Reichenhall Museum

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The granary from the 1st half of the 16th century, which dates back to at least the 14th century, is now the seat of the local history museum

The Reichenhallmuseum (spelling ReichenhallMuseum , until 2019 Städtisches Heimatmuseum Bad Reichenhall ) is the local museum of the Upper Bavarian city ​​of Bad Reichenhall . Today it is housed in the town's former grain store at Getreidegasse 4. Accordingly, there are numerous exhibits on the history of salt production. But also pieces of linear ceramics from the Celtic and Roman times as well as from the areas of local handicrafts and trades, city ​​history as well as geology and folklore enrich the house. The most important exhibits include the early Bronze Age ring bar hoard finds from the Pidinger district of Mauthausen. They represent one of the largest hoard finds of this era in all of Europe.

Originally, the exhibits in the Old Town Hall, which was rebuilt after the fire in 1834 and completed in 1851, were made accessible to the public. From 1900 to 1908 the Villa Saxonia was the location of the museum, until 1938 the fire house, until 1944 and then again from 1946 to 1962 the old town hall and finally from May 26th 1967 the grain bin. The museum in the grain box was closed and restored in 2006. The reopening took place in November 2019.

In the period from 1900 to 2013 there were only five curators, namely Josef Maurer (until 1908), Franz Krönner (until 1938), Fritz Schülein (until 1962), Fritz Hofmann (1967-2002) and Robert Kern (2003-2013) .

history

Beginnings

The original seat of the museum was the town hall, completed in 1851

In 1846 the health resort began in Reichenhall. In 1853 a museum was to be built in the town hall, which had been completed two years ago, and the population was asked to donate "animals, plants or minerals". The pharmacist Mathias Mack donated his extensive collection of minerals and fossils to the museum. As early as the turn of the year 1853/54 a first exhibition was put together, which was opened to the public in June 1854. The exhibits served to entertain the spa public "partly for convenience, partly for entertainment in bad weather." In addition to 180 stuffed birds, quadrupeds and petrefacts from Untersberg and Achthal, the exhibition offered various colored, polished marble pieces and a "two-handled, five-shoe long Roman sword" and a "Roman tool peculiar to its form and composition". History was by no means a subject area of ​​the museum, but exclusively flora , fauna and geology. This first museum was soon closed, so that from 1869 it was no longer mentioned.

Foundation of the local history museum

In 1899, the Bath Commissioner and District Office Assessor Alexander Freiherr von Moreau, the Royal Captain Adolf Bühler and other local honorary officers founded the Historical Association, which in 1900 brought the local museum into being. The museum was opened on October 11, 1900 in the rear building of the "Villa Saxonia" in Liebigstrasse. The historical association's collection was on the ground floor, while Felix Wildenhain's scientific collections were on the first floor, and he left the rooms to the association for a small rent. First museum curator Josef Maurer . He moved to Bad Reichenhall around 1890 and began archaeological excavations in 1893, especially in Langackertal and in the area of ​​the prehistoric settlement areas of Karlstein . From 1900 to 1908 he managed the house. He organized and expanded the collection, a 14-page guide was created.

Maurer, who switched to the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments, was succeeded by the senior teacher Franz Krönner, one of the co-founders of the historical association, who, however, was only forced to take over the position. He had less archaeological interests, although he had dug with masons, than geological ones. In 1926 the museum had long since moved to the fire house on Egidiplatz, and its condition was poor. This also applied to the historical association, which merged with the scientific to form the historical and scientific association . When in 1926 a museum room in the fire house had to make room for a class from the girls 'school, parts of the exhibits were housed in the boys' school on Heilingbrunnerstrasse. The exhibits were now stored in three locations, namely in the fire house, in the grain store and in the attic of the school building. The conditions were so pathetic that in 1926 a withdrawal of the exhibits from Reichenhall was considered. Franz Krömer died in 1938 without the city being able to agree to take over the exhibits.

He was followed by Fritz Schülein, who came from Augsburg and had lived in Reichenhall since 1906. He was friends with Josef Maurer and was therefore aware of the museum's plight. In 1938 the city acquired all of the exhibits. They were brought together on the second floor of the town hall. With 41,533 overnight stays in Berchtesgaden in 1939, the museum registered 350 visitors. The district leadership of the NSDAP Berchtesgaden Racing expressed the special recognition for the exemplary design and management of the local museum still on 20 October 1944 Fritz Schuelein. No statement can be made about Schülein's attitude towards National Socialism. In 1944, the district administration claimed the museum's premises. Schülein saved the collection at the risk of his life when, on April 25, 1945, when the city was bombed, a stick bomb hit the roof.

Move to the Getreidestadel

From 1946 to 1962, Schülein was in charge of the reopened museum. He was followed by the saltworks worker, city councilor and city administrator Fritz Hofmann . He was one of the initiators for founding the Association for Local Lore Bad Reichenhall and the surrounding area in 1965. Hofmann was its first chairman until 2001. The association now took over the management of the museum and appointed the curator. On Hofmann's initiative, the collection moved from the Old Town Hall to the listed Getreidestadel in Getreidegasse. The museum was able to reopen on May 26, 1967. However, only the checkout room could be heated. Fritz Hofmann managed the house until December 31, 2002. During this time, Hofmann expanded the museum to its current size and painstakingly collected countless exhibits, which today form the heart of the collection.

From June 2003 he was succeeded by the administrative officer Robert Kern, long-time secretary of the local history association. In 2005 the museum had 1719 visitors, of whom 916 were spa card holders and 219 were children and young people.

Temporary closure and redesign

In 2006, the roof was in danger of collapsing due to the massive amounts of snow, and the collections were at great risk from penetrating water. Since there was no building permit, the building was no longer secure, which in view of the collapse of the local ice rink on January 2, 2006 with 15 deaths, could no longer be ignored. The museum with its 10,000 exhibits was closed. All exhibits were relocated by mid-2008.

During the restoration of the building, it turned out that it had been built over three decades in the first half of the 16th century. The felling date of the trees could be determined from winter 1524 to summer 1525. The extension of the building to the northeast took place in the winter of 1551 to 1552. Older parts were integrated into the new building, which may date back to the 13th century, certainly in the 14th century. This makes the building one of the oldest secular structures in the city.

A museologically based concept was presented in adaptation to the statics and unchangeable structural and artistic furnishings . Room 1 on the ground floor should present the natural development, room 2 the transition to the cultural landscape , room 3 the entrance to the Eastern Alps. The multi-purpose room is mainly used for film screenings. Room 4 on the first floor contains objects from the Celts and Romans , but the time horizon actually extends from the Neolithic to the Bavarian period . Room 5 ( Salinenstadt ) shows pieces from the Middle Ages and early modern times, rooms 6.1 and 6.2 folk culture, sacred art; Finally, rooms 7.1 and 7.2 deal with Reichenhall since 1846 .

Name change and reopening

With a majority of one vote, the city council of Bad Reichenhall decided in May 2019 to change the name of the local history museum to ReichenhallMuseum . Citizens' participation in the name change was rejected by the city council and city administrator Johannes Lang . In order to find a name, Lang argued that the term Heimatmuseum “is associated with the species Heimatstube , which was mainly implemented in small towns and rural communities from the interwar period to the 1960s.” Lang also stated that “the future museum [ ...] will no longer bear any resemblance to the previous museum, social change is also expressed in the museum presentation and the term home is received very ambiguously and fluctuates to a large extent between acceptance and rejection . ”The name Stadtmuseum Bad, which has meanwhile been used Reichenhall was also out of the question, as a large part of the museum deals with the time before the city was built and before the addition of “bath” was used. The name ReichenhallMuseum, on the other hand, refers to "place, content and function" and is "easy to represent" as a word and image mark ".

From 2011, 100,000 euros were invested in the restoration of exhibits; the budget for interior design and redesign increased from 680,000 euros to 1.25 million euros.

The reopening took place on the weekend of November 9th and 10th, 2019. The new exhibition, which is equipped with media stations and " graphic novels ", comprises 800 exhibits and thus only shows a very small part of the approximately 10,000 exhibits from the museum's collection.

Criticism of the realignment

The former second chairman of the local history association, Fredric Müller-Romminger, clearly criticized the reorientation of the exhibition in a letter to the editor on November 18, 2019. He complained that it was “a very, very expensive New Art Museum [...] as a memorial to Dr. Long ”and“ in favor of the latest technology and large-scale, wall-filling graphics [...] much of Reichenhall's local history was deliberately omitted ”. Müller-Romminger states that the “Hofmannsche Sammlung” of the old museum was “an overflowing hodgepodge”, but regrets that important historical events are hardly shown or not shown at all. So missing exhibits for the construction of the railway line Freilassing-Reichenhall or its extension to Berchtesgaden and the construction of power plants , the construction of the Predigtstuhlbahn there is only one video at a poorly visible location from the airfields Mayerhof and at the upper mill and the mountain infantry barracks there only one photo at a time. Müller-Romminger also criticizes the fact that the air raid on Bad Reichenhall in April 1945, which is one of the most drastic events in recent city history with more than 200 deaths, is only treated with a bad photo and a fragment of a bomb.

literature

  • Robert Kern: News from the local history museum. In: The Powder Tower. Announcements from the “Association for Local History Bad Reichenhall and Surroundings e. V. “Jg. 2011, pp. 6–12 (description of the renovated building) ( online , PDF).
  • Robert Kern: 150 years of Bad Reichenhall Local History Museum. In: The Powder Tower. Announcements from the “Association for Local History Bad Reichenhall and Surroundings e. V. "Year 2004, pp. 3–15 ( online , PDF)
  • Gustav Starzmann: The Bad Reichenhaller Heimatmuseum in the Heimatblättern of September 16, 2006, as a supplement to the Reichenhaller Tagblatt

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Gustav Starzmann: The Bad Reichenhaller Heimatmuseum. Culture doesn't pay off, but it does pay off , in: Heimatblätter. Supplement from Reichenhaller Tagblatt and Freilassinger Anzeiger , September 16, 2006 ( online , PDF).
  2. ↑ Robert Kern: News from the Heimatmuseum , in: The Powder Tower. Announcements from the “Association for Local History Bad Reichenhall and Surroundings e. V. "(2012) pp. 2–7 ( online , PDF)
  3. ^ Robert Kern: 150 Years of Bad Reichenhall Local History Museum , in: The Powder Tower. Announcements from the “Association for Local History Bad Reichenhall and Surroundings e. V. “(2004) pp. 3–15, here: p. 5.
  4. ^ Franz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein: The local museum in Bad Reichenhall , in: Festschrift for Adam Horn , 1967, p. 277 f.
  5. ↑ The National Socialist Community , Vol. 1, 1940, p. 190.
  6. ↑ Robert Kern: News from the Heimatmuseum , in: The Powder Tower. Announcements from the “Association for Local History Bad Reichenhall and Surroundings e. V. “(2005) pp. 8–11, here: p. 11 ( online , PDF).
  7. ↑ Robert Kern: News from the Heimatmuseum , in: The Powder Tower. Announcements from the “Association for Local History Bad Reichenhall and Surroundings e. V. “(2006) pp. 5–10, here: p. 8 ( online , PDF).
  8. ↑ Robert Kern: News from the Heimatmuseum , in: The Powder Tower. Announcements from the “Association for Local History Bad Reichenhall and Surroundings e. V. “(2005) 6-10 ( online , PDF).
  9. ↑ Robert Kern: News from the Heimatmuseum , in: The Powder Tower. Announcements from the “Association for Local History Bad Reichenhall and Surroundings e. V. “(2008) pp. 9–11, here: p. 9 ( online , PDF).
  10. ↑ Robert Kern: News from the Heimatmuseum , in: The Powder Tower. Announcements from the “Association for Local History Bad Reichenhall and Surroundings e. V. “(2009) pp. 6–8, here: p. 6 ( online , PDF).
  11. ↑ Robert Kern: News from the Heimatmuseum , in: The Powder Tower. Announcements from the “Association for Local History Bad Reichenhall and Surroundings e. V. “(2010) pp. 2–5, here: p. 4 ( online , PDF).
  12. ↑ a b c d e A new name for the museum on pnp.de, accessed on November 12, 2019
  13. ↑ Opening weekend in the new ReichenhallMuseum on bgland24.de, accessed on November 12, 2019
  14. ↑ a b c d e Fredric Müller-Romminger: One visit is enough , letter to the editor in the Reichenhaller Tagblatt from November 18, 2019

Coordinates: 47 ° 43 ′ 25.2 "  N , 12 ° 52 ′ 33.6"  E