Deutsches Kochbuchmuseum

Description

Within Dortmund's cultural landscape, the Deutsches Kochbuchmuseum occupies a particular role in presenting domestic food culture.

Originally opened as a branch of the Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Dortmund, the institution began operations on 2 October 1988 in the Westfalenpark. In early 2011 that location was closed; since then the museum has been presenting itself with a revised concept at Ostwall in Dortmund city centre.

The exhibition places an emphasis on Henriette Davidis, who lived in Dortmund from 1856 to 1876, and links her culinary writings with physical display material. Doll's kitchens, stoves, cooking implements and the extensive cookbook collection are used to make technological developments in the kitchen, dining culture and the social differences in eating tangible. From these concrete objects broader connections can also be drawn: notions of family and women's roles in the nineteenth century, and their aftereffects on present-day social conventions, are traced.

The revised permanent exhibition also incorporates themes such as "Cultural Diversity" and "Healthy, Tasty Eating." The museum's cookbook library comprises more than 15,000 titles and focuses primarily on nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature on the kitchen and household in the German-speaking area.