Wahre Sammler

Private collecting was a popular pastime at the beginning of the 20th century. Among them, private collectors with a passion for the unconventional made a strong contribution. They often collected without regard for established orders of knowledge and taste and thus distinguished themselves from the traditional preservation of cultural artefacts. Philosopher Walter Benjamin described this type of collector as the real, "true collectors" (“Wahre Sammler”). With folklorist Anton Maximilian Pachinger (1864–1938) and Marxist cultural scientist Eduard Fuchs (1870–1940), this study examines two representatives of this type. It not only locates the collectors and their collections in terms of cultural history, but also reveals their potential as cultural innovators, who still open exciting perspectives on their times today.