Museum Brot und Kunst

Current exhibitions

About the museum

The Ulm entrepreneurs Willy Eiselen and his son Hermann Eiselen, manufacturers of baking agents, founded the world's first museum of the cultural history of bread in 1955. In 1960 the collection got its own exhibition building on Fürsteneckerstraße. From the start, the museum was also meant to be a place for reflecting on how to feed the world's population more fairly. Since 1978, the nonprofit Vater und Sohn Eiselen-Stiftung has run the museum.

In 1991 the museum moved into the Salzstadel in Ulm's city center. The listed Renaissance building of 1592/93, with its steep gabled roof and impressive timber-post halls, once served as the Free Imperial City's storehouse for grain and salt.

Known as the Museum der Brotkultur (Museum of Bread Culture), it was reconceived and reopened in July 2019 as Museum Brot und Kunst – Forum Welternährung (Museum of Bread and Art – Forum on World Food). Since then, the permanent exhibition has combined themed sections on grain, bread, nutrition, and global resources with an art collection spanning the 15th to the 21st century. The collection comprises around 20,000 objects; special exhibitions regularly explore food-related themes in art and society.

Highlights

• Art collection from Pieter Brueghel the Younger to Chagall, Picasso, and Lüpertz
• Salvador Dalí's surrealist sculpture "Retrospektive Frauenbüste" (Retrospective Bust of a Woman)
• Renaissance Salzstadel of 1592/93 with timber-post halls
• Themed rooms on bread, hunger, and global food security
• Free media guide with a children's version

Permanent exhibitions

• Brot und Nahrung – Themed rooms on grain, bread making, and agriculture, as well as global questions of resources and hunger.
• Kunstsammlung – Works from the 15th to the 21st century, from Old Master still lifes and village scenes to Chagall, Picasso, Dalí, and contemporary installations.

Founded

1955

Operated by

Vater und Sohn Eiselen-Stiftung

Director

Isabel Greschat

Admission & discounts

Free admission: Every first Friday of the month

Free admission with the UlmCard and the Museums-PASS-Musées. Free admission for children under 8 follows from the reduced rate applying from age 8 (as Tourismus Ulm also states).

Accessibility

• Partially wheelchair accessible
• Elevator: no information
• Accessible restroom: no information
• Accessible parking: no information
• Service dogs welcome: no information
• Tactile models & exhibits: no information
• Sign language tours: no information
• Easy-to-read materials: no information
• Audio description: no information

According to the museum, largely accessible.

Kids & families

Great for kids & families

• Family tours & workshops
• Activity booklet, scavenger hunt or kids’ audio guide

Free children's version of the media guide, in which Toni the mouse guides you through the museum. Family tours in the permanent exhibition and children's workshops (Kids Art Lab) on select dates; discovery tours for daycare groups ages 4 and up.

Getting there & parking

Amenities & dining

• Café
• Museum shop

Museum café on the top floor every first Friday of the month 13:00–16:00. Museum shop with online ordering.

Events & venue rental

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

Plan your visit