News: Good news for the German Poster Museum in Essen, Germany
August 25, 2006, from Rene Grohnert, director of the museum

Rene Grohnert browsing through posters in a folder

The Deutsches Plakat Museum with it's more than 340'000 posters is currently housed in spacious but temporary quarters in an old building previously used as administration building for a coal mine that was closed in 1986, and is now a UNESCO World Cultural Monument. The poster museum is part of the renowned Museum Folkwang in Essen, which collects 19th and 20th century art. Like all museums, it is in dire need of space, and was therefore overjoyed at the news that the Krupp Foundation will pay the whole bill of 55 Million Euro for an entirely new museum, including space for the Deutsches Plakat Museum. Opening is planned for 2010. The museum keeps the posters in folders to protect them from damage when taking the posters out of the drawers. Rene Grohnert, head of the poster collection, showed me a trick how to easily browse through the folders: Place a heavy metal bar on one side of the folder, which can then be opened like a book. From the weight and shape of the bars, and now beeing aware of his generous support, I am sure they are surplus gold bars, but Rene disputes this. Anyway, it is a good idea, no matter what material you have on hand.