Uhrenmuseum

Description

Located in central Wuppertal was the Wuppertal Clock Museum (also Uhrenmuseum Abeler), a private collection on the history of timekeeping. In the cellar vaults of the main building on Poststraße, around 2,000 exhibits were displayed across approximately 300 m².

It began with a clock collection purchased at auction in Cologne in 1955; the museum opened its doors in 1958. With declining visitor numbers, opening hours were severely reduced until the institution closed on 10 September 2016. Most objects were put up for auction in Frankfurt in November 2016. In autumn 2017 the 178‑year‑old company carried out a complete liquidation sale in its two watch shops as part of winding up the business.

The exhibition documented 5,000 years of the history of timekeeping. On display were, among other items, an Egyptian outflow water clock, Roman and Greek sundials, French pendules and Napoleonic mantel clocks, as well as candle clocks and hourglasses. Unusual forms included clocks fashioned as daggers and buttons, a wooden skull, and Stutzuhren in animal forms. Baroque and Rococo‑style musical mechanisms as well as the development of the wheel clock complemented the collection; the range extended up to the first continental‑European atomic clock of 1956 and wristwatches with solar and quartz drives. Many pieces were restored or reconstructed in a dedicated specialist workshop; about 110 exhibits formed the travelling exhibition "5000 Jahre Zeitmessung."

On the building’s facade there was a carillon that had sounded from a niche since 1951 and was expanded from an original 12 to 37 bells; various melodies were played several times a day. Every quarter hour the figure of Chronos appeared and turned an hourglass; on the hour the figure of Death appeared, symbolizing the passing of the hour. Beneath the carillon, since 1958 a Mercator world map displayed the time in Honolulu, New York, Moscow, Ceylon, Tokyo and Central European Time. A three‑wheeled clock assembled from parts of a destroyed horse‑drawn vehicle attracted media attention; alongside it, a digital world population clock displayed the current global population.

Beyond clocks, the collection included a ring collection of 390 objects (sold in 2011), roughly 15,000 menus with a selection of about 450 items used for the travelling exhibition "Lukull auf den Speisekarten der Welt," as well as approximately 20,000 wine labels relating to the history and design of labels. In total more than one million people visited the museum, including politicians, actors and international delegations.