Weißgerbermuseum
 Weißgerbermuseum (building from 1753) |
|
| Data | |
|---|---|
| place | Doberlug-Kirchhain |
| opening | May 26, 1963 |
| management |
Andreas Hanslok
|
| Website | |
| ISIL | DE-MUS-822013 |
_06.JPG)
The Weißgerbermuseum is a technical history museum and is located in Doberlug-Kirchhain in the Elbe-Elster district . It is the only one of its kind in Europe and, with the help of a historical workshop, illustrates white tanning, presents tanning agents and leather products and is extensively devoted to all aspects of the general and regional development of the tanning trade. In addition to an extensive collection of exotic leathers and furs from all over the world, a shoemaker's workshop and journeyman's room, a collection of precious Doberluger and Kirchhainer pewter (guild dishes) as well as changing special exhibitions are shown. In the technical exhibition, the industrial production of leather is presented with the help of a complete production line consisting of fully functional tanning machines.
History of tanning in Kirchhain
Originally, the tannery in the town of Kirchhain was operated as a side trade to the shoemaking industry.
"... the shoemakers shouldn't bring the recovered skins into the Elster at brewing time, nor should they scrape the common well or dress them up."
Favorable location conditions for the tanning trade were the soft, iron-free water of the Kleiner Elster , the sheep breeding of the Dobrilugk rule and the connection to a medieval trade route for the purchase of the tanning salts.
In 1811 the Kirchhainer Gerber founded their own guild. With 48 master tanners, this trade was the largest in the city in 1849.
History of the museum
The white tannery museum emerged from a tannery that was in operation from 1753 to 1947.
In 1955, the teacher and district monument curator Karl Zagora received the order from the Institute for Monument Preservation in Dresden to find a suitable white tannery, which, placed under monument protection, should be made accessible to the population as a technical display facility. The former tannery at Potsdamer Strasse 18 seemed suitable for this project. In 1958 the house, which was in dire need of renovation, was placed under monument protection. As part of the national reconstruction work, the restoration work, which was estimated to cost around 70,000 marks, could be carried out. When this was finished in 1960, the interior renovation and the construction of a museum collection began. A permanent exhibition was then set up in eight rooms that had previously been prepared for this purpose.
The artistic design of the local tannery history, which is themed in different ways, was carried out by the Finsterwald painter and graphic artist Horst Bahr.
On May 26, 1963, the White Tanner Museum was opened to the public as the first technical history museum in what was then the Cottbus district.
In the first years after the museum opened, Anton Weiß and his colleagues had to fight against the various prejudices of some Doberlug-Kirchhain citizens who questioned the usefulness of a tannery museum. The local party and cultural officials also endeavored to interfere in the running of the museum. To counteract this, the former tanner Hermann Matern , chairman of the Central Party Control Commission, member of the Politburo and the Central Committee of the SED, succeeded in winning over the museum as a museum sponsor in 1966 . He visited the Weißgerbermuseum on January 21, 1966 and praised the museum collective by publicly saying: “You have really created a beautiful and rare museum here away from the great river.” With the reference to this appreciation, everyone ended against the will of the Attempts made by the museum management to re-profile the technical-historical white tanning museum into a local museum.
Over the following years, the collection of exhibits grew and the house changed its face. After Anton Weiß died in 1976, Matthias Belig took over the management of the museum until 1984. Several renovations made it possible to gain additional exhibition and storage rooms. A renewed restoration of the museum complex took place in several stages from 1992. The last construction phase, which included the special exhibition, magazine and archive area, was completed in May 1995. Already during the renovation work it became clear that the white tanner museum needed a branch. Conceptually geared towards the tanning trade, the White Tanning Museum was primarily dedicated to the beginnings of leather production and was therefore only able to present an important part of the industrial technical development in brief.
After the city of Doberlug-Kirchhain had acquired a suitable property (Gerberstr. 42) for the construction of a technical exhibition, extensive demolition work had to be carried out and contaminated sites removed before the building was renovated. The approval of funds to finance the project by the EU and the Ministry of Culture and Agriculture of the State of Brandenburg helped.
The centerpiece of the exhibition was to be a production line consisting of fully functional tannery machines. It was thanks to the newly formed museum advisory board that the tannery machines required to set up a production line could be tracked down, secured and put into operation. Thanks to the “Kulturland Brandenburg 2000” campaign sponsored by the Working Group of the Technical History Museums of the State of Brandenburg, the Ministry of Science, Research and Culture and the Ostdeutsche Sparkassenstiftung, the exhibition project became known nationwide. Finally, on September 10, 2000, the technical exhibition of the Weißgerbermuseum was opened.
The design of the exposition was not yet finished.
By taking over numerous saddlery utensils and tools from master saddler Wilhelm Homagk, the Weißgerbermuseum was able to set up a saddlery as a show workshop in part of the technical exhibition and thus present another important leather-processing trade to the visitors in addition to the shoemaker's trade.
From 1994 to 2017, 95 special exhibitions were held in the Weißgerbermuseum.
Commemorative plaque for the founding of the guild
on February 16, 1811
Silver goblet of the tannins (1922)
Tanning barrels
Ice cream gloves and doll with leather bellows
_21.jpg)
_08_(Ausschnitt).jpg)
_23.jpg)
_09.jpg)
Permanent exhibition
White tanner museum: Historical white tanning workshop (water workshop, drying and dressing room), prehistory and early history, department of general tannery history, exotic department, tin room, shoemaker's room, journeyman's room, special exhibition area
Technical exhibition: water workshop, dressing room, event room, drying floor, saddlery workshop
Museum management
- 1963–1976 Anton Weiß
- 1976–1984 Matthias Belig
- 1984–1994 Petra Eichstädt
- since 1994 Andreas Hanslok
literature
- Giuseppe A. Bravo; Juliana Trupke: 100,000 years of leather . Birkhäuser Verlag 1970
- Petra Eichstädt / Matthias Belig: Weissgerber - Museum Doberlug-Kirchhain . Delitzsch 1986
- Andreas Hanslok: Soft leather in hard work . In: Brandenburger Blätter from December 20, 1997
- Andreas Hanslok: The tension between a technical monument and a technical history museum - the white tanner museum as an example . In: Museumskunde Heft 1 (1998): pp. 84–89
- Andreas Hanslok: Doberlug-Kirchhain - Small Town Chronicle . Spitzkunnersdorf 2003
- Andreas Hanslok (co-author): Kirchhain - first documented mention for 775 years - Festschrift . Doberlug-Kirchhain 2009
- Andreas Hanslok The museum object as an object of knowledge of reified history . In: Museum Aktuell , issue 156 (2009): pp. 9–11
- Hans-Georg Procopius: The history of the tannery in the city of Doberlug-Kirchhain . Cottbus 2007.
Web links
- White Tanner Museum Doberlug-Kirchhain
- http://www.weissgerbermuseum.de/
- http://www.doberlug-kirchhain.de/verzeichnis/objekt.php?mandat=38462
- http://www.technikmuseen.de/fileadmin/bilder/Technikmuseen/Technikreader_2013.pdf
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 51 ° 38 ′ 23 " N , 13 ° 33 ′ 45" E