Exhibit Reviews

Review Guidelines

The general guidelines for H-German reviews apply to exhibit reviews. The following guidelines apply specifically to formulating exhibit reviews. Generally, H-German publishes three kinds of exhibition reviews:

--reviews of a major temporary exhibition (Ausstellung, Sonderausstellung); the exhibition should raise new scholarly issues related to German history or culture

--reviews of a museum and/or permanent collection that raise particular issues related to German history or culture

--reviews of related museums or exhibitions (groups of exhibits or permanent collections) that raise particular issues related to German history or culture


Reviews should situate the exhibition and/or museum in the broader context of German history and culture, and make clear why the exhibition and/or museum is important to scholars of Germany.

Reviewers should provide information about the importance and success of the exhibition, its conception and design, its funding sources (if relevant to the content or message), and its reception. The planning and implementation of certain exhibitions may be of interest if a debate has accompanied the conception of a particular museum or exhibit.

As most H-German members will not have an opportunity to visit the exhibit, reviewers should provide information that will situate readers within the space of the exhibition. However, reviewers should not feel compelled to describe exhaustively all aspects of the exhibition, but instead to give an overall sense of the exhibition's thrust and message.

Reviewers should place their exhibition/museum reviews in relation to scholarship in the field.


Formatting text

The Review should begin with a header listing the full name of the exhibition, the institution, the curator or designer, the sponsor(s), the dates of the exhibition, and catalog information, if available. The reviewer should, if possible, provide the editor with images that can be used for the website. The exhibit reviews editor will format the webpage and post it to the H-German site.

Index of Exhibit Reviews