Foundation
The Hermann von Helmholtz Zentrum für Kulturtechnik known in short as the ‘Zentrum für Kulturtechnik’ (ZfK), was founded in 1999 as the first interdisciplinary centre at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. At the time of its foundation, the ZfK comprised three departments: the DFG project ‘Bild Schrift Zahl’, the working group ‘Das Technische Bild’ and a project on the cataloguing of academic collections.
A particular focus was on communicating research findings to a non-academic public through exhibitions and lectures. This was achieved in particular through the exhibition series ‘Auf dem Weg zum Humboldt Forum’, the exhibition ‘Theatrum naturae et artis. Wunderkammern des Wissens’ at the Martin Gropius Bau, and the regular Helmholtz Lectures.
The founding members of the Zentrum für Kulturtechnik were:
- Prof. Dr Horst Bredekamp, Department of Art History (HU)
- Prof. Dr Jochen Brüning, Department of Mathematics (HU)
- Prof. Dr Wolfgang Coy, Department of Mathematics (HU)
- Prof. Dr Friedrich Kittler, Department of Aesthetics (HU)
- Prof. Dr Sybille Krämer, Department of Philosophy (FU)
- Prof. Dr Bernd Mahr, Institute for Telecommunications Systems (TU)
- Prof. Dr Thomas Macho, Department of Cultural Studies (HU)
- Prof. Dr Horst Wenzel, Department of German Literature (HU)
Continuation & Relocation
In 2012, the Zentrum für Kulturtechnik was established as a Zentralinstitut of the HU. As a Zentralinstitut, it has since been engaged in project-based multidisciplinary research, interdisciplinary teaching and the development of teaching programmes. Drawing on a unique infrastructure, the Zentrum has since been linking historical and future-oriented perspectives at the level of practices, materials and objects relating to collecting, research and design. It makes its findings accessible through university teaching, conferences, publications, exhibitions and public events. For example, between 2012 and 2020, the interdisciplinary study programme ‘Vielfalt der Wissensformen’ was based at the Zentrum für Kulturtechnik and was open to students from all disciplines. The aim of the programme was to bring the history of knowledge (and science) to life through specific objects and to practise interdisciplinarity in practice.
Since 2019, the Zentrum für Kulturtechnik has been based in the Gerlach and Wolff buildings on the Historic Campus Nord in the Mitte district, right next to the Tieranatomisches Theater.
Our logo
The logo of the Zentrum für Kulturtechnik combines three elements: aesthetically and visually based on Latin letters, it can be read as an abbreviation for ‘Zentrum für Kulturtechnik’. In fact, however, the characters are taken from what is known as Unicode – that is, the paradoxical attempt to unite the diversity of the world’s more than 110,000 scripts into a single code, without thereby forming a semantic unity. The logo explores the interplay between material- and collection-based research and the ‘Third Mission’: the exchange of knowledge with society and public engagement as the third pillar of the university.
Reorientation & Open Humboldt
Under the leadership of Director Sharon Macdonald and Deputy Director Daniel Tyradellis, the Zentrum für Kulturtechnik has, since 2021, expanded its remit to include social anthropological perspectives as well as research into the theory and practice of curating.
With the establishment of the HU-wide Office for Public Engagement and Knowledge Exchange with Society the Zentrum has, since 2024, been increasingly dedicated to engaging with stakeholders outside the university and communicating research to a wider public in line with the Humboldt-Universität’s Third Mission (Open Humboldt). The Zentrum’s work can thus be divided into three main areas: Knowledge & Society, Exhibitions and Collections.
Since 2025, the short title ‘Zentrum für Kulturtechnik’ (ZfK) and a new logo have been in use.
History of the building
The Zentrum für Kulturtechnik is based on the Historic Campus Nord of Humboldt-Universität. The Campus Nord is situated in the Mitte district, somewhat tucked away between Invalidenstraße and Luisenstraße. The Royal School of Veterinary Medicine was established in the park-like heart of the campus at the end of the 18th century. Today, researchers from Humboldt University conduct research and teach here in collaboration with other renowned Berlin academic institutions in the field of life sciences, as well as with the Humboldt Graduate School.
The Zentrum für Kulturtechnik is based in Building 3, which comprises a total of three sections of the building dating from different periods: the Tieranatomisches Theater, the Gerlach Building and the Wolff Building.
Tieranatomisches Theater
The Tieranatomisches Theater, also known colloquially as the ‘Trichinen Tempel’, was built by Carl Gotthard Langhans in 1789/90 at the behest of King Friedrich Wilhelm II. It is the oldest surviving academic teaching building in Berlin and housed Prussia’s first school of veterinary medicine. The building is modelled on an Italian Renaissance villa in Vicenza and an anatomical theatre in Padua. The first floor housed the lecture theatre, the library, the instrument cabinet, the horseshoe collection and the gallery of specimens and skeletons. The basement contained the practical anatomy rooms, the anatomical kitchen and the dissection rooms. Anatomy lessons and surgical exercises took place in the rooms on the first floor, whilst the preparation of the (horse) carcasses was carried out in rooms in the basement. For demonstrations, the prepared carcasses were transported via a lifting table into the ‘Anatomisches Theater’ above.
From 1840 onwards, several alterations were carried out on the building with the aim of creating more space for research. From 1934 onwards, the first floor housed not only the lecture theatre but also the offices of the institute’s management, the laboratories, the collection and the library. The basement housed the flat for the institute’s assistant, a dairy science laboratory, technical rooms and rooms for laboratory animals. Over a number of years from 2005 onwards, the façades and roof were restored. This was followed by a comprehensive refurbishment of the building’s interior between 2009 and 2012. Since then, the building has been operated as an exhibition and events venue by the Zentrum für Kulturtechnik.
The Gerlach Building
In 1870, Andreas Christian Gerlach (1811–1877) was appointed scientific and administrative director of the School of Veterinary Medicine. At his insistence, the Tieranatomische Theater was extended with an annexe connected to it by a bridge. The design for the 1873 extension was by Julius Emmerich (1834–1917). The extension was conceived as an autopsy building and also housed the collection of animal specimens on the first floor. In 1889–90, the collection rooms were converted into an experimental lecture theatre. Between 1934 and 1936, the lecture theatre was redesigned as a classroom.
The Wolff Building
In 1935, the architect Walter Wolff added a front wing to the Gerlach Building on the west side. The driving force behind this extension was Martin Lerche (1892–1980), the full professor at the Institute of Food Science, which was henceforth based in the building. The extension housed a slaughterhouse for demonstrations in the field of meat inspection and analysis. During the Second World War, the entire building complex was damaged but survived. After the war, it served as a training centre for veterinary surgeons and was the temporary home of the food hygiene specialists, hygiene specialists and the animal disease therapy department. In 1992, pursuant to the Merger Act, the Berlin Senate decided to transfer the Department of Veterinary Medicine to the Freie Universität Berlin. The Institute for Meat Hygiene and Technology subsequently used the lecture theatre, the historic library and the laboratories in the basement, before the building stood vacant for a period.
In 2005, the renovation of the building complex began, made possible with the support of numerous partners, including the Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz, the Treuhandstiftung-Stiftung Anatomisches Theater, the Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung und Wohnen, the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung and the Stiftung Humboldt-Universität. A new operational concept has been developed since 2014 in collaboration with Humboldt-Universität’s Technical Division, the architects Müller-Reimann and Franke-Steinert, and the foundations involved in the renovation of the buildings. With the Zentrum für Kulturtechnik moving in in February 2019, pioneering new infrastructure for interdisciplinary projects in object- and material-centred research was finally established.
