Museum Ritter

Description

Located in Waldenbuch near Stuttgart, Museum Ritter displays a private art collection thematically devoted to the square in 20th- and 21st-century art.

The museum opened in September 2005 and is situated directly adjacent to the factory grounds of a regional chocolate manufacturer. It is operated by the Marli-Hoppe-Ritter-Stiftung zur Förderung der Kunst and presents the private collection of Marli Hoppe-Ritter and her husband Hilmar Hoppe. The institution organises rotating exhibitions that examine the motif of the square through different artistic approaches. The majority of the roughly 1,000 objects originate from Europe.

The founding museum management was responsible for the establishment and curatorial positioning of the museum; since 2011 the house has been led by a successor management.

The building concept follows a square plan of 44 × 44 metres, with the monolithic appearance of the light-clad cubic volume broken up by two wings and a passage running through the Aichtal. The building height is 14 metres. The larger wing offers approximately 700 m² of exhibition space over two levels. In the smaller wing an exhibition provides general information about chocolate and the history of the local manufacturer; it also houses a chocolate workshop offering programmes for registered visitors. Both parts of the building are accessible. Heating and air-conditioning systems are predominantly supplied by renewable sources.