Head Dr. Maximilian Benker

Since 1995 the Art History Department of the FU Berlin has posessed its own Department of Digital Media, headed by Dr. Maximilian Benker. Originally called into being by the Volkswagen Foundation, its task was to record data in the field of Art History (HIDA/MIDAS), and it has proved its worth in a variety of projects (amongst others the complete inventory of the Berliner Gemäldegalerie on CD-ROM in 1996, and projects to record the Books of Hours of the Duke of Berry and further manuscripts owned by the Gallery, in 1998).

Between 1999-2002, the EU-financed internet project „GIOVE – The Giustiniani Collection in a virtual Environment“ was completed in cooperation with international partners.

The learning unit „Geschichte der Kunst im Wandel ihrer Funktionen“ “(History of art in its changing functions) was produced as part of the "School of Seeing", a cooperative project supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (project head: Prof. Werner Busch).  34 well-known artists, assisted by 25 young colleagues, have revised, updated and completed the material of the former Funkkolleg Kunst (Radio College of Art), making available 30 online tutorials which present an academically recognized interdisciplinary overview of the subject Art History through the investigation of a dynamic concept of function. The learning unit is part of the Bachelor program of our Department.

A further subproject of the "School of Seeing" is the learning unit „Burgundische Buchkunst von den Valois bis zu den Habsburgern “ (Burgundian Book Art from the Valois to the Habsburgs).

Since the end of 2003 an interfaculty project has developed the digital picture data base EasyDB which makes picture materials from all sections of the Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies available within the Faculty for teaching and research purposes. EasyDB was inaugurated into the Art History Department in 2004/05.