Heimatmuseum Reutlingen

Description

In the Königsbronner Hof in Reutlingen’s old town, the Heimatmuseum Reutlingen presents the history of the city from the late medieval period to the present and serves as a focal point of the Historischen Museen Reutlingen.

The collection was established in 1890 by an Association for Art and Antiquities; the first public presentations date back to 1889. The holdings were moved several times before being consolidated in 1939 at the current site in the Königsbronner Hof. The museum opened in 1939, was closed during the Second World War and reopened in 1949. In the late 1980s and early 1990s it underwent a reconception and modernization; it has presented itself in this form since 1996.

The Königsbronner Hof itself is a listed half-timbered building in the old town. Its origins as a stone-built house date from 1278; in 1537 a timber-framed superstructure was added. For a long time it served as the tithe and manorial farm of the Königsbronn monastery and later as an Oberamtshaus.

The permanent exhibition is organized chronologically and thematically and comprises six sections. On the ground floor the focus is on medieval town and church history up to the Reformation, linked with references to the work of Matthäus Albers in the Marienkirche. The first floor covers the period of the Free Imperial City (16th–18th centuries) with particular emphasis on the craft guilds and the annual Schwörtag. On the second floor a literary section addresses the popular education movement of the 19th century as well as the work of the economist and railway pioneer Friedrich List and the writer family Kurz. The attic is devoted to the 19th century as a turning point toward modernity and conveys the townscape and everyday life through large-scale pictorial compositions and period objects. In the basement the development and consequences of National Socialist rule in Reutlingen are examined; numerous exhibits derive from an extensive special exhibition of 1995, which was also documented in a detailed catalogue. The walled museum garden links a park and a lapidarium with stone relics of the city’s history spanning several centuries.

As part of the Historischen Museen Reutlingen, the Industriemagazin, the Museum "Im Dorf" in Betzingen and the Samenhandelsmuseum in Gönningen also belong to the municipal cultural offerings; they complement the city’s history through thematic collections on industrial, village and trade traditions.