Starting in autumn 2024, the exhibition can be experienced both online and on tour at various museums in the Baltic Sea region. We aim to show the role that Viking-age gold treasures play as cultural heritage in people’s everyday lives, and the extent to which cultural heritage was – and still is – intertwined with politics: interpretations of the past are always shaped by their historical context.
Isabelle Dolezalek, Charlotte Wenke
Exhibition curators
The “Viking Gold” project
The digital exhibition presents the results of a joint project between the Stralsund Museum and the Interdisciplinary Centre for Baltic Sea Region Research at Greifswald University (“Fragmented transformations”, sub-project “Viking Gold: Treasure Finds as Translocal Heritage”, 2021–25), led by Professor Isabelle Dolezalek.
The project focuses on the discovery, reception, and museum display of early medieval gold hoards in the Baltic Sea region from the 19th century to the present day. Research results are to be made available in academic publications and a number of outreach formats, such as a digital exhibition and a touring exhibition, posters around the city, and educational materials for schools.
One of the project’s aims is to examine the historical roots of modern appropriations of so-called Viking culture in global (right-wing) populist discourse.
Additional Information:
Viking Gold – Treasure Finds as Translocal Heritage
The project was funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research (project nr. 01UC2102).
Select references
The bulk of the research findings presented in the exhibition was taken from a PhD thesis written as part of the project “Viking Gold: Treasure Finds as Translocal Heritage” (2021–25):
Wenke, Charlotte: Viking-age gold treasure finds as objects of identification in the Baltic Sea Region c. 1800–1989 (working title).
Chapter 1: Who wears Viking gold?
Birkett, Tom/Dale, Roderick (eds): The Vikings reimagined. Reception, recovery, engagement, (The Northern Medieval World), Berlin/Boston 2019.
Nagel, Torsten/Speit, Andreas (eds): Odin mit uns. Ahnenkult und Rechtsextremismus, Kiel 2022.
Wenke, Charlotte: Auch ein ‘Schatz‘? Die Nachbildungen des Goldschmucks von Hiddensee durch den Juwelier Paul Telge um 1900, in: Stralsunder Hefte für Geschichte, Kultur und Alltag, September 2022, 59–65.
Wenke, Charlotte: Im Dienst der ‚Wissenschaft des Spatens‘. Paul Telges galvanoplastische Nachbildungen des Hiddenseer Goldschmucks für Museen und Lehre, in: Bornkessel, Wibke/Kanowski, Claudia/Lambacher, Lothar (eds): „Elektrisierend! Galvanoplastische Nachbildungen von Goldschmiedekunst“, Berlin, Schloss Köpenick, 2023, forthcoming.
Chapter 2: Gold in the Viking Age
Armbruster, Barbara/Eilbracht, Heidemarie: Wikingergold auf Hiddensee, (Archäologie in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 6), Rostock 2010.
Fuglesang, Signe Horn: The Hoen Hoard. A Viking gold treasure of the ninth century, Rome 2006.
Gruszczynski, Jacek: Viking Silver, Hoards and Containers. The Archaeological and Historical Context of Viking-Age Silver Coin Deposits in the Baltic c. 800–1050, London 2019.
Roesdahl, Else: Magtsymboler. Harald Blåtands Rovfuglesmykker, in: Glimt fra Vikingetiden, hrsg. v. Danske Amatørarkeologer, Værløse 2020, 212–218.
Wendt, Antje: Viking Age Gold Rings and the Question of ‚Gefolgschaft‘, in: Lund Archaeological Review 2007- 2008, Kävlinge 2008, 75–90.
Wicker, Nancy: Mapping Gold in Motion. Women and Jewelry from Early Medieval Scandinavia, Leiden 2019.
Chapter 3: Hoards as cultural heritage
Grieg, Sigurd: Da staten innløste Hon-skatten i 1834, in: Viking. Tidsskrift for norrøn arkeologi 32, Oslo 1968, 111–130.
Hårdh, Birgitta: Silver in the Viking Age. A regional-economic study, (Acta archaeologica Lundensia 25), Stockholm 1996.
Skovmand, Roar: De danske skattefund fra vikingtiden indtil omkr. 1150, (Aarbøger for nordisk oldkyndighed og historie), Copenhagen 1942.
Schück, Henrik: Kgl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien. Dess Förhistoria och Historia 3. Antikvitetskollegiet 2, Stockholm 1933.
Boyd, Andrew/Dörk, Marian/Pomerance, Jona: I want a Better Catastrophe. A flowchart for navigating our climate predicament. <https://flowchart.bettercatastrophe.com; 17.08.2024>
Chapter 4: Whose gold is it?
Swenson, Astrid: The rise of heritage. Preserving the past in France, Germany and England, 1789-1914, Cambridge 2013.
Wenke, Charlotte: Viking Age Gold Treasure Finds as Objects of Identification in the Baltic Sea Region c. 1800-1989 (working title).
Wienberg, Jes: Vikings on the Western Frontier, in: Lars Larsson et al. (eds): Small Things, Wide Horizons. Studies in Honour of Birgitta Hårdh, Oxford 2015, 289–294.
Chapter 5: Treasures in wartime
Bertram, Marion/Eilbracht, Heidemarie: Der Goldarmring von Hiddensee, in: Acta praehistorica et archaeologica 46, 2014, 171–184.
Blindheim, Charlotte: De fem lange år på Universitetets Oldsaksamling, in: Viking. Tidsskrift for norrøn arkeologi 48, Oslo 1985, 27–43.
Schade, Günther: Kriegsbeute – oder „Weltschätze der Kunst, der Menschheit bewahrt“? Beschlagnahme deutscher Kulturgüter durch die Sowjetunion am Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs und ihre teilweise Rückkehr zwischen 1955 und 1958, in: Lehmann, Klaus-Dieter (Hrsg.): Jahrbuch Preußischer Kulturbesitz 41, Berlin 2005, 199–258.
Chapter 6: Exhibiting „Vikings“ after 1945
Muschik, Alexander: Rostocker Ostseewoche versus Kieler Woche. Die deutsch-deutsche Festwochenkonkurrenz um die Gunst der nordischen Länder, in: Zeitgeschichte regional 11, 2007, 71–78.
Pentz, Peter/Sørensen, Lasse/Varberg, Jeanette: Meet the Vikings: for real!, in: Antiquity 93, H. 369, 2019 , 1–5.
Sindbæk, Søren: ‘Meet the Vikings’—or meet halfway? The new Viking display at the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen, in: Antiquity 93, H. 367, 2019, 256–259.
Wenke, Charlotte: Viking Age Gold Treasure Finds as Objects of Identification in the Baltic Sea Region c. 1800-1989 (working title).
Image Credits
Landing Page
All images of coins from the Hoen Hoard:
© Kulturhistorisk Museum Oslo, CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0, photo: Kirsten Helgeland.
All images of other objects from the Hoen Hoard:
© Kulturhistorisk Museum Oslo, Foto: Kirsten Helgeland/Ove Holst/Eirik Irgens Johnsen, Public License CC-BY-SA 4.0.
All images of the components of the Hiddensee Hoard:
© LAKD M-V, Landesarchäologie, photo: Sabine Suhr.
Sketch of the snake pendant from the Hoen Hoard taken from: Oluf Rygh: Norske Oldsager (Vol. 1), Christiania 1885, unpaginated.
Sophia Schliemann (1852–1932) with Hiddensee Hoard © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, Inv.-no. F 8799.
Christian Anders Holmboe: En mærkværdig Samling af Smykker, Christiania 1835, Plate 1, Nationalbibliothek, Oslo, Public Domain.
Excavation of the Oseberg ship, 1904 © Kulturhistorisk Museum Oslo, photo: unknown, Public License: CC-BY-SA 4.0.
Pendant from the Hiddensee Hoard on a postage stamp in the series Archaeological finds of the GDR (1976) Design: Dietrich Dorfstecher, Herder-Institut Marburg, Archive, shelfmark: 100 Adler 45.
German occupying forces in Fagernes © Norges Hjemmefrontmuseum, shelfmark: NHM.750718.
View of the Exhibition at the 1973 Ostseewoche, inv. no. VIII-01-02-087 © Stadtarchiv Stralsund, photo: Harry Hardenberg.
Chapter 0: Treasure biographies
Hoen Hoard © Kulturhistorisk Museum Oslo, Signatur: Cf21967_A_C719-51, photo: Ove Holst, CC-BY-SA 4.0.
Christian Anders Holmboe: En mærkværdig Samling af Smykker, Christiania 1835, plate 1, Nasjonalbiblioteket, Oslo, Public Domain.
Hiddensee Hoard © LAKD M-V, Landesarchäologie, photo: Sabine Suhr.
Advertising for Paul Telge, 1882 © Stralsund Museum, photo: Charlotte Wenke.
The Viking Age hall in the Historical Museum Christiania (Oslo), 1904 © Oslo Museum of Cultural History, archive, neg. no. 424.
Contemporary replica of the Hiddensee Hoard, gilt casting © Goldschmiede Stabenow, photo: Carsten Stabenow.
Catalogue of the exhibition, Germany, Berlin 1936, Berlin State Library, photo: Charlotte Wenke.
German occupying troops in Fagernes © Norges Hjemmefrontmuseum, shelf mark: NHM.750718
Cover of the exhibition catalogue Art norvégien des Vikings au XVIIIe siècle, Brussels 1954 © Oslo Museum of Cultural History, archive, public domain.
View of the exhibition during the Ostseewoche 1973. Inv. no. VIII-01-02-087, photo: Harry Hardenberg, Stadtarchiv Stralsund.
Exhibition photo “30 Jahre Befreiung vom Faschismus” (30 years of liberation from fascism) © Stralsund Museum
Exhibition catalogue cover, The Vikings: a Publication of the British Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, ed. J. Graham-Campbell, London 1980 © The Trustees of the British Museum, photo: Eckart Pscheidl-Jeschke.
View of the exhibition From Viking to Crusader. The Scandinavians and Europe 800–1200, Berlin 1992, inv. no. N_010156_2 © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, photo: G. Stenzel.
The covers of the Danish and German editions of the exhibition catalogue, titled respectively Viking and Die Wikinger, ed. Gareth Williams, Peter Pentz, Matthias Wemhoff, Copenhagen and Munich, 2013 and 2014 © Hirmer Verlag and the National Museum of Denmark, photo: Eckart Pscheidl-Jeschke.
Display of the Hiddensee Hoard in Stralsund Museum 2018 © Stralsund Museum.
View of the Víkingr exhibition, 2019 to the present © Snøhetta/Oslo Museum for Cultural History, inv. no. 1902CH-SNO-KHM_0359.
Landing page of the digital exhibition “Viking Gold. Treasure Politics since 1800” © museeon.
Chapter 1: Who wears Viking gold?
Cross pendant, Hiddensee Hoard, inv. no. 1873:499c © LAKD-MV, photo: S. Suhr.
Disc brooch, Hiddensee Hoard, inv. no. A-1873-499b © LAKD-MV, photo: S. Suhr.
Reenactor and artist Tathariel with replica Hiddensee jewellery by Grzegorz Pilarczyk © Marita Tathariel, photo: Kristin Aastrup.
T-shirt by the brand Thor Steinar, 2023. Photo: Eckart Pscheidl-Jeschke.
Jewellery, 2022. Photo: Klara Fries.
Fictive portrait of Queen Tove (detail), 2018 © National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, inv. no. FOR-20220, photo: Jenny Sundby, public licence: CC-BY-SA 4.0.
„Heimatspiel“ according to „Germanic rites“ in Heiligengrabe (Mecklenburg) 1933 © ullstein bild – Richard Franke.
Reproduction of the Hiddensee Hoard dating from 1970, Stralsund Museum. © Stralsund Museum, photo: Katrin Kraus.
Emerik Stenberg: Portrait of Oscar Montelius, printed in the Swedish magazine Ord&Bild in 1913. Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Sophia Schliemann (1852–1932) wearing jewellery from Hiddensee © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, inv. no. F 8799.
Advertising for Paul Telge, 1882 © Stralsund Museum, photo: Charlotte Wenke.
Opera singer in Bayreuth, 1876 © Deutsches Theatermuseum Munich, inv. no. II 1298/13.
Group portrait, 1869 © Stadtmuseum Stockholm.
Chapter 2: Gold in the Viking Age
Gold fluvial pebbles (placer gold) © by James St. John (Washington State, USA) 4, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=39434070
Hiddensee Hoard © LAKD M-V, Landesarchäologie, photo: Sabine Suhr.
Hoen Hoard © Kulturhistorisk Museum Oslo, photo: Ove Holst, Licence CC-BY-SA 4.0.
Birka, grave 967, from: Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien Stockholm (ed.): Birka. Untersuchungen und Studien (vol. 1), Stockholm 1940, p. 393, sketch: H. Faith-Ell.
Gold dinar, Hoen Hoard © Kulturhistorisk Museum Oslo, photo: Kirsten Helgeland, Licence CC BY-NC-ND 3.0.
Parts of the Anklam hacksilver hoard, Pommersches Landesmuseum © LAKD M-V, Landesarchäologie, photo: Sabine Suhr.
Silver pendant in the Hiddensee style from Tolstrup, Denmark © National Museum of Copenhagen, photo: Søren Greve, license CC-BY-SA.
Armrings from Smørum, Denmark © National Museum of Copenhagen, photo: Lennart Larsen, image no. DO-13950, licence CC-BY-SA 4.0.
Disc brooch from Przytór, Poland, lost, from: Heinz Arno Knorr: “Hacksilberfunde im Weichsel- und Wartheraum. Ein Beitrag zu den dänisch-polnischen Beziehungen im 11. Jahrhundert”, in: Mannus 28, 1936, 200.
Chapter 4: Whose gold is it?
Pendant from the Hiddensee Hoard on a stamp from the series Archaeological Finds of the GDR (1976). Design: Dietrich Dorfstecher, Herder Institute Marburg, Archive, file number: 100 Adler 45.
Rane Willerslev, director of the Danish National Museum, exhibition catalogue „Join the Vikings – On Raid!“ (2021, transl. C. Wenke).
Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae: The Culture of the Danes in the Viking Age, Copenhagen 1873. Book cover: Bavarian State Library. Portrait: Royal Library, Copenhagen. Photo: Hansen & Weller, public license: CC0 1.0. public domain.
Oscar Montelius: On Life in Sweden in the Heathen Age, Stockholm 1873, cover of the Swedish first edition: Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Portrait: Royal Library, Stockholm, photo: J. Jaeger, public domain.
Peter Andreas Munch: The History of the Norwegian People, (Vol. 1.1), Christiania/Tønsberg 1852, cover of the Norwegian first edition: Bavarian State Library. Portrait: National Library, Oslo, photo: Olsen & Thomsen, public licence: CC0 1.0., public domain.
The Viking Age hall in the Historical Museum Christiania (Oslo), 1904, © Oslo Museum of Cultural History, archive, neg. no. 424.
Hiddensee Hoard © LAKD M-V, Landesarchäologie, photo: Sabine Suhr.
Cover of the catalogue of the Exhibition of Germany‘s Prehistoric and Anthropological Finds, Berlin 1880. Digital Library of the State of Berlin, public domain.
Catalogue of the exhibition, Germany, Berlin 1936, Berlin State Library, photo: Charlotte Wenke.
The Stralsunder Tageblatt no. 202 from 29 August 1936 reported on the selection of the Hiddensee Hoard for the Germany Exhibition © Stralsund Museum, photo: Charlotte Wenke.
Title page of Peter Paulsen: Der Goldschatz von Hiddensee, Leipzig 1936.
Contemporary replica of the Hiddensee Hoard, gilt casting © Goldschmiede Stabenow, photo: Carsten Stabenow.
Coaster, Stralsund Museum, Archive, photo: Charlotte Wenke.
Coffee set © Stralsund Museum, photo: Katrin Kraus.
Biscuit cutter, photo: Eckart Pscheidl-Jeschke.
Christian Anders Holmboe: En mærkværdig Samling af Smykker, Christiania 1835, panel 2 / page 7, National Library, Oslo, public domain.
Screenshot of the “Viking Cultural Route” from 26.03.2024 © Destination Viking Association.
Chapter 5: Treasures in wartime
Hoen Hoard © Kulturhistorisk Museum Oslo, photo: Ove Holst, CC-BY-SA 4.0, Cf21967_A_C719-51.
Portrait of Anton Wilhelm Brøgger, Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
German occupying troops in Fagernes © Norges Hjemmefrontmuseum, NHM.750718.
Hiddensee Hoard © LAKD M-V, Landesarchäologie, Foto: Sabine Suhr.
Metal strongbox from 1945, Stralsund Museum, archive, photo: Charlotte Wenke.
Replica of the Hiddensee Hoard, cast, gilded © Goldschmiede Stabenow, photo: Carsten Stabenow.
Coffee set © Stralsund Museum, photo: Katrin Kraus.
Raphael: Madonna Sistina, Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
So-called Priam’s treasure, Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Pergamon Altar, detail, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Gold arm ring from Hiddensee © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, DP_049104_S, photo: Rudolph Schmidt.
Exhibition photo “30 Jahre Befreiung vom Faschismus” (30 years of liberation from fascism) © Stralsund Museum.
Exhibition announcement “30 Jahre Befreiung vom Faschismus” (30 years of liberation from fascism) © Stralsund Museum, photo: Charlotte Wenke.
Replica pendant from the Hiddensee Hoard, Sammlung des Seminars für Ur- und Frühgeschichte der Universität Göttingen, photo: Charlotte Wenke.
Chapter 6: Exhibiting „Vikings“ after 1945
Cover of the exhibition catalogue Art norvégien des Vikings au XVIIIe siècle, Brussels 1954 © Oslo Museum of Cultural History, archive, public domain.
Letter from Arvid Sveum to Johan Gjerde, 24 June 1964, Oslo Museum of Cultural History, archive.
Cover of the catalogue for the Welt der Wikinger exhibition, Berlin 1973 © Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, photo: Eckart Pscheidl-Jeschke.
View of the exhibition during the Ostseewoche 1973 © Stadtarchiv Stralsund, Inv. Nr. VIII-01-02-087, photo: Harry Hardenberg.
View of the “Stralsund under Socialism” exhibition, Stralsund Museum for Cultural History , 1974/75 © Stralsund Museum, photo: Erika Woldeck.
Exhibition catalogue cover, The Vikings: a Publication of the British Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, ed. J. Graham-Campbell, London 1980 © The Trustees of the British Museum, photo: Eckart Pscheidl-Jeschke.
View of the exhibition From Viking to Crusader. The Scandinavians and Europe 800–1200, Berlin 1992, inv. no. N_010156_2 © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, photo: G. Stenzel.
The covers of the Danish and German editions of the exhibition catalogue, titled respectively Viking and Die Wikinger, ed. Gareth Williams, Peter Pentz, Matthias Wemhoff, Copenhagen and Munich, 2013 and 2014 © Hirmer Verlag and the National Museum of Denmark, photo: Eckart Pscheidl-Jeschke.
View of the Víkingr exhibition, 2019 to the present © Snøhetta/Oslo Museum for Cultural History, inv. no. 1902CH-SNO-KHM_0359.
Detail view of the exhibition Meet the Vikings, 2018-2021 © National Museum Copenhagen, inv. no. FOR-20220, photograph: Jenny Sundby, public license: CC-BY-SA 4.0.
About the project
Exhibition planning in the office and in the museum, photos: Maria Herzog.
Teaching materials for schools © Klara Fries.
Visiting the exhibition during coffee break and in the park, photos: Eckart Pscheidl-Jeschke.
Acknowledgements
Countless people and institutions supported us and our work between the start of the project in autumn 2021 and the completion of the exhibition three years later.
Foremost among them, we should like to thank Julia Tödt and Antje Canzler of museeon along with their team members Paul Beaury, Oraide and Daniel Bäss, and Ron Warmbier, who provided their creative, professional, and cheerful support in the creation of the digital and analogue exhibitions. We thoroughly enjoyed working with them and learned a great deal.
Our student assistants, Klara Fries, Pia Catherine Lemm, Janne Schmitz, and India Piwko were likewise indispensable for the success of the project. The same is true of Susanne Drutsch (CDFI, Greifswald University), who reliably helped us to surmount a number of administrative obstacles.
Our exchanges with Maren Heun, Claudia Hoffmann, Jens Oulwiger, and Eirini Vasilopoulou at Stralsund Museum were particularly fruitful, and we should like to express our gratitude to them.
We also owe a great debt of thanks to our colleagues at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Baltic Sea Region Research (IFZO): Alexander Drost, Ronny Grundig, Martin Kerntopf, Clemens Räthel, Peter Stoll as well as our colleagues from the cluster “Shared Heritage”.
We also wish to thank the following: Fredrik Bjønnes and Vicky Katarina Mikalsen (Midgard vikingsenter, Borre), Marian Dörk (UCLAB, FH Potsdam), Heidemarie Eilbracht (Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, SMB Berlin), Beate Fricke and the team of the project “The Inheritance of Looting” (Bern University), Anne Britt Halvorsen (Kulturhistorisk Museum Oslo), Ina Heumann (Museum für Naturkunde Berlin), Jakub Jagodziński (Muzeum Archeologiczno-Historyczne w Elblągu), Eva-Raphaela Jaksch and the team at Tradukas GbR, Detlef Jantzen (LAKD-MV, Landesarchäologie), Stefan Johansson and Mathias Strömer (Gotlands Museum, Visby), Franziska Lichtenstein, Anke Nautsch, Eckart Pscheidl-Jeschke (CDFI, Universität Greifswald), Ruth Slenczka (Pommersches Landesmuseum), Claus and Carsten Stabenow, Joanna Szkolnicka (Polish translations), Katja Vollert (Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, SMB Berlin), our colleagues at Greifswald Mittelalterzentrum, and the students of the seminar “Exhibiting Vikings” (2022/23).
We are grateful to the German Ministry for Education and Research for the generous funding.