Landesfeuerwehr-Museum

Description

In the centre of Stendal, the Landesfeuerwehrmuseum Sachsen-Anhalt preserves the material and documentary heritage of firefighting in central Germany. The museum is located on the site Arneburger Straße 146a, a former depot of the Katastrophenschutz of the DDR, and comprises three buildings and an outdoor area.

The institution traces back to initiatives that began in 1972 with the founding of the association Feuerwehrhistorik Altmark e.V. on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the volunteer fire brigade of Stendal; at that time photo exhibitions and historic equipment were shown in demonstration displays. The collection was institutionalized as a museum on 8 May 1993. Thematic focus is primarily on the history of the fire services in the central German region; an alternative designation as the “Mitteldeutsches Feuerwehrmuseum” was not realized after the political reorganization in the post-reunification period.

On the ground floor of the main building there are several exhibition rooms as well as administrative and staff facilities. In a large vehicle hall the majority of the vehicle equipment is housed; additional vehicles are accommodated in a four-bay workshop and can be seen on the outdoor site. The permanent exhibition documents the development of firefighting and fire protection in central Germany; one emphasis is the period 1945 to 1952 in East Germany, presented for visitor groups such as school classes and supplemented by extensive exhibits and scale-model vehicles.

Further displays are devoted to delivery and pumping technology—from wooden hand pumps via portable pumps and ventilators to pumps for handling hazardous substances—radio and control-centre technology including a functioning control-room console, and the work of the fire divers. The vehicle hall also shows equipment for technical rescue, from saws and cutters to an oxygen cutting device. The vehicle collection ranges from wooden water wagons and carriages through operational vehicles of the Third Reich to firefighting vehicles of the DDR; Magirus vehicles are included with a regional connection. The current special exhibition illuminates the history of firefighting on the railways from the beginnings, through the period of German division, to the present.

The museum is sponsored and operated by the association Feuerwehrhistorik Stendal e.V.; the work is carried out largely by dedicated volunteers.