It costs nothing to get into the House of European History, but you can expect airport-standard security controls. You then go up to level I, which is given over to the usual reception area, cash desks, shop and cafe, as well as the temporary exhibitions.
The permanent exhibition takes up floors 2 to 6. The theme of each of these speaks to the method used by the designers of this highly original museum: they have not set out to tell the entire history of Europe for the last 2000 years in all its entities. ‘Shaping Europe’ is the theme of the second storey: visitors can find out all about the mapping of Europe, the myth of Europa, European heritage and the distinctive characteristics of Europe.
The third floor is unquestionably the richest. It illustrates Europe’s major mutations from the end of the 18th century: popular uprisings, the advent of the nation-state, the industrial revolution, scientific progress, colonial conquest. Europe is shown to be a planetary power, marked by its optimism and its sense of superiority. But a new century of horrors began with the First World War. It was succeeded by the Russian Revolution, the Spanish Civil War, the rise to power of authoritarian regimes and corresponding setbacks for parliamentary democracies, culminating in the Second World War.
The fourth floor, you will find a space dedicated to the memory of the Shoah, witness the reconstruction of a divided continent, relive the Cold War, the creation of social security, the modernisation of domestic appliances and the first building blocks of European integration.
The themes of the fifth floor, entitled ‘Shattering Certainties’ and ‘Europe Now’, evoke the final days of the ‘golden sixties’, the oil crisis, the degrowth movement, economic neoliberalism, the return of democracy to the Iberian peninsula, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the dissolution of the USSR, German reunification, the end of the Cold War, the creation of the European Union and of the euro as well as the major waves of EU enlargement.
Finally, the sixth floor, which is somewhat sparser than its counterparts, features Europe seen from the sky and serves as a space for reflection, whilst offering a vista of nearby tower blocks, of questionable aesthetic value.
Some visitors will inevitably leave unsated, for instance because of the lack of reference to global phenomena that shaped the collective European conscience (Hiroshima, the UN, NATO, the moon landings, etc...), to the Resistance movements during the Second World War, the battle for the end of colonialism (no mention of the Algerian war), the struggles of workers and peasants in recent decades, the events occurring in various smaller countries (such as the breakup of the former Czechoslovakia or the partition of Cyprus), the financial crisis of 2008 and its social consequences or Islamist terror attacks. The experts who put together the permanent exhibition, and who, it should be noted, hail from many different countries of the European Union, selected the showcased events and ideas in accordance with the following criteria: they must have originated on the European continent, have affected the whole of it and have retained topicality or impact to this day.
Visitors cannot fail to be delighted by the abundance of artefacts from the time representing key events, the background music, the quality and use made of the filmography and audio archives, by the way that digital techniques have been put to best possible use, for instance to communicate geographical realities, and by the multilingual offering and relevance of the audio guides.
The House of European History is run by a 50-strong team, under the leadership of Constance Itzel. The board of administration has 16 members, mostly representatives of the European Parliament, but also featuring the Minister President of the Brussels Region, Rudi Vervoort, and is chaired by Hans-Gert Pöttering. Finally, its scientific committee brings together 21 senior academics. A geographical balance has been assured.
There have been several temporary exhibitions over the last few years: the one on display during my visit, entitled ‘Throwaway’, concerns waste in Europe (and will run until January 2024). Other themes have been tackled, such as posters, railways, Covid-19, youth and interactions between the peoples of Europe.
Specific measures have been taken to be able to welcome families and school groups, which visit in ever-growing numbers. The House also hosts special events such as lunch visits, evening visits and role-play for children. The number of visitors over the period 2017 - 2021 has been estimated at half a million, but this figure is rising.
The intention behind the House of European History is neither to replace national histories nor to present a juxtaposition between them and European history. It is does not set out to brainwash people into pro-supranationalism activists. Its aim is above all to teach: to increase people’s panoramic knowledge of European history over the last centuries.
In the future, its challenges will be to adapt, within a space that cannot be further extended, to the tragic new era dawning with migration waves, the pandemic and Russian aggression against Ukraine.
Renaud Denuit