Heimat- und Jagdmuseum Alte Schmitte

Association-run museum in a former chain and fittings factory in Sundern-Endorf with a hunting department, forge, mining tunnel, and local history rooms.

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About the museum

The museum is located in the former factory buildings of the company Franz Miederhoff, which began in 1896 in Endorf as a small forge. At first it made chains for agriculture, later also fittings. In 1987 the company moved to Sundern, and the old buildings in the village initially stood empty.

On the occasion of the village's 800th anniversary, residents of Endorf collected numerous historic objects and tools, which became the foundation of a collection. The Museumsverein Endorf (museum association), founded in 1995, received the factory buildings from the Miederhoff company for its use and gradually built up the local history and hunting museum there; the work is still done by volunteers today.

The departments range from a working forge through craft workshops such as a cobbler's, saddler's, and carpenter's shop, a fire brigade museum, agriculture and forestry, and a reconstructed mine tunnel to historic living rooms. One focus is the hunting exhibition with weapons and taxidermy specimens. Products from Miederhoff's long company history can also be seen. Twice a year the association presents changing exhibitions, and every two years a nativity scene exhibition.

Highlights

Working forge
Hunting exhibition with weapons and animal specimens
Reconstructed mine tunnel
Fire brigade museum and old craft workshops
The museum's own coffee room with a monthly "coffee cinema"

Permanent exhibitions

Jagdmuseum – Exhibition on hunting with historic weapons, local animal specimens, and hunting trophies, including from Africa.
Schmiede und Handwerk – Working forge in the former Miederhoff factory as well as workshops of the cobbler, saddler, and carpenter, complemented by products of the Miederhoff company.