Museum of the Prehistory of Film

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Museum in the Mülheim Water Tower (March 2011)

The Museum of the Prehistory of Film is a permanent exhibition on the development of moving images before the invention of cinematography . Together with the world's largest accessible camera obscura , the museum is housed in a 25.5 m high water tower in the Broich district of Mülheim . The water tower, together with the neighboring roundhouse, is part of the Route of Industrial Culture .

Water tower

Depiction of camera obscura and museum

The water tower was built in 1904 on the edge of the main railway workshop (later the Reichsbahn repair shop ) in Mülheim-Speldorf to supply the locomotives in the nearby roundhouse and on the Lower Ruhr Valley Railway .

The turntable of the roundhouse and other buildings of the RAW were destroyed in an air raid in 1943, but the water tower remained undamaged.

The water tank is a covered Barkhausen tank from Aug. Klönne , Dortmund.

camera obscura

The camera obscura in the museum.
Generated image

The largest accessible camera obscura in the world was installed in the water tank for the " MüGa " state horticultural show in 1992 based on an idea by Werner Nekes . The technology comes from Carl Zeiss Jena ; The € 250,000 project was financed entirely through donations.

With the Camera Obscura, a 360 ° panoramic view of the garden show grounds and the Ruhr promenades is possible. All objects at a distance of 13 m from the horizon can be shown in focus on the projection table.

  • The optics consist of a rotatable head with a tiltable mirror and lens .
  • The mirror has a free diameter of 300 mm.
  • The lens is a focusable three-lens system with an aperture of 144 mm and an aperture ratio of 1:65.
  • The distance from the lens surface to the projection surface ( back focus ) is approximately 10 m.
  • The object and image angles are each 8 °.

Museum of the Prehistory of Film

After the water tank was given its new use as a walk-in pinhole camera in 1992, the actual tower and its foundation were empty after brief gastronomic use and threatened to be sidelined. Only in 2005 were enough funds available to start redesigning the interior of the tower and converting it into a museum. The exhibition concept was largely planned by the architect Hans-Hermann Hofstadt ; the museum opened in September 2006. The content planning was carried out by the art historian and museum director Tobias Kaufhold in consultation with the collector KH. W. Steckelings elaborated.

On the three floors below the water tank there are over 1100 exhibits from the collection of the Wuppertal photographer and art collector KH. W. Steckelings exhibited. From the period between 1750 and 1930, these document the technical development before the invention of cinematography, ie "how the images learned to move". The scope of the exhibition includes kaleidoscopes , lanternae magicae as well as peepholes and other “ magic boxes ” that bring the era before the invention of film and photography to life.

Trivia

There is a building materials shop in the immediate vicinity outside the site. Under the last letter of the company name, the company greets visitors to the camera obscura on a small sign. It can be easily read from the tower with the optical devices.

Web links

Commons : Museum of the Prehistory of Film  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.bkg.wtal.de/kuenstler/khw-steckelings/

Coordinates: 51 ° 25 '44.7 "  N , 6 ° 52' 5.4"  E