On 7 October 2025 at 4:00 p.m., the exhibition “Questioning Objects – Finding Answers” will open at the Kommandantenhaus at the Spandau Citadel. A highlight of the opening event will be the restitution of two valuable 17th-century celestial globes to St. Nikolai Church in Spandau. The exhibition focuses on the provenance research conducted at the City History Museum Spandau, addressing questions about the origins of museum objects, the paths they have taken, and the stories they tell. How answers to these questions lead to new insights is demonstrated through selected examples.
Thanks to the research carried out by provenance researcher Friederike Klose, the origins of the two rare celestial globes were conclusively clarified. The handover will be made by Dr. Ralf Hartmann, Head of the Department of Cultural Affairs, to Sabine Müller (Director of Spandovia Sacra – Museum of St. Nikolai), who will accept the objects on behalf of the church. Until the celestial globes are displayed in an exhibition at the Nikolaikirche Museum, they will remain publicly accessible as part of the exhibition “Questioning Objects – Finding Answers” until 12 April 2026.
In addition to this restitution, the exhibition highlights further compelling cases:
Objects from the household of Ernst Hammler (former director of the Deutsche Industriewerke in Spandau), for which it could be proven that they were forcibly sold by their previous owners during the Nazi era.
The enigmatic “Eagle of the Adlerapotheke,” a long-term loan to the Spandau Citadel, in which provenance research took unexpected turns following a surprising observation: why does the eagle now wear a black crown instead of a yellow one?
Through these and other examples, the exhibition demonstrates that the interpretation of objects changes once new questions are asked—and that provenance research not only entails responsibility, but also curiosity, discovery, and the search for truth.
