Abstract:
When it comes to the question what Europe is, various political, economic, social and cultural aspects come to the fore and are controversially discussed. At the example of the project "Musée de l'Europe" this paper will discuss in how far a museum is able to embrace the contested space of Europe and represent the complexity of a whole continent. Originally the European Museum was planned as a site for tourists. The corporate initiators, such as the non-profit organization Asbl "Musée de l'Europe", wanted it to be integrated into one of the buildings of the European Parliament in Brussels. This was considered to be the appropriate location for a museum that aims at informing visitors about European ideas. In the course of my field research I interviewed experts and examined publications on the issue. I found out that very different ideas exist about what should be the function of a European museum and its content. This paper concentrates on two different concepts of how to display Europe: The European Parliament wants to open a Visitor-Center in the building where the Musée de l'Europe was originally planned to be installed. So the organisation "Musée de l'Europe" had to look for another location and in October 2007 they opened the exhibition "It's our history" in the suburbs of Brussels.

Keywords: Brussels, tourism, European places, museum, places of memory/lieux de mémoire

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