The Anno 1900 village museum in Fürnheim am Hesselberg, Middle Franconia, offers a glimpse into what life may have been like in our home region a century ago. It shows how our ancestors would have once lived and worked.
From the house, through the barn and into the workshop: Back then, the cows in the adjacent barn would heat the parlor with their body temperature, while leftover food went straight in the pig trough. Meanwhile, the cooper and cobbler were situated in the workshop just a stone’s throw away.
In the house, the village museum tells the story of the Kollmar brewing family and their ancestors, the Höhenbergers, who originally hail from the region. This era is depicted in all the mementos, both large and small, dotted throughout the house, some of which are more than 100 years old. The collection offers a fascinating insight into how villagers lived and worked before the advent of technological advancements.
Public local history: Anno 1900, located in the former cooper’s shop right next door to our own Forstquell craft beer brewery, is a labor of love for our senior boss Ingrid Kollmar that certainly kept her busy during the pandemic: “Over a period of more than three years, we have renovated just about everything on and in the building. Thanks to the dedication of many local craftsmen and countless helping hands, we have managed to preserve the original features of the house, barns and workshop as much as possible and showcase what made this such a unique period of history.”
The Mayor of Wassertrüdingen, Stefan Ultsch, whose municipality includes the Franconian village of Fürnheim, was hugely excited about the new attraction in the Hesselberg region at its opening in early October: “In today’s throwaway society, it is especially important to understand how our ancestors lived mostly self-sufficiently off the land. For example, in the village museum, you can find tools that younger generations would have to Google in order to find out what they are called and what they are used for!”
Thankfully, local historian and museum guide Werner Paa is on hand at Anno 1900 to give you the lowdown on everything from a cobbler’s last for making and repairing shoes, the flails used for threshing grain and cabbage slicers to make the all-important sauerkraut – all the way through to the more insalubrious world of chamber pots!
Thomas Heydecker, Mayor of Oettingen, situated just ten kilometers away as the crow flies in the Swabian district of Donau-Ries, sums it all up: “The Anno 1900 village museum is a real gem in our Franconian-Swabian corner of the world. In the different themed rooms, you can get an excellent feel of what life was like in the early 1900s and in the decades that followed. Ingrid Kollmar has put a huge amount of commitment into this important contribution to preserving our local history.”
The village museum is open to visitor groups of at least ten people upon request. To register, please get in touch via email at: info@forstquell.de