Looking to the East

During the past 30 years, cultural historian Johannes Kalter has succeeded at enriching the collections of Germany's Linden Museum with a number of art objects from the Islamic world. Abdul-Ahmad Rashid portrays Kalter and his work.

During the past 30 years, cultural historian Johannes Kalter has succeeded at enriching the collections of Stuttgart’s Linden Museum with a number of art objects from the Islamic world. In a series of exhibitions there, Kalter has explored the diverse ways of life found in the oriental world. Abdul-Ahmad Rashid presents a portrait of the art collector.

photo: Linden Museum, Stuttgart, Germany
Johannes Kalter

​​Professor Dr. Johannes Kalter has been devoting his attention to Islam and the oriental world for several decades. He discovered his interest in this foreign culture quite by accident - while on a study visit to Mombasa, where he was intrigued by the ruined houses of the Muslim merchants, the Friday mosques and the baths.

Africa as turning point

Fascinated by these impressions, Kalter returned to Germany, where a new job awaited him. The director of the Linden Museum in Stuttgart at the time, Friedrich Kussmaul, offered him the opportunity to set up an Oriental department to organize and supplement the museum’s rather haphazard collections.

This marked the beginning of Johannes Kalter’s intensive studies of the Isamic Orient. He first delved into the existing literature on the subject, and then visited ethnological museums and exhibitions of Islamic art in Germany and Europe, as well as auditing courses at the University of Tübingen.

photo: Museum Linden Stuttgart
Exhibition: 'The Long Journey of the Turks'

​​At the end of the seventies Kalter then journeyed to Afghanistan in order to purchase new pieces for the museum. These works would form the cornerstone of the Linden Museum’s unrivalled collection of Afghan art. This achievement is all the more significant since today the works formally housed at the National Museum in Kabul have been lost.

No protection against counterfeits

In the following years, Kalter traveled to other Islamic countries in order to make carefully chosen additions to the museum’s collections. Morocco, Pakistan, Syria, Palestine and Turkey were all on his list. The cultural historian admits that during this time he sometimes had to acquire his expertise the hard way:

"If you ask me, a museum curator who claims that he never once purchased a counterfeit piece is either still in the dark or lying. But who doesn’t make a mistake at some point in his career?"

Kalter never regretted transporting the foreign treasures to Stuttgart. He has neither a guilty conscience nor any reservations, quite the contrary:

"It would never occur to anyone to demand that all Picassos be returned to the Basque region or that all Breughels must remain in Amsterdam, just because Picasso was of Basque origin and Breughel was a Dutchman from Amsterdam. Everyone realizes that these objects are distributed all over the world and the only thing that’s important is to know where to find them. And I think that non-European art has earned the same kind of respect, so people realize that the important thing is that it is accessible to the public, it is documented and it is preserved for posterity."

Through the years the Linden Museum’s collection grew from 1,000 objects to now more than 16,000. Among these are valuable editions of the Koran, volumes of medieval poetry, and also objects of daily use such as pitchers and vases, along with precious jewelry.

Plurality rather than a monolithic approach

photo: Museum Linden Stuttgart
Exhibition: 'The Long Journey of the Turks'

​​These foreign treasures are displayed in a permanent exhibition, which is continually updated. The exhibition is based on the concept of depicting all aspects of the Islamic religion rather than treating it as a monolithic block. New pieces are added from time to time as the result of collecting and documentation trips.

Yet for Johannes Kalter it’s not only a matter of collecting and exhibiting. He wants people in the West to be able to experience and empathize with the foreign world of the Orient. To encourage this, the highlight of the exhibition is a recreated bazaar, where visitors feel like they have suddenly entered the Suq in Damascus or the bazaar of Kabul:

"One can pique people’s curiosity with objects, but for me objects are merely a way of conveying an impression, of enticing people to come to terms with a world that is supposedly foreign to them."

Conveying a positive image of the Orient

Part of this approach also entails that the professor from Mannheim be there in person to guide visitors through the exhibitions:

"For example, I once put on an exhibition called 'The Long Journey of the Turks,' showing Turkish cultural history from its beginnings as revealed in surviving objects to the Turks living today in Kreuzberg in Berlin. On some Sundays I did four tours because I noticed that there was an incredible amount of interest in the show, and the most encouraging thing for me was that this was the first exhibition where there were almost as many Turkish visitors as Germans."

The number of visitors has swelled especially since September 11, 2001, according to Kalter. But most visitors’ motivation for seeing the exhibition is their fear of the Islamic threat.

This is why, as an expert on the subject, Kalter is now making an effort even after retiring from his post to continue to give lectures and write scholarly articles that counter these fears with a more positive image of the Orient.

Abdul-Ahmad Rashid, © Qantara.de 2004

Translation from German: Jennifer Taylor-Gaida