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Zirkelmuseum

Industrial museum in the Wilhelmsdorf town hall on the production of compasses and drawing instruments, with original line-shaft machines, a compass forge and case making.

Åbningstider

Hjemmeside Rute

Om museet

For more than a century, Wilhelmsdorf was shaped by stocking knitting, until demand collapsed and the village fell into poverty. In 1896 the merchant Edmund Boden and the engineer Johann Christian Lotter founded the village's first drawing-instrument factory; further businesses and numerous suppliers followed. In the 1950s and 1960s, according to the museum, about a third of the world's sales of compasses and drawing instruments came from Wilhelmsdorf and the surrounding area; later, cheap production abroad and computerization shrank production.

To keep the knowledge of this craft from being lost, members of the local heritage association began collecting in 1987 and set up the museum on the third floor of the town hall, which opened in 1992. The old machines, driven by line shafts, were restored and set up again.

The tour follows the path of a compass: from the compass forge and rough fabrication with cutting, milling and drilling machines, through polishing, electroplating and adjusting, to case carpentry and case making. Display cases show compass shapes, technical innovations and patents of local and out-of-town manufacturers; a twelve-minute film introduces the history of the town and its production.

Højdepunkter

Original line-shaft machines used for compass production
Compass forge, polishing shop, electroplating and adjusting shop
Case carpentry and case making
Display cases with compasses, drawing instruments and patents
Introductory film on local history (12 minutes)