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?

• “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/.

• (with Isabelle Dolezalek) “Wikingergold. Der Hiddenseer Goldschmuck im Kontext der Rezeption wikingerzeitlicher Schatzfunde im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert,” international conference Reflektiertes Mittelalter. Formen und Funktionen der Mittelalterrezeption, University of Greifswald, July 7-9, 2022.