100 Years Museum Werdenfels

Thousands of Objects and even more (Hi)stories - Culture, Art and Tradition from 5000 BC to the present day

DATE

extended until January 18, 2026.

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200 Things Take Center Stage

The Werdenfels Museum was opened in 1925. Since then, it has grown, expanded, relocated, and has now become a focal point at the intersection of tradition and the present day.

The nucleus of the collection was a “model and antiquities collection” of around 300 items, established in 1895 by the Partenkirchen School of Woodcarving. By the end of its opening year in 1925, the museum housed 1,946 objects. Over the course of a hundred years, the collection has grown to more than 10,000 exhibits—large and small items alike.

We are celebrating the 100th anniversary with a unique traditional costume exhibition in which 100 objects—historical garments, jewelry, belts, shoes, bags, and many other items—have been arranged in a large-scale installation. At the same time, contemporary artists reinterpret the historical spaces or engage with individual exhibits. The focus is on the stories and significance of the objects in the collection, and on their sensory perception beyond mere explanation.

200 things take center stage: 100 objects that can be worn on the body and 100 objects with which people filled spaces and created worlds. The emphasis is on the stories and meanings of the exhibits, and on experiencing them sensorially beyond simple description. In the special exhibition space, we present a unique traditional costume display in which 100 objects—historical garments, hats, jewelry, belts, shoes, and other items once worn or carried by people—are arranged in a large, room-filling installation. This exhibition can be explored, experienced, and viewed from different perspectives—both from the floor and from a bridge spanning the space, even with binoculars.

Art Interventions

In the museum’s historic rooms, the exhibits are placed into new contexts through artistic interventions.

Object artist Stephan Hann focuses on the garments in our collection, relating them to his own clothing objects and thereby creating entirely unexpected new connections. In the installation “Unwrapped – Follow The Girls,” Rita de Muynck addresses a specific museum object: the so-called “Fatschenkind.” In another installation, the artist enables visitors to have a synesthetic experience, allowing them to perceive objects with expanded senses. The sculptor Marie Ostler, who explores the relationship between humans and the environment, takes the Zugspitze as the reference point for her work. In the historic bedroom, painter Alejandro Valbuena engages with the subconscious, while the subject of Michael Gene Aichner’s light art installation is Fritz Pfaffenzeller, founder of the first museum in Partenkirchen, the “Villa Orient.” In addition, the two musicians and composers Michael Popp and Thomas Hoffmann create subtle soundscapes across five rooms.

“Thousands of objects and even more stories” is an exhibition that celebrates objects, the passion for collecting, and the often prematurely declared “obsolete” museum of cultural history as an exciting open space—a place where we can take pleasure, marvel, discover something new, smile, and even laugh.

Museum Werdenfels e.V.
Ludwigstraße 47
82467 Garmisch-Partenkirchen

08821 - 751710
info@museum-werdenfels.de
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