Charlotte Wenke

Gold Treasures as Objects of Identification in the Baltic Sea Region from 1800 until Today

The PhD project investigates the reception of Viking Age gold treasure finds in the Baltic Sea Region during the 19th and 20th centuries. Their discovery, their way into museums and collections, their presentation there, as well as their research and popularisation allow conclusions to be drawn about processes of identification with and demarcation from early medieval Scandinavian culture that took place around the Baltic Sea during this period. One thematic area, for example, deals with the staging of Viking treasure finds at the time of the founding of national museums in the 19th century. Another area asks about the role of ‘Viking gold’ in National Socialism and in the large-scale translocations of art and cultural property as a result of the Second World War. How were the gold finds of Scandinavian origin scattered throughout the Baltic Sea Region received and interpreted in times of East-West conflict until 1989? What are the historical roots of the instrumentalisation of so-called ‘Viking’ culture in global (right-wing) populist discourses?

• (with Isabelle Dolezalek) Viking Gold. Treasure Politics since 1800 [digital exhibition]. Interdisciplinary Centre for Baltic Sea Region Research (IFZO), University of Greifswald, in cooperation with Stralsund Museum, 2024, https://vikinggold.org/en/.
• “Auch ein ‘Schatz’? Die Nachbildungen des Goldschmucks von Hiddensee durch den Juwelier Paul Telge um 1900,” Stralsunder Hefte für Geschichte, Kultur und Alltag (September 2022): 59-65.
• “VÍKINGR. Historisches Museum Oslo, seit 05. April 2019” [exhibition review], medievalist teaching project Mittelalterliche Kunst im digitalen Raum, Caspar-David-Friedrich-Institute, winter 2020/21,  phil.uni-greifswald.de/maz/mediaevistische-lehrprojekte-neu/.

• “Stained with Blood? Viking Age Gold Treasure Finds as Witnesses of Violence in Museum Settings of the 19th and Early 20th Centuries,” International Congress on the Study of the Middle Ages, Leeds, July 1-4, 2024.
• (with Isabelle Dolezalek) “Wikingergold – Schatzfunde als translokales Erbe,” Regional Conference of the State Office for Archaeology and Monument Preservation [Landesamt für Archäologie und Denkmalpflege Mecklenburg-Vorpommern], Stralsund, April 20, 2024.
• Participation in the Spring School Zwischen Rezeption und Remake. Das Mittelalter im 19. Jahrhundert, organised by the Akademiezentrum für Mittelalter und Frühe Neuzeit, Mainz and Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi, Freiburg, University of Freiburg, February 19-23, 2024.
• Participation in the international summer school Kulturerbe im Transit – Herausforderungen der Begriffsbestimmungen und der normativen Umsetzung, Bibracte, September 4-9, 2023.
• “Im Dienst der ‘Wissenschaft des Spatens.’ Paul Telges galvanoplastische Nachbildungen des Hiddenseer Goldschmucks für Museen und Lehre,” interdisciplinary conference on the special exhibition Elektrisierend! Galvanoplastische Nachbildungen von Goldschmiedewerken, Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin, Schloss Köpenick, June 16, 2023.
• “‘Für die Ehre der Nation’ – Die Aufnahme des Hoenschatzes in die Altertümersammlung des jungen norwegischen Staates 1835/36,” presentation in the seminar (B.A.) Literatur und Kultur im Alten Island, Josef Juergens M.A., Department of Finnish and Scandinavian Studies, University of Greifswald, January 11, 2023.
• “Der Schatz von Hoen in seiner Ausstellung von 1836 bis etwa 1999,” presentation in the seminar (B.A./M.A.) Wikinger im Museum. Museale Präsentationen skandinavischer Kunst des 9.–11. Jahrhunderts, Prof. Dr Isabelle Dolezalek, Caspar-David-Friedrich-Institute, Greifswald, December 15, 2022.
• “Wikingergold. Der Hiddenseer Goldschmuck im Kontext der Rezeption wikingerzeitlicher Schatzfunde im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert” (with Isabelle Dolezalek), international conference Reflektiertes Mittelalter. Formen und Funktionen der Mittelalterrezeption, University of Greifswald, July 7-9, 2022.
• “Viking Gold. Treasure Finds as Translocal Heritage,” project presentation at the Mare-Pomerania-Confinium International PhD Workshop, International Center for Interdisciplinary Research, Department of History at the University of Greifswald, Interdisciplinary Centre for Baltic Sea Region Research (IFZO) at the University of Greifswald, Kulice, January 25-26, 2022.