Weißwasser Glass Museum
 Glass museum in the Gelsdorf villa |
|
| Data | |
|---|---|
| place | Weißwasser / Upper Lusatia |
| Art |
Glass museum
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| opening | 1996 |
| management |
Christine Lehmann
|
| Website | |
| ISIL | DE-MUS-460719 |
The Weißwasser Glass Museum is a museum that opened on June 3, 1996 in a glass manufacturer's villa in Weißwasser / Upper Lusatia . With over 60,000 exhibits, it shows the development and history of the Lusatian glass industry . In April 2016, the museum applied for inclusion on the Unesco intangible cultural heritage list .
history
On November 25, 1992, the city council in Weißwasser decided to set up a glass museum in the so-called Gelsdorf Villa after attempts to set up a museum about the history of Lusatian glass in the 1960s and 1980s failed due to a lack of space.
On June 8, 1993 the Friends of the Glasmuseum Weißwasser e. V , who set himself the task of creating the museum concept and collecting the exhibits for the museum. The villa of the glass manufacturer Wilhelm Gelsdorf, built in 1924/25, was restored and rebuilt for this purpose. On December 16, 1994, a first presentation of the exhibits on the subject of Lusatian glass from the 19th and 20th centuries, glass for science and technology, historical workshops and tools for glass production, processing and finishing, special collection of glasses by the designer Wilhelm Wagenfeld and Friedrich Bundtzen as well as documents and testimonies to the history of the city of Weißwasser and the surrounding region. On June 3, 1996, on the occasion of the festival week 444 years of the first mention of Weißwasser , the museum was officially opened to the city.
The presentation of the history of the Lausitz glass industry, which began in 1872 with the establishment of the first Weißwasser Zwahr, Neubauer & Co glassworks , takes up a large space . After a short time, Neue Oberlausitzer Glaswerke Schweig & Co GmbH (later Osram ), one of the largest light bulb manufacturers, was able to establish itself on the market. Between 1918 and 1929, Arsall glasses were produced in Weißwasser , which today are sought-after design objects of the late Art Nouveau .
At the beginning of the 1930s, the glass bulbs for the first television picture tubes were designed and manufactured in Weißwasser . Under Wilhelm Wagenfeld, the United Lausitzer Glaswerke (VLG, today: Stölzle Lausitz GmbH ) developed into a leading manufacturer of glass for everyday use, which has won numerous prizes at international exhibitions.
After the Second World War , under Friedrich Bundtzen, the Lusatian glass industry developed into the most important center for the production of utility glass in the GDR .
The rooms on the ground floor of the museum are dedicated to the local history of Weißwasser and the development of the glass industry in Lusatia. On the upper floor, exhibits on the main topics of raw materials and tools for the production of glass as well as the various finishing techniques for utility glass are shown. A section in the museum is dedicated to the historical glasses, the Diaret and Arsall glasses made in Weißwasser, and the designs by Wilhelm Wagenfeld and Friedrich Bundtzen. In addition, technical glasses, such as glass bulb lamps, picture tubes and medical lamps, which were manufactured in the region, are on display.
In addition to the permanent exhibition, changing special exhibitions are shown in the museum, which shed light on individual aspects of glass production or people who are particularly connected to the glass industry.
The Weißwasser Glass Museum was headed full-time from 2008 to 2019 by Elvira Rauch, and since her retirement by Christine Lehmann.
Special exhibitions (selection)
- Christmas Land Lauscha (2008)
- The Lusatian Mountains and its glassmakers in photos (2008)
- Dorothea von Philipsborn (2009)
- Glass designers from Weißwasser present their work - glass art, drawings, painting (2009)
- Engel & Co - Glass Cribs (2010)
- Chess the King (2010)
- Special exhibition on the 110th birthday of Professor Wilhelm Wagenfeld (2010)
- Fragile Dreams - Glass Bead Art (2011)
- From Art Nouveau to Modernism 1900 to 1950 (2011)
- Costume jewelry in the GDR - Gablona jewelry (2012)
- All about canning (2012)
- Uranium glasses (2014)
- From observation to measurement (2015)
- Sweet Upper Lusatia (November 2015 / February 2016)
- The designer Horst Gramß (February 2016 / March 2016)
- Professor Wilhelm Wagenfeld, his work and work in Weißwasser - Exhibition on the occasion of the award of honorary citizenship of the city of Weißwasser (April 2016 / November 2016)
Publications (selection)
- Author collective: Glashütten in Weißwasser, Erfurt (2005)
- Horst Gramß, Reiner Keller: The glass designer Horst Gramß, Weißwasser (2010)
- Reiner Keller: Heinz Schade - A gifted glass cutter and glass engraver, Weißwasser (2011)
- Manfred Schäfer: glass designer. Glassmaker. Glass engraver - Gerhard Lindner | Manfred Schäfer | Hans Lutzens | Horst Schumann | Fritz Heinzel, Weißwasser (2013)
- Ilona Brauer, Reiner Keller: Fifty Years of Research, Technological Development, Rationalization and Design in the Region's Glass Industry - A Selected Bibliography , Weißwasser (2013)
- Werner Schubert: Contributions to the history of the Jews in Weißwasser , Weißwasser (2014)
- Manfred Schäfer: The people from here made glass and the glass made the people. Weißwasser OL - Working biographies of deserving colleagues , Weißwasser 2014, continuation I (2015), continuation II (2015)
- Manfred Schäfer: Social services in the main company Lausitzer Glas, Weißwasser (2014)
- Manfred Schäfer: Mechanical stemware production in Weißwasser - A contribution from the perspective of product development 1962–1990 , Weißwasser (2014)
literature
- Reiner Keller: An institution is celebrating its birthday - Weißwasser has had a glass museum since 1996, Latest news from the Weißwasser Glass Museum, Volume 48, p. 1f.
- Hans-Dieter Marschner: 20 Years of the Weißwasser Glass Museum , Latest News from the Weißwasser Glass Museum, Volume 48, p. 3f.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Weißwasser Glass Museum wants to be included in the Unesco directory . In: sächsische.de . ( sächsische.de [accessed on November 23, 2018]).
- ↑ Reiner Keller: History of the Weißwasser Glass Museum. Weißwasser Glass Museum, accessed on October 30, 2016 .
- ↑ Lausitzer Rundschau: Three new Arsall vases find their way home. In: www.lr-online.de. Retrieved October 30, 2016 .
- ↑ spiegel.de: Gestalter Wagenfeld - Design for a Classless Society , accessed on October 31, 2016
Web links
- Website of the museum
- mdr.de Glasmacherstadt names second honorary citizen
- Virtual tour of the museum
- Sachsens-Museen-enthaben.de: Weißwasser Glass Museum
- hvg-dgg.de: Weißwasser Glass Museum
Coordinates: 51 ° 30 '24.7 " N , 14 ° 38' 3.8" E