Museum in Dorsten on Jewish religion and culture and the history of Jews in Westphalia, which grew out of a citizens' initiative.
June 28, 2026 – October 11, 2026
Traveling exhibition by the LWL about the Dortmund portrait photographer who, as the daughter of a Jewish father, was barely allowed to work from 1933 onward; reproductions and original prints are on display.
October 18, 2026 – April 18, 2027
Pictures by the Hungarian Jewish artist Ágnes Lukács about her imprisonment in the camps, shown together with works by the Hamburg artist Burkhard Schittny on forced labor and persecution.
The museum has its roots in the Dorsten history workshop “Dorsten unterm Hakenkreuz” (Dorsten under the Swastika), which researched the town's local history of the Nazi era in the 1980s. While working on a volume about the town's Jewish community, the group encountered widespread ignorance about Judaism and at the same time received numerous mementos from contemporary witnesses and from relatives and friends of expelled Jews. This gave rise to the idea of a place of learning that would above all introduce non-Jewish people to Jewish culture and regional history; in 1987 a sponsoring association was founded for this purpose and began collecting.
With support from the state, the regional association (Landschaftsverband), the NRW-Stiftung and the town of Dorsten, the museum opened on June 28, 1992, in a renovated Gründerzeit-era town house on Julius-Ambrunn-Straße, named after the last head of the synagogue community. The addition “Westfalen” was meant to underline its role as the region's only Jewish museum. In 2001 an extension was added with exhibition space, an event hall, foyer and library; its facade of deliberately deformed, partly glazed clinker bricks is striking. The old building was remodeled in 2002 and has since been used for temporary exhibitions and administration.
At the end of 2018 the permanent exhibition “L'Chaim! – Auf das Leben! Jüdisch in Westfalen” (To Life! Jewish in Westphalia) replaced the older displays. It explains holidays, the synagogue and the Torah, tells Westphalian Jewish life stories and addresses migration up to the present day. The work is carried by a small full-time team and many volunteers, complemented by educational projects, events, a reference library and a bookshop.
| Adults | €5 |
|---|---|
| Reduced | €2.50School pupils, university students, apprentices, people with severe disabilities and people receiving social benefits |
| Children & teens | €2.50free up to age 9 · Children under 10 accompanied by their parents free; after that, the pupil rate applies. |
| Visitors with disabilities | €2.50Reduced admission for people with severe disabilities. |
| Students & apprentices | €2.50 |
| Groups (12+ people) | €4 per personSchool classes, courses and youth groups of more than 10 people from the member towns of the sponsoring association (including Bottrop, Dorsten, Dortmund, Gladbeck, Marl, Münster, Oberhausen, Recklinghausen and Wesel) pay €15 per group; smaller groups €1.50 per person. |
Free admission for members of the sponsoring association, the Deutscher Museumsbund and ICOM.
According to the museum, all exhibition and event rooms are accessible to wheelchair users and people with walking impairments (contact page: “largely accessible”); most display cases are easy to see into or can be approached from underneath. An accessible parking space is located directly at the building. Information about the museum is also available in Easy Language (Leichte Sprache).
Great for kids & families
| Kids’ admission | free up to age 9 |
|---|
A children's trail with a logo by Cornelia Funke leads through the permanent exhibition and explains exhibits and hands-on stations; also a scavenger hunt through the exhibition and programs for children's birthday parties.
Bahnhof/Busbahnhof Dorsten
Dorsten train station and bus station are very close by (approx. 200 m).
Free parking · 200 m to the entrance
Free parking at the Dorsten train station/bus station; one accessible parking space directly at the building.
Branch of the Dorsten bookstore König & Parrenin in the foyer (literature on Judaism, postcards, Judaica); reference library; small courtyard with a garden and sculptures.
The museum hasn’t published any information on this – please ask the museum directly.
| Guided tours | yes · approx. 60 min |
|---|---|
| School programs | yes |
| Good to know | Groups please register early; no more than 20 people per group, larger groups are split. Guided tours (overview or themes such as women, soccer and migration) last about 60–90 minutes and can also be arranged outside opening hours; inquiries to lernen@jmw-dorsten.de or 02362 45279. A digital museum guide with eleven videos and more than 30 audio segments on the permanent exhibition is available on the website. |
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