German Shoe Museum Hauenstein

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German Shoe Museum Hauenstein
German Shoe Museum.jpg
German Shoe Museum Hauenstein
Data
place Hauenstein (Palatinate)
Art
Shoe Museum
management
Website
ISIL DE-MUS-931815

The German Shoe Museum Hauenstein ( Museum for Shoe Production and Industrial History Hauenstein ) is a museum about the development of the shoe industry in the southwestern Palatinate in Hauenstein (Palatinate) . On four floors of a former shoe factory, not only technical aspects of the production of shoes but also social and everyday history are presented.

The show shows the beginnings of the shoe industry in Pirmasens , which dates back to the livelihood of discharged soldiers around 1800. By the middle of the 19th century, Pirmasens had developed into the most important location for the German shoe industry. This also had an impact on Hauenstein, a small community at that time consisting mainly of smallholders and forest workers. Supplier activities for the Pirmasens factories became the first own manufacturing company for shoes in Hauenstein, founded by the Seibel brothers in 1886 . By 1914, it had grown into 20 factories with more than 1,000 employees. Despite numerous constraints on consolidation resulting from the French occupation, the economic crisis and the war economy, the number of factories increased to 35 by 1960. After that, however, due to increasing automation and the relocation of production to foreign locations, a severe structural crisis in the German shoe industry set in, which is why numerous companies were closed.

The German Shoe Museum Hauenstein is now located in one of these former production facilities .

A German Shoe Museum is also affiliated with the German Leather Museum in Offenbach am Main .

tour

A tour leads through the museum. The beginnings of the shoe factory from 1740 to 1918 are shown on the ground floor, from a steam engine to an apartment for the employees of a shoe factory. The top floor houses the collection of more than 3,000 pairs of historical shoes from the Viersen shoe collector Ernst Tillmann. The presentation of contemporary and social history continues on the 2nd floor for the years 1918 to 1945. Here is a fully functional “modern” shoe factory that is put into operation every day.

One floor down, from 1945, the museum shows the effects of the Second World War on the shoe industry and the type of shoes. The visitor is led through a typical apartment from the 1960s and in a fully furnished shoe salon sees how the fit of the new shoes was checked with a Schucoscope using X-rays .

The largest pair of shoes in the world in size 248 can also be found on the first floor. At the end of the tour, shoes by some celebrities such as Angela Merkel or Joschka Fischer are shown.

Award

The German Shoe Museum Hauenstein was honored in the European Museum Competition because, from the point of view of the judging committee, it brings together the presentation of shoe culture and social history well.

Web links

Commons : German Shoe Museum Hauenstein  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 49 ° 11 ′ 23 ″  N , 7 ° 51 ′ 21 ″  E