Historical Museum, Frankfurt

View from the Main, März 2009

The portrait of Charlemagne in front of the Historisches Museum

The Historical Museum (German: Historisches Museum) in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, was founded in 1878, and includes cultural and historical objects relating to the history of Frankfurt and Germany. It moved into the Saalhof in 1955, and a new extension was opened in 1972.

The 1970s extension is currently being replaced by a modern new exhibition building and a small administration building which are expected to be completed by 2015.^[1]

Collection

The museum's collection is displayed in several permanent chronological exhibitions: Mediaeval Frankfurt, the Late Middle Ages, the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, the nineteenth-century city, and its history as a metropolis from 1866 to 2001. Special exhibitions are also on display.

Important artworks

St. Anne altarpiece from the Carmelite church in Frankfurt, c.1500 by the Master of Frankfurt
The Heller Altarpice (1508) from the Dominican cloister in Frankfurt by Albrecht Dürer
The Reconciliation of Emperor Otto I with his brother Heinrich in 941 in Frankfurt am Main (1840) by Alfred Rethel
A highlight of the museum is the Treuner Brothers' model of the old town (Altstadt), showing how it looked before World War II bombing.