Network Meeting

he first major network meeting for the establishment of an Industrial Heritage Region of Northern Bavaria took place on 30 January 2023 at the Museum Industriekultur in Nuremberg. Museums, tourism associations and representatives of the administrative districts of Upper, Middle and Lower Franconia and the Upper Palatinate were invited. More than 40 participants accepted the invitation to "network" in Nuremberg.

The event was the first after the adoption of the Thurnau Declaration for the establishment of an Industrial Heritage Region of Northern Bavaria on 7 October 2022 at the Institute for Franconian Regional History of the Universities of Bamberg and Bayreuth. 

From left: Dr. Marcus Mühlnikel and Simon Schütz present the workshops, Prof. Dr. Günter Dippold , District Curator of Upper Franconia, with Nuremberg's Mayor of Culture Prof. Dr. Julia Lehner, Prof. Dr. Martin Ott, Director of the Institute of Franconian Regional History.  

With the "tailwind" generated by the many supporters, it is now time to put the associated plans into practice, said Nuremberg Mayor Prof. Dr. Julia Lehner. In four contributions, the first task was to present the genesis of the project to date (Monika Dreykorn), to highlight the potentials of the Industrial Heritage Region of Northern Bavaria for the museum landscape (Stefan Kley), to outline the connecting elements of the region from a regional historical perspective (Martin Ott) and to address the further concrete steps (Christiane Müller).

According to the participants, the potentials for the museum landscape in Northern Bavaria are above all the cooperation between the museums, the coordination of museum collections and joint mediation and marketing concepts.

They build on connecting elements such as the shared experiences of the industrial boom and structural change among the people in the region. Industrial culture is a strong link in this very heterogeneous region.

In Nuremberg, there was ample opportunity to talk to each other: In four workshops on the topics of museums and exhibitions, pedagogical work and adult education, tourism and knowledge transfer (university-museum), the participants exchanged their experiences from their own work and their expectations of an industrial culture network.

Together, the actors are now working towards the founding of an association for industrial culture in northern Bavaria and are developing concepts that are eligible for funding and will be presented to the Bavarian "Heimat"-Ministry.