Ralph Röber of the Westphalian Archaeological Museum in Münster did not have high hopes for the job in Konstanz. Finally, there was the main wall. Those who applied for permanent positions in one direction or another usually got nothing. When the unexpected confirmation came over the phone from Baden-Württemberg, he immediately called his wife Monika. Her reaction to the good news: “Oh, you…”
Both archaeologists had applied to the job posting on the right. | Image: ALM
A story of missed opportunities
The fact that the center of archaeological preservation of Baden-Württemberg’s past is now located on the western side of Lake Constance is primarily a story of lack of opportunity. Initially, the city of Konstanz, which had big plans for the former Benedictine monastery in Petershausen in the late 1980s, but later chose to give two wings of the complex to the country for a supposed branch of the museum due to lack of money.
And finally, the state itself, which for many years did not find a suitable plot for a new building in Stuttgart, and finally gave the residents of Konstanz what they had the right to in 2010 – the status of the main residence.
But back to 1991, when medieval expert Ralph Röber moved to Konstanz with his wife. And where Barbara Theune-Großkopf and her husband arrived at Lake Constance. The scholar, who specializes in the early Middle Ages, came from a temporary position at the Romano-Germanic Central Museum in Mainz.
She had applied to the same advertisement in the newspaper as her future colleague regarding the “construction of the State Archaeological Museum with a branch in Constanta”. The two had their first day on the job on July 1, and Röber still shakes his head at the thought: “It was shocking!
in 1993 picture of the extended museum team. Barbara Theune-Großkopf (left) and Ralph Röber (third from left) sit with their colleagues in a replica of an excavated canoe at the entrance to the museum. | Image: ALM
Barbara Theune-Großkopf and Ralph Röber 29 years later in the same place where they sat with the whole troupe in 1993. The Menhir of Tübingen-Weilheim is on display here today. | Photo: Sven Frommhold
The first two employees of today’s State Archaeological Museum (ALM) did not have proper offices, let alone the necessary equipment. The phones were on the floor. There were no doors or furniture. The actual museum, whose first director, who was also the president of the State Monuments Office, was in Stuttgart, was still empty. That is why Barbara Theune-Großkopf and Ralph Röber initially sat on people’s knees in the Konstanz branch of the state office. And pulled the strings from there.
Theune-Bighead’s first assignment had as much to do with her specialty as it did with the extinction of the dinosaurs. “I was given the task of furnishing all the rooms in the administration wing – really typical work for an archaeologist…” The contract was worth 40,000 marks, and it gave the Hessian many restless hours. What if something didn’t work as planned? What if they were sued for it?
ALM brings the past to the future
Functional and sturdy office furniture in a functionally simple white gray color is still used today. Theune-Großkopf not only mastered this task, but was also to shine in his field in the following decades – for example, with his concept of museum education, which…
