Rhineland-Palatinate Fire Brigade Museum Hermeskeil
The fire brigade experience museum (Rhineland-Palatinate Fire Brigade Museum Hermeskeil) is located in the city center of Hermeskeil in the Black Forest high forest .
In 2014 the new building of the fire brigade museum was opened on the Neuer Markt in Hermeskeil. Christoph Unger is the chairman of the association that runs the museum.
opening hours
Monday: rest day
Tuesday to Friday: 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
history
In autumn 1990, the Hermeskeil volunteer fire brigade received a TLF 15/48 (Magirus-Deutz, built in 1950) tank tender back, which had been in service in Hermeskeil from 1950 to 1961 and was then sold to a works fire brigade in Saarland . This fire engine was dismantled, the individual parts were renovated and reassembled, and so this classic car was presented to the population in March 1991 for the inauguration of the new LF 16 fire fighting vehicle . In the summer of 1991 the all-German fire brigade classic car meeting took place in Dibbersen near Hamburg, in which five fire brigade members from Hermeskeil took part with the TLF 15/48. There he came into contact with representatives of the Association of German Fire Brigade Museums. This is how the plan to create a fire brigade museum came about because new acquisitions forced them to be outsourced.
In 1995 an old house at the train station could be taken over, which was renovated and converted into a museum by the Hermeskeil fire brigade under their then military leader Ernst Blasius. The showcases were built from window scraps themselves. The museum grew on three floors with a total exhibition area of approx. 300 m². In addition to the museum at the train station, there was also a depot in a factory hall in which the vintage cars were stored.
On April 17, 1999, the fire brigade museum Feuerpatsche Hermeskeil was inaugurated after five years of construction work, after it had been called "fire brigade museum under construction" and was open to visitors several times a year. The way to the opening took almost ten years.
In autumn 2006 the building at the train station had to be closed due to fire protection regulations. The museum was moved to an empty factory hall in the Hermeskeil industrial area, which at that time was still used as a museum depot. Plans were made for a new building with approx. 1000 m² of exhibition space. For this purpose, on August 28, 2007, a support and support association was founded, which wanted to run the new museum, which should be owned by the city of Hermeskeil. The cooperation with the state fire brigade association Rhineland-Palatinate was further intensified. The status of a state museum was not achieved. It was renamed the Rhineland-Palatinate Fire Brigade Museum Hermeskeil . Ernst Blasius, who had been instrumental in building the museum up to now and can also be seen as its initiator, was appointed the first museum director by the board of directors of the friends' association, which also runs the museum.
In its meeting on April 13, 2010, the Hermeskeiler City Council, under the leadership of Mayor Udo Moser, voted in principle for the construction of the fire brigade museum. This project should cost 3.66 million euros. The interior minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, Karl-Peter Bruch , promised the city during his visit on March 19, 2011 that the state would subsidize the project with 65%. The gastronomy was excluded from this. The Hermeskeil city council thereupon awarded the contracts (architect etc.) for the further planning of the museum in its meeting on March 29, 2011.
City Mayor Udo Moser, who was also chairman of the friends' association from autumn 2011, was heavily involved in the new building of the museum and thus paved the political path for the realization of this project.
On July 10, 2012 u. a. State Secretary Heike Raab and Mayor Udo Moser broke ground for the new building. The Cologne office dreiform took over the planning of the adventure exhibition together with the museum director Ernst Blasius and Christoph Unger. In connection with the new, interactive experience exhibition, the museum has had the subtitle of the fire brigade experience museum and the Rhineland-Palatinate fire brigade museum Hermeskeil since its reopening .
The museum opened on April 10, 2014. The 1,000th visitor was welcomed just 22 days after the opening. The museum has around 10,000 visitors annually.
On October 31, 2014, Udo Moser handed over the chairmanship to Christoph Unger.
Concept of the exhibition
The visitors can expect a course through different subject areas. The journey begins with fire, an elementary building block of life, the benefits and dangers of which accompany people on a daily basis. Then the visitor learns which events influenced the establishment of the first fire brigades, how fires were fought in the past and what tasks today's fire brigade has (rescuing, extinguishing, recovering, protecting). The last area of the exhibition shows the fire brigade tools over the years and the development of vehicles.
Exhibition area events
Exhibition area protagonists
Exhibition area activities
Tools exhibition area
Special exhibits / exhibits
Museum fire engine
Magirus round hood TLF 16, built in 1961
Rose steam sprayer, built in 1898
Magirus power sprayer, built in 1921
The museum fire engine consists of three vintage vehicles built on the same chassis:
- LF 15 from 1942 by Magirus-Deutz
- TLF 15/48 from 1950 from Magirus-Deutz
- DL 23-2 from 1952 by Magirus-Deutz
Collection of sleeve badges
The Hermeskeil Fire Brigade Museum has a collection of sleeve badges.
As the Rhineland-Palatinate Fire Brigade Museum, sleeve badges of the Rhineland-Palatinate fire departments are presented on a large Rhineland-Palatinate map in the permanent exhibition.
Fire brigade sleeve badge Rhineland-Palatinate
History of the sleeve badges of the Rhineland-Palatinate fire brigades
More sleeve badges from Germany and around the world are shown on the museum's website and in special exhibitions and are offered for exchange.
