Moving the army museum

The Army museum in Delft is closed. Officially now. They will be moving to Soesterberg to form - together with other army related museums - a national army museum. In a completely new buidling. The goodbye ceremony was impressive I found and well orchestrated. Literally! Because a full orchestra played pieces, there was singing, speeches and a full, really totally full Old Church in Delft. The walk from the church to the - by now - old location of the Army Museum  I found impressive.

One of the speeches in the ceremony highlighted the future vision of the museum with appealing images. The collection will no doubt be beautifully displayed. The museum I hope will become and remain a meeting place for all those interested and involved with the history of the Dutch army. I would also fervently hope that the museum will further it's efforts in the field of dialogue on issues related to army and warfare. Dialogue e.g. on the responsibility of a society for the behaviour of its army in war. Dialogue like the one we organised between young adults from the German school and a Dutch gymnasium regarding the Dutch-German relations in the framework of the exhibition Fremde im Visier. Dailogue on the concept of just war. Dialogue on what it really feels like to be at war, something that in the "old" museum was so pointedly displayed in the dilemma room. And so on and so forth. The assembly of army related museums that will form the new national army museum would I think be THE place to initiate, host and fuel the public debate on these issues and I wholeheartedly hope that they will take up this role! But for now: congratulations to the staff on the fab organisation of the event and good luck on the process of building and moving to the new museum!