As major established cultural institutions, often housed in representative buildings, museums are still seen by many Germans as one of the central manifestations of “High Culture”. Their audience ranges from school classes and casual visitors to domestic and foreign tourists. Traditionally, museums collect, store, research and exhibit works of art and cultural assets. The decision on whose art and cultural assets are seen as collectible and worthy of being exhibited is the – sometimes more, sometimes less obvious – result of social and political negotiation processes. Through this, museums also reflect back onto society and create or amplify existing narratives and identities. For example, town history museums establish local and regional history as an element of local identity and thus connect people to the historical changes that places, buildings and social structures go through. However, museums' cycles of renewal are usually rather long, which means that current topics can often only be addressed via special exhibits. This is true in particular for the topics of immigration and the role of migration in German post-war history. While these issues have, in the past few decades, been the subject of frequent special and wandering exhibits under varying criteria, until today there is no designated museum of immigration and migration in Germany, unlike in countries such as France, Sweden and Great Britain.
