Regional Neunkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia

Museum des Freien Grundes

Local history museum in the Leyhof in Neunkirchen with living rooms, crafts, farming and Hauberg (coppice woodland) economy, and mining in the cellar; visits by appointment.

Ask the museum for opening hours

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About the museum

Even before World War II, local enthusiasts from the Heimat- und Verschönerungsverein Neunkirchen (local heritage and beautification association) began collecting everyday objects for a local history room, the Heimatstube. After the war, a call for donations brought together so many items that the Heimatstube could open in 1957. In 1975 the municipality made the building on the Leyhof available, and after extensive renovations the “Museum des Freien Grundes” opened in 1977. In 1979 the municipality took over sponsorship.

Today the house has around 600 square meters of exhibition space and about 3,000 exhibits, which are notable for their completeness: a lathe, for example, comes with the matching tools and its foot-treadle drive.

The rooms show agricultural and Hauberg economy, crafts, and the furnishing of living spaces, with living and bedrooms, dining room and kitchen. In the cellar, the tradition of mining is shown with a tunnel system and a mineral collection. Office machines and early calculating machines represent more recent history.

Highlights

Recreated living rooms and kitchen
Agriculture and Hauberg (coppice woodland) economy
Crafts with complete sets of tools
Mine gallery system and mineral collection in the cellar
Around 3,000 exhibits on about 600 m²

Permanent exhibition

Heimatmuseum am Leyhof – Several rooms with exhibits from past times, recreated rooms and old tools; a mine gallery system and mineral collection in the cellar.

Founded: 1977
Operated by: Heimat- und Verschönerungsverein Neunkirchen e. V.