Collections

Collection sectors
Object Database

Collection sectors
Everyday Culture/Ethnology The collection encompasses significant objects in the fields of cultural and civic history from the 18th century to the present day.Altogether approximately 20,000 objects reflect objects used in everyday life by both the city’s upper and lower classes. These include furniture, amongst them some smaller items, household goods, clothes, uniforms, flags, toys, handcrafted items and machines, dioramas and models as well as objects relating to customs and traditions.An important place is accorded to the area of youth and children’s culture as components of each part of everyday culture. Contact: Katrin Sohl, Fon 0341/9 65 13 13

Art/Handicrafts Consisting of works of art in various genres dating from between the 15th and the 21st centuries, the collection represents more than just the history of art in Leipzig: church history or the development of the city itself can also be traced through it, and it allows insights into the way the city’s citizens lived and saw themselves. The collection contains 1075 paintings, 19 000 prints and drawings comprising roughly 10 000 views of the city and 9000 artistic graphics, 5000 architectural drawings, 5000 maps and plans, 20 000 posters and 780 sculptures. The specialised Handicraft Collections include the clock, glass, and metal collection with over 1000 objects. Contact: Ulrike Dura, Fon 0341/9 65 13 12

City and State History This wide-ranging collection includes documents, autographs (letters, certificates, family registers), travelling showpeople’s handbills, incunabula, old prints, postage stamps and insignia from the period between the 15th and the 21st centuries. The document collection reflects all areas of society through its 50 000 individual objects ranging from membership cards, via political flyers through to private papers such as certificates of marriage or birth. The autograph collection contains 20 000 individual letters, the most valuable by famous figures such as Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, Napoleon, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Richard Wagner and Max Klinger. Contact: Doris Mundus, Fon 0341/9 65 13 11

Music and Theatre History A lock of Richard Wagner’s hair, a receipt signed by Bach and a conductor’s desk used by both Mendelssohn and Mozart are only three of the almost 200 000 objects in the Music and Theatre Collection; also included are programmes from the Gewandhaus and other concert halls and theatres, sheet music, sound storage media and historical musical instruments. The objects in the Collection date from between the 18th century up to the present day Contact: Kerstin Sieblist, Fon 0341/9 65 13 14

Numismatics The collection comprises coins and medals related to Leipzig. Coins from Saxony and Thuringia dominate, but the collection also includes stock and security certificates. Various private collections which have been presented or bequeathed to the Museum by local citizens (Davignon and Pätzig) demonstrate Leipzigers’ love of collecting. The collection contains 10 000 objects dating from between the end of the 13th century and the present day. Contact: Steffen Poser, Fon 0341/24 16 870

Militaria The collection contains 1500 objects including orders and decorations. The collection is built around a core formed by the remnants of the municipal arsenal which was closed down in 1827/28 and shows the city’s history from the military point of view, starting at its very beginnings (excavated objects), ranging through to the Nazi era and the socialist regime of the German Democratic Republic, and including both militia and citizens’ defence organisations. Wars and sieges, including the Hussite Wars, the Schmalkaldish War, the Thirty Years War, the Seven Years War, various wars of liberation and the Second World War, have left their marks on the city, whereby the objects relating to the Napoleonic era and the decisive event in the military history of Leipzig – the Battle of Leipzig, or Battle of the Nations – form the centre of the collection. Contact: Steffen Poser, Fon 0341/24 16 870

Fototheque Containing 100 000 objects, the collection includes examples of early photographic (daguerreotypes), glass negatives showing the city and its architecture, negatives, slides, collections of images taken by Leipzig photographers, electronic images, photographic equipment and 12 000 postcards of Leipzig through the years. Contact: Christoph Kaufmann, Fon 0341/9 65 13 21

Pre- and Early History/Archaeology The collection of archaeological finds has its roots in the activities of two local archaeologists, Max Näbe and Herbert Küas. The Näbe Collection consists of 700 excavated pieces dating from the period between the 11th and the 18th centuries, including ceramics from the Middle Ages, pottery, glassware, metal products and wooden objects. The K�as Collection comprises 1400 archaeological finds dating from the Neolithic period, the Bronze and Celtic Iron Ages, and remnants from the Slavic settlement between the 10th and 14th centuries. Contact: Doris Mundus, Fon 0341/9 65 13 11

Library The specialised library on the history of Leipzig is the city’s memory in print form. The collection focuses on the history of architecture, art, music, church, school, administration, trade and the trade fair in Leipzig. The Museum Library houses a valuable collection of bibliophile editions and a range of publications on Leipzig from the period 1950 – 1980 that is unique in the city. Of outstanding significance are the inventory of books relating to the labour movement and also the library of the Georgi-Dimitroff-Museum (1952 -1991). Contact: Marko Kuhn, Fon 0341/9 65 13 33

Sport History The collection comprises 80 000 sport-related items such as equipment, clothing, flags, medals, trophies and cups, photographs, recordings, slides, books, documents, posters, paintings, images, models and also objects from other collections such as the Leipzig Turnfest archive. The collection covers the period from the 19th to the 20th centuries. Contact: Dr. Gerlinde Rohr, Fon 0341/9 80 51 12