Martin Roth | |
---|---|
Martin Roth in June 2014 at the opening of the Kunstfestspiele Herrenhausen in Hanover
|
|
Born |
Stuttgart, Germany |
16 January 1955
Residence | Berlin, Germany |
Alma mater | University of Tübingen |
Occupation | Museum director |
Martin Roth (German pronunciation: [ˈmaʁtiːn ˈʁoːt]; born 16 January 1955, Stuttgart) is a German museum director.
Martin Roth was born on 16 January 1955 in Stuttgart, Germany. He received his PhD from the University of Tübingen in 1987: his doctoral dissertation concerned "the political and historical context of museums and exhibitions in Germany between 1871 and 1945", which included the Weimar and Nazi years.
Martin Roth became a researcher at the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, E.H.E.S.S. in Paris in 1987. Subsequently, in 1992, he became a visiting scholar at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. He was the Curator at the Deutsches Historisches Museum from 1989 to 2001, and the Director of the German Hygiene Museum in Dresden, the first German science museum, from 1991 to 2000. He was President of the German Museums Association from 1995 to 2003, and a member of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Advisory Board in Berlin until his relocation to London in 2011. From 1996 to 2001, Roth was a member of the senior management of the Expo 2000 in Hanover and Director of Thematic Exhibitions.
Roth was Director General of the Dresden State Art Collections, overseeing 12 museums and galleries. He was a Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum 2011-2016.
In 2007, Roth was appointed to the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in the rank of Chevalier, and in 2010 to the Danish Order of Dannebrog.. In 2013 he was awarded Brilliant Contribution Award of International Cultural Exchange by People’s Republic of China. In 2015 Martin Roth received the Pushkin Medal, Russia and Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse, Germany.
Roth has stepped down as director of the V&A on 6 September 2016. Whilst Roth had planned on leaving the museum by 2017, he brought forward his departure following what he said was "despair" at the UK's vote to Leave the European Union, which he described as a "personal defeat". Roth will be replaced by the historian, journalist and former Labour MP Tristram Hunt..