Museums and geographies of (national) power

The paper raises a discussion about the relation of museums and (national) politics, primarily about the concept of 'apolitcism' of museum work, the idea that is spread among many museum workers as reality. I analyze the process of appearing of big museums in Europe and Serbia, as well as the aims of their work, in order to show that museums - from the very beginning of their appearing - function as means for consolidating national borders (outer and inner), teaching about patriotism. I also analyze the influence of German romanticism, that created the illusion of 'apoliticism' of the culture in general, as well as of museums. The change of attitude towards the state-as-nation in contemporary European community means also the change of museologic activities that should take part in the constitution of Europeism/European identity as meta-nation. That change has not still come to museums in Serbia, which points to the fact that society has not changed yet in the direction of appropriating of European values.