Cologne, Federal Republic of Germany
Region: next to Cologne Cathedral
Theme: Romano-Germanic Archaeological Heritage
Visit: December, 2018
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Right next to the Colonia Cathedral we find the Romano-Germanic Museum. No doubt, one of the most incredible museums I have seen, in terms of importance and scope of studies of Romano-Germanic history based on the archaeological work presented.
The Romano-Germanic Museum was opened in 1974 on the former site of a Roman urban villa just to the south of the cathedral. It was the result of the fusion of two collections owned by the City of Cologne: the Roman collection that, since 1935, had formed the Roman and Germanic Departments of the Wallraf-Richartz Museum, and the collection of the Prehistoric Museum, known since 1926 as the Museum of Prehistory and Early History.
The Museum of Prehistory and Early History, founded in 1907, concentrated mainly on the prehistoric cultures of the Rhineland. The origin of the Roman Department of the Wallraf-Richartz Museum dates back to the collection of Franz Ferdinand Wallraf (1748-1824) who bequeathed it to the City of Cologne in his will. The museum’s collections grew considerably with the purchase of the private collections of Carl Anton Niessen (1934), Baron Johannes von Diergardt (1935) and Franz Wollmann (1939/40) as well as with the regular excavations carried out in Cologne.
The extensive destruction endured by Cologne in the Second World War did not spare the city’s museums. The Wallraf-Richartz Museum managed to get the major part of its collections to safety in emergency depositories outside Cologne, although some of the archives were destroyed in the bombing. The collection of the Museum of Prehistory and Early History suffered heavy losses.
After the war, the return of the evacuated museum collections was organised by Fritz Fremersdorf (1894-1983), the first director of the Romano-Germanic Museum, which had already been founded in October 1946. Its location to the south of the cathedral was determined by that of the world-famous Dionysos mosaic, discovered there in 1941 during the construction of an air-raid shelter. Until the opening of the new building on March 4, 1974, the museum’s sizable collections were displayed in temporary exhibition rooms.
The oldest finds in the museum relate to the hunter-gatherers who roamed throughout the Rhineland in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic eras. In the 6th millennium BC, people settled in villages and lived in large byre-dwellings. The discovery of the Linear-Pottery-Culture settlement in Cologne-Lindenthal was a milestone in Neolithic research in Europe. Stone tools, weapons and hand-made pottery vessels reflect the daily life of these people who lived almost 8,000 year ago.
Finds from burials and settlements of the pre-Roman Bronze and Iron Ages reflect subsequent agricultural societies in the Rhineland. In the last millennium BCE, the Rhineland was settled by Celtic and Germanic tribes who buried their dead under grave mounds, accompanied by pottery vessels and stone and metal objects for their journey to the after-world.
The main emphasis of the museum is on the evidence of the Roman history of Cologne, which lasted almost five hundred years. A miniature bust of the Emperor Augustus, made of black glass with a turquoise-green coating, is a reminder of the founder of the city. Both the world-famous Dionysos Mosaic, dating to the 3rd century CE, and the 15-metre-high monument to the veteran legionary Lucius Poblicius from the 1st century CE can be admired − day and night − from outside the museum through the large panorama window.
Significant reminders of the city’s history include the massive stone arch from the northern gate that bears the city’s initials CCAA (Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium).
The Romano-Germanic Museum also has the worldwide largest collection of Roman glass from the 1st to 4th centuries: worth particular mention here are the large number of luxurious Roman glass vessels, such as the mould-blown figurative flasks, the ‘snake-thread’ vessels, cut glass and, of course, the spectacular cage cup. Roman goldsmiths and stonemasons also created magnificent objects, valuable amber miniatures for example.
Lavish wall paintings and costly mosaics, such as the well-known Philosophers Mosaic, furnished elegant town houses that also contained objects made by Cologne potters: for example, the hunting goblets that were traded as far afield as England.
The youngest finds in the Romano-Germanic Museum date to the Merovingian period (5th-7th centuries). Frankish burials of the urban inhabitants and the village communities around Cologne often contained numerous grave goods intended for use in the life in the hereafter. These grave goods are evidence of early medieval cultural history.
These objects from the Romano-Germanic Museum are part of one of the richest ancient European collections. The Romano-Germanic Museum, in its role as protector of historical monuments, is also responsible for more than a hundred archaeological remains spread across the city.
In 58 BCE, when advancing his campaign through Gaul – a region that currently encompasses parts of Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy – the Roman emperor Julius Caesar came across tribes of ways of life, languages, military strategies and social hierarchies. totally different and less developed than the Roman ones. The beautiful River Rhine, known today for its majestic medieval castles and delicious wines, was the stage and physical barrier for this cultural clash. However, not even the imposing Rhine River was able to stop the advance of the Romans.
The Battle of Teutoburg, in northern Germany, is the episode where this story takes a turn, with the defeat of the Romans by the Germans. The influence of the Roman presence in Germanic lands is still felt today, in some regions more than in others, and the connection between the two cultures is essential for understanding the formation of Germany and the various kingdoms in Europe throughout the Middle Ages.
Photo-α: Römisch-Germanisches Museum
Further information at: RoemischGermanischesMuseum.de | Museenkoeln.de/RomanoGermanicMuseum | wiki.org/RomanoGermanicMuseum
“In the year 7 CE, Publius Quintílio Varus, married to Vipsânia Marcela, daughter of Marco Vipsânio Agripa, was appointed governor of Germania.
A large part of Germania (up to the Elbe River) was occupied, relatively pacified and subjected, by three Roman legions: Legio XVII, Legio XVIII and Legio XIX.”
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