Brandenburgisches Eisenbahnmuseum Falkenberg (Elster)

Description

In the southern Brandenburg town of Falkenberg/Elster, the Brandenburgische Eisenbahnmuseum Falkenberg (Elster) is dedicated to documenting and presenting the regional railway history centered on the town's transport hub.

The museum is housed in the lower part of Falkenberg (Elster) station; the exhibition rooms are located in the former canteen of the now-closed locomotive depot and adjoin the Jüterbog–Röderau railway line. In the same town there is also the Dampflokfriedhof Falkenberg, which is not organizationally connected to the museum.

Collection and outreach work began as early as the 1980s with the establishment of a "Technical Cabinet" and the display of a Class 52 steam locomotive as a technical monument. The museum was formally opened in 1994 by a support association founded in 1993. The institution's aim is to research and present the history of the railway junction; this includes collecting and exhibiting railway-typical vehicles, technical installations, equipment and contemporary historical documents relating to the site and its surroundings. After initially using the station concourse, the museum moved in 1998 into rooms of the former DRK station service; as these soon became too small, it relocated in 2006 to its current premises in the former canteen.

The permanent exhibition includes the preserved Class 52 steam locomotive that belonged to the locomotive depot and is listed as a technical monument in the monument register of the State of Brandenburg. The presentation is complemented by a model of the Falkenberg station building destroyed in the Second World War, information panels, historical photographs, display cases with documents, work equipment and uniforms, as well as small technical devices such as ticket printers, scales, lamps and individual items of former station fittings. A photo and text archive documents the holdings. The museum regularly presents special exhibitions on topics such as "25 Years of Electrification of Falkenberg Station", "65th Anniversary of the Bombing of the Station and the Town of Falkenberg", "20 Years of Monument Locomotive 52 5679" or "100 Years of the Neuburxdorf–Mühlberg Line".