electrum - Das Museum der Elektrizität

Description

Within Hamburg’s museum network, electrum – Das Museum der Elektrizität occupies a special role as a site for the history and practice of electrical power. The collection originated from holdings of the Hamburgische Electricitäts‑Werke (HEW) and was long presented in Barmbek‑Süd before a closure in 2001 and a re‑establishment in Harburg in 2011.

The company began collecting objects as early as the 1920s for internal training and research purposes. In 1964 an exhibition hall opened in a former converter station at Klinikweg 23; after an almost two‑year renovation the institution reopened in 1979 under the name electrum. Initially oriented to the company, the exhibition focused on early electrification and the city’s history. With the expansion of the collection, applications in the household, commerce and the port moved into the foreground. Until its closure the museum attracted numerous visitors each year and was regarded in the German‑speaking region as one of the leading institutions on this subject.

The announced closure on cost grounds led to the cessation of operations in 2001; efforts by a supporting association to continue the museum independently were unsuccessful. Since then the collection has been stored at a depot of HEW’s successor Vattenfall Europe in Hamburg‑Bramfeld and is occasionally loaned to other museums. A steam‑accumulator locomotive from 1911 was handed over in 2003 to a railway association and transferred to Geesthacht. At times consideration was given to integrating parts of the collection into a planned science center in the HafenCity.

For the reopening in Harburg, Vattenfall Europe made the basement of its building at Schloßstraße 1 available in 2010. On roughly 530 square metres around 6,000 of the total 10,000 exhibits are displayed; there are also special presentations, for example the opening exhibition Hörstrom – Musik und Unterhaltungsgeräte gestern und heute. Artistic contributions from earlier exhibition years include works by Walter Giers (1990), Klaus Geldmacher (1991), Peter Vogel (1994), Gvoon Arthur Schmidt (1996) and Frank Fietzek (1997).

A catalogue was published: electrum, Das Museum der Elektrizität, Editor: Hamburger Electricitäts‑Werke AG, 70 pages.