Stadtmuseum Güstrow

Description

In the historic setting of Schloss Güstrow and the Ernst-Barlach-Theater, the Stadtmuseum Güstrow at Franz-Parr-Platz 10 houses the city’s local history collection and documents its development from its founding in the High Middle Ages to the end of the 20th century.

The institution grew out of an art and antiquities association founded in 1890; already in 1892 a first museum opened in the billiard hall on the Promenade. In the following decades there were several relocations and temporary closures: in 1910 the collection moved to Domplatz, in 1923 exhibits were transferred to the castle, and in 1924 a reopening took place at the Wall, where special exhibitions were shown for the first time. During the Second World War holdings were evacuated; in the postwar period they were initially stored in the "Haus der Kultur" on Annaplatz (today Goetheplatz) and from 1953 in a Baroque townhouse at Franz-Parr-Platz 7. In 1958 a permanent city-history exhibition opened, the museum assumed regional responsibilities such as district archaeological monument preservation and the management of a memorial as an external branch, and in 1978 presented a redesigned display as part of the 750th-anniversary celebrations. The most recent comprehensive revision of the permanent exhibition led to the reopening in 2003 in the corner building Franz-Parr-Platz 10.

The collection conveys local historical connections and links them to events beyond the region. On the ground floor an introductory film runs for ten minutes and highlights seven key events for Güstrow: the founding of the cathedral in the 13th century, the beginning of the town’s residence period from 1555, Wallenstein’s entry in 1628, the negotiations of 1712 involving Peter the Great and August the Strong, the activity of the painter Georg Friedrich Kersting around 1800, Ernst Barlach’s first stay in 1908 and his settling from 1910, and the visit of the Federal Chancellor in 1981 and its effects on GDR politics.

The exhibition is organized spatially: ground-floor rooms address Expressionism as well as early urban rule, cathedral history and the Middle Ages. On the upper floor thematically consecutive rooms present the early modern period, the 16th and 17th centuries, the 18th century, the Wars of Liberation of 1813/14, portraits and works by Georg Friedrich Kersting, the Neoclassical cityscape, art and culture of the 19th century, the work of John Brinckman, economic development in the 19th century, Ernst Barlach’s activity in Güstrow, and the city’s history in the 20th century.