The Reiss Engelhorn Museum, or (rem for short), is a museum in
Mannheim,
Germany. It has an exhibition area of , and houses around 1.2 million objects.
Facilities and collection
The Reiss-Engelhorn-Museum is one of the major museums in Mannheim and comprises four exhibition halls presenting exhibits in archaeology, world cultures, history of art and culture, photography and history of theater and music.
The main facility is the Zeughaus Museum, which features exhibit areas for art, decorative art and cultural history, theater, literature and antiquities. The International Photography Forum, located on the fourth floor, displays photographs from the permanent collections ranging from 19th century to contemporary works and presents exhibitions.
The World Cultures Museum features displays of archaeology from the Metal Ages up through the Roman era, as well as medieval Germany, and ancient Egyptian art and culture.
The Bassermannhaus Museum of Music and Fine Arts features a large collection of musical instruments from around the world.
The Schillerhaus Museum is an 18th-century house that presents the life of
Friedrich Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friendsh ...
.
Wikimedia lawsuit
In 2015, the museum filed a lawsuit against the
Wikimedia Foundation
The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., or Wikimedia for short and abbreviated as WMF, is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California and registered as a charitable foundation under local laws. Best know ...
and
Wikimedia Deutschland
Wikimedia chapters are national or sub-national not-for-profit organizations created to promote the interests of Wikimedia projects locally. Chapters are legally independent of the Wikimedia Foundation
The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., or ...
over the use of photographs of
public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...
artworks on the
Wikimedia project
The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., or Wikimedia for short and abbreviated as WMF, is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California and registered as a charitable foundation under local laws. Best k ...
s.
In June 2016, a Berlin court (
Landgericht Berlin) ruled that digitizing paintings that are in the public domain creates new copyrights, even if the intent is to create a faithful image of the public domain work. The lawsuit was dismissed with respect to Wikimedia Deutschland on the basis that it was not responsible for the files which are managed in the U.S. by the Wikimedia Foundation, which latter organization expressed the intent to appeal the decision.
In a related case, in May 2017, the
Oberlandesgericht
An ''Oberlandesgericht'' (plural – ''Oberlandesgerichte''; OLG, en, Higher Regional Court, or in Berlin ''Kammergericht'': KG) is a higher court in Germany.
There are 24 OLGs in Germany and they deal with civil and criminal matters. They ar ...
of
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the Swa ...
ruled with reference to the concept of
property
Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...
(''Sacheigentum'').
Property
Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...
is addressed by
article 14 of the
German constitution
The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland) is the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The West German Constitution was approved in Bonn on 8 May 1949 and came in ...
. The Stuttgart court ruled that under German law already skill and effort restricts a photo under rules for 50 years, even though no creativity is involved and thus the more elaborate restrictions of a Lichtbildwerk do not apply (70 years pma). The court has allowed an appeal to the
Federal Court of Justice
The Federal Court of Justice (german: Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) is the highest court in the system of ordinary jurisdiction (''ordentliche Gerichtsbarkeit'') in Germany, founded in 1950. It has its seat in Karlsruhe with two panels being situ ...
(Bundesgerichtshof).
On December 20, 2018, the court decided in favour of the museum.
See also
*
National Portrait Gallery and Wikimedia Foundation copyright dispute
References
External links
*
{{authority control
Museums in Baden-Württemberg
Buildings and structures in Mannheim
Tourist attractions in Mannheim
Art museums and galleries in Baden-Württemberg
Photography museums and galleries in Germany
Archaeological museums in Germany
Engelhorn family