Swakopmund Museum
 Exterior view of the museum |
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| Data | |
|---|---|
| place |
 Swakopmund 
|
| Art |
City history , natural and local history
|
| opening | 17th December 1951 |
| Number of visitors (annually) | approx. 25,000 |
| operator | |
| Website | |
The Swakopmund Museum (rarely also the Swakopmund Museum ) is the local history and natural history museum of Swakopmund in Namibia . Body of the museum is the Scientific Society Swakopmund ( English Scientific Society Swakopmund ). The museum is the largest museum of its kind in the country.
history
The museum was founded in 1951 by the dentist Alfons Weber as Dr. Weber Museum was founded and has since gone through numerous renovation and expansion measures. The background to the establishment was the storage of the numerous objects that Weber had collected over 20 years.
A former Schutztruppe officer donated the first African memorabilia and photos. In addition, various old photos, magazines, books, uniforms and weapons were collected in the region. Weber's numerous friends donated old weapons and other souvenirs from the time of the German Schutztruppe.
In the years after the opening, numerous expansions took place with the aim of providing illustrative material for school classes and literature, lectures and special events as well as further training opportunities for adults. Even today, the museum pursues the goal of an urban information and cultural center .
Museum building
At the pier, below the Swakopmund lighthouse, the Swakopmund city administration made a plot of land available with the ruins of the former imperial main customs office. The building, initially known as the “cultural center”, which in addition to the museum housed a public library and a reading room, was opened on March 5, 1960. While the museum is still located in the building today thanks to numerous additions, the nationally important Sam Cohen library has moved to its own property since 1977. The historic Otavi train station is also located there .
In 2007 Namibia Breweries donated the historic factory pub of the former Hansa brewery to the museum, which became the center of a new museum café with a view of the Atlantic .
exhibition
The focus of the exhibitions is on the history and nature of the Namibian coastal region and the local history of the city of Swakopmund.
A special attraction is the original furnishings of the famous Swakopmund Adler pharmacy , as well as an extensive exhibition on the ethnic groups of Namibia, an original ox cart, various dioramas on historical events in Namibia and an extensive collection of Namibian insects.
Another focus is the collection of geosciences with a selected mineral collection from z. Some rare exhibits from Tsumeb and the surrounding area, the Namib and the Erongo Mountains, as well as an exhibition on the geology of the country.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Swakopmund Museum. Cultural Heritage register accessed May 17, 2013
- ^ Dag Henrichsen: Partial legacies & manuscripts. Basler Afrika Bibliographien , registry PA. 2 / PA. 3 / PA. 5-PA. Basel 1996, p. 37.