Obituary for Dr. Stephan Huck

The director of the German Naval Museum, Dr. Stephan Huck, passed away on Saturday night. He managed the museum in Wilhelmshaven for over 20 years and had been on the board of the Lower Saxony and Bremen Museum Association for 5 years. In these functions, he played a decisive role in shaping the German military museum landscape.

I got to know Stephan right at the beginning of my career and that was a decisive influence on my work, for which I am still grateful today. Stephan had a very tangible and down-to-earth way of approaching museum work in the very best sense. Always scientifically based, but never pretentious and self-referential, but with a clear view and common sense. That was enormously encouraging for me as a newcomer to the scene, because my view of the subject was and is the same, but when I was thrown into the pool of experienced museum people at the time, I was unsure whether this approach would really work. Stephan showed me in theory and practice that it does and thus encouraged me to do my work my way and not to bend. The fact that the Panzermuseum is where it is today is due in no small part to him.

I will never forget a seminar that we attended together to acquire the museum seal of approval and at some point we looked at each other and wondered whether we had taken a wrong turn mentally or whether the rest of the seminar and the management had. And instead of quietly killing time with this doubt, we opened the debate together in the face of strong enemy forces and … I don’t want to say “won”, but at least in the end we were sure we weren’t wrong. Equally unforgettable is the resulting February 6, 2019, when both his house and the tank museum received the museum seal of approval. Two military museums in this circle – that was an important moment that proved that professional museum work and the military were by no means mutually exclusive.

In the years of our parallel museum work on floating and rolling military equipment, Stephan was always a point not only of calm, but really of active reassurance, both for me personally and for many a debate and panel. His unshakeable calm, his clear attitude and his subtle humor took the edge off many a situation. On more than one occasion, I have vented my confusion and anger at the administrative chaos surrounding our tank museum renovation, which has still not been started, to him – and each time he has managed to make me leave the discussion calmer and more relaxed. In every question, be it conceptual, administrative or strategic, Stephan was a good and willing advisor who never imposed himself. Here, too, he shaped the Tank Museum as it stands today, time and again, with small impulses and important comments. When the new museum is finished, we’ll raise a glass of champagne to you, Stephan.

With Stephan Huck, an all-round fine person and an important voice in the museum world is leaving us far too soon. I take to heart the one lesson that such events teach us: To create as much as you can, because you never know how much time you have. But I also take to heart what Stephan himself said on the subject: There must always be enough time for family and life – precisely BECAUSE you never know how much time you have.

Back in June, Stephan gave a speech at the Tank Museum in which he showed how much he was appreciated. Today I am glad that we recorded it; it is a fine reminder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ENVDIHQ1ms

So long, Captain Huck.

Ralf Raths
Director
German Tank Museum