History of the Museum and its Collections up to 2013
The history of our Stadtmuseum is complex and is reflected in the quality of its collections, which are of more than regional importance.
The Stadtmuseum was founded in 1879 as a local history museum by Willibald Filser. The collection comprised objects from the old Town Hall and the craftsmen and patrician families of the town. The exhibits were initially displayed in the Town Hall.
In 1901, parallel to an agricultural fair, the town presented an ensemble of rural parlours from the local area in the Kaisergäßchen, in a building which was the former agricultural school and is now the museum. The groundbreaking exhibition “Folk Art in the Allgäu” served as a model for similar exhibitions in other museums.
In 1928, in the same building, Dr. Bernhard Rost curated an exhibition based on parts of the estate of the famous author Ludwig Ganghofer (1855-1920), who was born in Kaufbeuren.
When, in 1934, the rooms used by the museum in the Town Hall were required for administrative purposes, the collection of local history exhibits was transferred to the building in Kaisergäßchen, which still housed the popular ensemble of rural parlours.
1936 saw the addition of a further gem to the museum’s collection – the extensive crucifix collection of local priest Richard Wiebel.
After having been run on a voluntary basis for more than 120 years, in 2002 the town council decided that the planning and operation of the new museum should be placed in the hands of a professional curator.
The same year, the old museum had to be closed due to massive structural problems.
16 May 2003, International Museum Day, saw the founding of the “Freundeskreis des Kaufbeurer Stadtmuseums“ („Friends of the Stadtmuseum Kaufbeuren”). Since then, membership has risen to more than 500, and during the past 10 years the organisation has collected more than 600.000 Euros to support the work of the Stadtmuseum.
In 2003 the town council funded the conversion of a former printing office into a museum repository. The transferral of all the museum’s exhibits to the almost 600 m2 repository took three years.
In the course of this process, the objects were digitally catalogued and many restoration and conservation measures carried out.
In 2007 the town council launched a design competition in which architects were invited to submit proposals for a desperately needed extension to the
existing building.
The restoration and extension of the museum building was carried out between 2009 and 2013.
On 7 June 2013 Kaufbeuren’s Stadtmuseum was officially reopened.
In October 2013 the museum was awarded the Bavarian Museum Prize 2013.
Header: Stadtmuseum Kaufbeuren
