Ostfriesisches Landesmuseum Emden

Description

In the centre of Emden the Ostfriesisches Landesmuseum Emden serves as a regional cultural institution that places the art, cultural and regional history of East Frisia in a European context. The museum is sponsored by the city of Emden and the Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst und vaterländische Altertümer zu Emden seit 1820 (short: 1820 die KUNST). Of the more than 50,000 objects in the holdings, roughly four percent are shown in the permanent exhibition; changing special exhibitions further complement the offer.

The roots of the institution go back to the early 19th century: in 1820 the society was founded with the aim of preserving regional cultural assets. After several relocations and expansions, the holdings of the society and the city were combined in 1962 and presented in the rebuilt Rathaus on the Delft, which has served as a cultural venue ever since. The museum was closed between 2003 and 2005 for a comprehensive redesign; it reopened on 6 September 2005 under its present name.

The collections concentrate on the entanglements of Emden and East Frisia with European cultural history. On view are Dutch paintings from the 16th to the 18th centuries, East Frisian and North German works of the 19th and 20th centuries, graphic prints, city and sea maps, ecclesiastical sculpture, coins and silver jewellery and everyday objects. Archaeological finds range from early settlement to the Early Modern period; the bog body “Mann von Bernuthsfeld” is among the most significant pieces and has been exhibited in its own room since 2016. The Stiftung für bildende Kunst und Kultur in der deutsch-niederländischen Ems-Dollart-Region, founded in 2011 (StibiKu), provides an institutional framework for further acquisitions of contemporary works.

The permanent exhibition comprises about 2,800 objects over roughly 2,880 m² and is spread across five floors in thematically organised sections: cartography and the coast with historic sea charts and multimedia displays, early coastal settlement with a large diorama on dike construction, church history and Frisian Freedom, the urban history of Emden with its heyday in the 16th century, the painting gallery and a chronological timeline of more recent history. Other focal points are the Emder Rüstkammer with weapons from the „Goldene Zeit“ as well as the Neue Galerie, on display since 2012, with regional art of the 20th and 21st centuries. A tower section commemorates bell-ringers, night-watchmen and the city carillon, whose largest peal bears the inscription „Civibus Hostitibusque Embdae Gaudio“.