The Rhineland Open-Air Museum Kommern
Many open-air museums in Germany try to reconstruct daily life in the past as it once used to be. But in Kommern, it's not just about the maintenance of ancient monuments but also about an appreciation of the present.
A tavern inside an old farmhouse
When the ope- air museum of Kommern opened in 1961, ethnologists were focused on trying to save ancient buildings from demolition by rebuilding there. Nowadays, Kommern also highlights the era during which the museum itself came into being. The "Marketplace Rhineland" section of the museum shows how old farm houses, like the one once belonging to the Watteler family, transitioned into pubs.
Prefabricated houses
During Germany's so-called economic miracle, urban life started to have an influence on the villages of the Rhineland. This 1965 prefabricated house once stood in the town of Stommelerbusch. Such prefabs gained in popularity because they could easily be set up anywhere. This particular house by the company "Quelle" first needed to be cleared of asbestos before being transferred to the museum.
Furniture that can suddenly be replaced
As the living room of the "Quelle" prefab shows, furniture could be easily replaced from the 1960s onwards. Museum director Josef Mangold says that in the 60s, "regional characteristics basically began disappearing, giving room to national, and even international, styles. The best example of that is the Swedish furniture house, Ikea."
Collecting antique items
The Rhineland Open-Air Museum Kommern is also a place to preserve local folklore. Not only does it conserve buildings and furniture, but it also collects items of daily life, chiefly of the postwar era. Finding furniture and toys of past centuries is proving to be a lot harder - and more expensive. Acquiring the House Kessenich of 1616 certainly didn't come cheap.
The gameboy is already a museum item
The numerous items of daily life are kept in huge storage rooms at the open-air museum, waiting to be used for special exhibits. Ethnologist Raphael Thörmer has discovered a box with computer games of the 1980s in a toy collector's shop, which are now featured at the exhibition, "Kinderträume" ('Children's Dreams').
Free-range chickens and geese
The Kommern museum was ahead of its time when it opened in the early 1960s, as it already attempted to showcase not just buildings, but entire structures in context, highlighting the particular characteristics of regions and subregions, for example rural life in the Westerwald province. Animals and their homes, from stables to coops, are also featured.
The Kommern Pig
The Rhineland Open-Air Museum in Kommern has joined efforts with the University of Giessen in reviving entire races of farm animals, including a particular pig race. Now referred to as the "Kommern pig," these pigs stand out for having a black head and behind. If they are born without these characteristic markings, the pigs will unfortunately be slaughtered sooner than their pure-breed friends.
The museum's oldest house
Each building cluster in the museum is dedicated to a particular region of the Rhineland, such as the Eifel or the Westerwald. The museum's oldest edifice can be found in the cluster representing the Lower Rhine region. It is a granary from the 15th century that once stood in the village of Lürrip close to the town of Jülich. It was particularly tall so thieves would refrain from stealing corn.
Learning from history
Since 2006, a permanent exhibit called "Wir Rheinländer" ('We Rhinelanders') keeps drawing crowds, showing how politics left a decisive mark on daily life in the Rhineland and the development of the region. Visitors get to experience life in the fictitious town of Rhenania from 1794 to 1955 - from the French occupation under Napoleon to Germany's reconstruction efforts after World War II.
Preserving the past for the future
Since the 1990s, the museum also presents historical reenactments. Members of the museum staff play roles, like that of the farmer's wife "Anna Ippendorf," who tells the audience about her daily chores while cutting vegetables. Nowadays the staff are filmed while sharing these stories so future audiences yet to be born can still get to listen to them one day.