Feuerwehrmuseum Finsterwalde

Description

In the southern Brandenburg town of Finsterwalde, the Feuerwehrmuseum Finsterwalde documents the development of regional firefighting. The exhibition is housed in the coach house of the Haberland'sche Villa on Geschwister-Scholl-Straße, part of a group of buildings dating from the 19th century that is listed in the Brandenburg state register of historic monuments. The street was called Kurzer Damm until 1948.

The exhibition covers approximately 350 square metres and displays exhibits from various eras. The collection was moved from rooms in the Finsterwalde castle that had previously been used by a cloth factory and were converted into a fire station in 1925. After the former castle building was transformed into a citizens' office, the buildings intended for the museum were handed over to the local fire brigade association in June 2012; the new facility opened in January 2013. The renovation, carried out in accordance with heritage conservation requirements, cost about half a million euros; the federal and state governments covered two-thirds of the costs.

Central objects include historic, operational vehicles, among them a tank fire engine TLF 15 H3A (built 1956), a hose carrier SKW 14 S4000 (built 1959) and an AdW Wartburg 353 response vehicle from 1986. The display is complemented by water-bearing fittings, radio and alarm equipment, breathing apparatus and small appliances, ladders, a two-wheeled water barrel, as well as aerial ladder and attack vehicles. The oldest exhibit is believed to be a hand-operated pump from 1881, manufactured in Herzberg/Elster and added to the collection in 1972 on the occasion of the fire brigade's hundredth anniversary. A 2014 publication also lists tank fire engines, hose wagons, command vehicles and three cars in the inventory.