman Empire. The earliest of the 130 exhibits dates from the 4th century BC, the latest from the 20th century AD. Lacquer works, silverware, weapons, religious objects, water pipes, incense burners and scientific instruments paint a varied picture of the Orient.

Let yourself be transported to the fairytale world of The Thousand and One Nights and discover the diverse world of Islam.

When it was discovered on the Plateau de Diesse in October 2017, the Prêles bronze hand, considered to be a world-class find, caused quite a sensation. It allows us to travel back in time to a mysterious but highly evocative period: the Bronze Age. The discovery of bronze opened up a world of opportunities. It was a technological quantum leap that made people's lives easier and allowed them to engage in cultural exchange and long-distance trade in both goods and skills over vast distances.

However, the Bronze Age was more than just a period of creative advancement – the new material caused fundamental changes within society, inviting concepts such as wealth, power and oppression to become permanently established.

The subject opens up the area of conflict between a belief in progress and innovation on the one hand and their impact on society on the other. With the aid of loans from international museums and an eclectic programme of events, the exhibition will uncover the globalised world of the Bronze Age and bring it back to life.

A for ape, G for goose, L for lamb – in 1949, two artists created an alphabet mural comprising 24 tiles for the Wylergut schoolhouse on behalf of the City of Bern. Among this ABC of animal and nature themes were three depictions of non-white people. On the mural, C stood for Chinese, I for the Indigenous Person of America and N for the Black person – conveying a colonial, racist view of the world.

In 2019, an anti-racist collective criticised the fact that this mural remained on display in a school without being challenged. This prompted the City of Bern to launch a competition to decide the mural’s fate – won by the association “The Mural Must Go!” following its proposal to remove the piece and transfer it to the Bernisches Historisches Museum. Removal of the mural has been the subject of divisive debate in Bern ever since.

The museum will adopt the historical mural in spring 2024, opening the way for the debate that society demands. As a guest curator, the association will be staging an accompanying exhibition to reflect the multifaceted discussions around the mural and about how to deal with it. In addition, enduring colonial patterns and structural racism will be contextualised in the present. The exhibition will give food for thought for the public discourse about how we as a society want to deal with this cultural heritage from the colonial era. 

A rescue excavation carried out by the Archaeological Service of the Canton of Bern in Jegenstorf in 2024 has unearthed finds from the Middle Ages. Thanks to these and older excavations, the centuries-old history of the village can be better traced.

In the excavation tent, visitors can expect to see representative finds from the excavations in Jegenstorf from 2024 and from 2006 to 2008, which tell of cooking, travelling, crafts, building and money in the Middle Ages - such as an impressive riding spur, which refers to the use of horses and knights. The exhibition also features other fascinating artefacts from other medieval settlements in the canton of Bern, including skilfully carved bone artefacts and sensationally well-preserved wooden objects. ‘These finds paint a completely different picture of this period, which is often perceived as a dark era in history,’ says Vanessa Haussener, curator of archaeology and project manager at the Bern History Museum. A large life painting by the artist Joe Rohrer also shows a settlement in modern-day Switzerland that is similar to the period and allows visitors to immerse themselves in the lives of the villagers of Jegenstorf at the time.

Placed in out-of-home care, put to work, placed in guardianship, housed in institutions: by around the 1970s, several hundred thousand children, adolescents and adults in Switzerland had been subjected to compulsory welfare measures and fostering. In the Canton of Bern they numbered at least fifty thousand. Many came from difficult social or economic backgrounds. If a family did not conform to middle-class norms, the authorities reacted with repressive measures that violated personal rights.

For some years now, the people who suffered have been becoming increasingly vocal. They report what they have undergone and demand that the long-term impact be accounted for and mitigated. The fact that they were wronged is now officially recognised. In 2011, the Canton Government of Bern issued an apology.

The exhibition focuses on five victims born between 1894 and 1963 and invites visitors to immerse themselves in their stories. Finally, the question arises: how does what happened affect us today?

Accompany Albert Einstein on his life's journey and learn about the brilliant physicist in all his facets.

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) was living in Bern when his theory of relativity turned our perceptions of space and time upside down. As part of the Bernisches Historisches Museum, approximately 1000m² of exhibition space in the Einstein Museum offer an account of the life of the physicist. Some 550 original objects and replicas, 70 films and numerous animations outline the biography of the genius and his ground-breaking discoveries, while at the same time illustrating the history of his time.

Both private and professional aspects of Einstein's life are dealt with and show the person behind the genius. Romantic relationships and dramas are covered, as is the fascinating world of the 1920s. Other central themes include the horror of the Holocaust and the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima.

An audio guide in nine languages, inductive headphones and a video guide for the deaf and hearing-impaired (available in Swiss German only) make the Einstein Museum accessible to a wider audience from all parts of the world.