Ditmarsium

About the museum

The museum is located in a house on Große Mühlenstraße where the Bernhardt family ran a saddlery for four generations, from 1845 to 1989. In 1992, the municipality of Burg bought the building to preserve the workshop, which had survived unchanged, and to set up a local history museum. The friends' association Förderverein Heimatmuseum Burg, founded in 1993, renovated the house over many years through its own work and built up the exhibition as volunteers; the Burger Museum opened in May 2003.

From 2015, the shipping section was renewed first. This grew into a multi-year project funded by the EU and the state that modernized the entire building; since its completion, the museum has been called DITMARSIUM. Rather than individual objects, the museum shows fully furnished rooms that are explained via tablet, films and touchscreens.

Three themes shape the exhibition: a complete rural pharmacy with dispensary, laboratory, medicine cellar and poison room, along with a medicinal herb garden; crafts and trades, with a colonial goods store, shoemaker's, watchmaker's and saddler's workshops, a dentist's office and a hairdresser's salon from the surrounding area; and cargo shipping, which shaped the boatmen's village of Burg for a century and a half – from the peat barge (Torfewer) to the container ship. The museum and the cultural venue "Alte Räucherei" (old smokehouse) are still run entirely by volunteers.

Highlights

• Fully preserved rural pharmacy with laboratory and poison room
• Medicinal herb garden with plants arranged by use
• Original saddlery workshop in its historic location
• Colonial goods store, watchmaker's workshop and village hair salon
• Shipping room with a relief floor map and introductory film
• Tablet tour, also for children

Permanent exhibitions

• Die alte Burger Apotheke – A fully furnished rural pharmacy with every room from the dispensary to the medicine cellar, complemented by a medicinal herb garden.
• Handwerk & Gewerbe – Original shops and workshops from Burg and the surrounding area, including a colonial goods store, a saddlery, a watchmaker, a dentist and a hairdresser.
• Burger Schifffahrt – Cargo shipping on the west coast, illustrated by the boatmen's village of Burg, from the peat barge to the container ship, with models and multifunctional display cases.

Founded

2003

Operated by

Förderverein Heimatmuseum Burg e.V.

Director

Peter Sommer

Admission & discounts

Tablet tour included in admission. The Plus membership in the friends' association (from €24 a year) includes free admission.

Accessibility

The museum hasn’t published any information on this – please ask the museum directly.

Kids & families

Great for kids & families

• Activity booklet, scavenger hunt or kids’ audio guide
• Hands-on stations

Specially programmed children's tablets guide younger visitors through the exhibition in a child-friendly way; at many stations, exhibits can be set in motion yourself at the push of a button. Children under 6 have free admission.

Getting there & parking

By car via the A23, exit Schafstedt, then via Eggstedt and Hochdonn to Burg.

Amenities & dining

• Café
• Museum shop
• Coat check
• Lockers

Schiffer-Café, a shipping-themed café (up to 24 seats, covered terrace for up to 30 people); small museum shop with items including cardboard model kits; coat check and lockers. Dogs are not allowed in the museum.

Events & venue rental

The museum hasn’t published any information on this – please ask the museum directly.

Plan your visit