Peter Friess

Peter Friess studied economics (1971 to 1975), had an apprenticeship as a clockmaker (1975 to 1979), and received a degree in master of clockmaking (1981). Parallel to this, he began an apprenticeship at the Bavarian National Museum in the conservation of clocks and scientific instruments on the occasion of the exhibition “Clockwork Universe” (1978 to 1983). During that time, Friess also worked as a conservator for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. (1981). From 1984 to 1988, he worked at the Deutsches Museum establishing the conservation laboratory.

Friess began his academic career after attending classes at an evening school toward his Abitur, or high school diploma (1981 to 1985). He then studied the history of art and philosophy, graduating with a Magister Artium (Master of Arts) for “Linea sub specie machinae” (1989). He received a PhD from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich with a dissertation on “Kunst und Maschine”—Art and Technology (1992), using his thesis to show the relationship between the
history of technology and the history of the arts. In 1992, Peter Friess was invited to join the J. Paul Getty Museum as a consultant to write the catalogue of the clock collection.

From 1992 to 1995, Friess served as Project Manager on the creation of the Deutsches Museum Bonn, themed “research and development in Germany after 1945.” He became its director in 1995, and served in this position until 2001; during his tenure as director, also attended the Museum Management Institute of the J. Paul Getty Trust and the American Federation of Arts (1996). During his years as Director of the Deutsches Museum Bonn, Friess installed a very powerful program on the “public understanding of science.” His ongoing philosophy is that the museum is not only a place for displaying objects—it should be a place to communicate ideas, and to enhance the education of children and adults by helping them understand the complex results of modem science. Museums do play a key role in our modem society, especially if they take a more comprehensive approach to serving their visitors and the local population.

In 2001, the State Chancellor of Bavaria asked Friess to build up their Agency for Media and Communication Technology in Munich, Germany, in Palo Alto, California, USA and in Bangalore, India, to attract foreign companies to establish a business location in Bavaria, Germany: 54 companies and 2.600 people came to work in Bavaria as a result of this effort. Since 2003, Dr. Friess has been Secretary General of the Fondazione Parmenides, located in Elba, Italy. He is responsible for laying out the organizational groundwork and for setting up a sister foundation in Germany. In 2005, Friess started his own business, a company called ZeigerZeit, where he provides his knowledge and experience to museums and collectors, primarily in the field of timekeeping devices. At the moment, he is concentrating on the layout for a museum about the history of time.

Dr. Friess joined The Tech Museum of Innovation in April of 2006.