Research on the period of secularisation in Germany

Research on the period of secularisation in Germany

This ongoing project is dedicated to researching acquisitions made by the institutions that preceded the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen during the period of secularisation and the redrawing of territorial boundaries that took place between 1802 and 1816. The project has initially focussed on the region of Franconia (Franken), but will gradually extend to acquisitions from other regions within the present-day borders of the state as well as areas that previously belonged to Bavaria. The widespread belief that ‘everything went to Munich’ is certainly not true as various regional collections continued as branches of the Bavarian museums under the electors of the Holy Roman Empire and later the royal family. A secondary aim of the project is to apply scientific precision and objectivity to the typically undifferentiated portrayal of this topic.