COVID-19 memorabilia as museum exhibits
The coronavirus pandemic is a historical event. Museums are collecting keepsakes of this period, and already have thousands of objects in their archives.
Coronavirus has sparked the imagination
The spring lockdown began a week earlier in Vienna. One by one museums closed their doors, with schools and stores quickly following suit.
Matti Bunzl, director of the Vienna Museum, realized early on that the history of his city was closely tied to this historic moment. He called on his fellow Viennese to send in objects, photos and films to document present-day COVID life for posterity. Without this intervention, objects used during this period that would make the crisis comprehensible for future generations would have been lost, Bunzl told DW. After all, no comparable records had been archived from any previous pandemic.