Ziegelmuseum Alte Ziegelei

Description

The Alte Ziegelei in Mainz-Bretzenheim plays a significant role as an industrial monument in the regional cultural landscape and is part of the Route der Industriekultur Rhein-Main Mainz.

The site is located on former clay deposits and bears traces of a local brick production that evolved from simple field kilns to mechanized manufacture. At the end of the 19th century Nikolaus Tremmel operated a field kiln there; in 1904 Ludwig Anselm Rosbach financed the construction of a Hoffmann ring kiln, thereby initiating the industrialization of the brickyard. In 1922 a phase of modernization followed with the construction of employer housing and ancillary buildings. After production ceased in 1972 the site fell into disrepair.

At the city's initiative and through civic engagement, the city of Mainz acquired the approximately 190,000 m² site with its existing buildings in 1978. In 1980 the Verein der Ziegeleifreunde Mainz was formed with the purpose of preserving the industrial monument and promoting its development into a non-commercial educational, leisure and cultural centre. In 1992 the Alte Ziegelei was placed under protection as an industrial monument and heritage zone.

Today the complex has evolved into a site with varied uses. In addition to the Brick Museum, the grounds house an outreach branch of the adult education centre, a brickworks kindergarten, a theatre workshop, and rooms for the CJD and the BUND; parts of the area are also used to accommodate refugees.

The Brick Museum arose from finds made by two amateur archaeologists and occupies the central area above the historic ring kiln. In the roughly 600-square-metre room, from which fine-grained coal was formerly fed into the firing chambers, the museum now displays its collection. Over 900 roof tiles and bricks document the techniques and forms from prehistory to the present, thus illustrating around 4,000 years of material and building history.