Oderlandmuseum

About the museum

The Oderlandmuseum was founded in 1889, making it one of the oldest museums in the state of Brandenburg. Since 1952 it has been housed in the Loebensches Freihaus right on the market square, opposite St. Nicholas Church (Nikolaikirche).

The house was built around 1774 for the officer Johann Friedrich von Loeben; behind the plastered late Baroque facade with its hipped roof lies a half-timbered structure, and the initials in the transom above the front door recall the original owner. In 1860 Ernst Haeckel spent several weeks here with his brother, who lived in the house, working on his monograph on radiolarians. In the late 1920s the town bought the building and used it for offices before the museum moved in. In 2008 the listed building underwent extensive renovation.

Since 2011 the Albert Heyde Stiftung has operated the museum. The collection comprises around 30,000 objects on the prehistory and early history of the Oderland, the draining and resettlement of the Oderbruch in the 18th century, and the history of the town. It also includes a reference library and an archive of written and pictorial sources, among them regional newspapers dating back to 1849.

The permanent exhibition introduces the cultural landscape of the Oderbruch and tells how Freienwalde developed, from the founding of its mineral spring in 1684, into the oldest spa and bathing resort in the Mark Brandenburg.

Highlights

• Loebensches Freihaus from around 1774 on the market square
• Draining and settlement of the Oderbruch under Frederick II
• History of the oldest spa town in the Mark Brandenburg
• Regional library and archive on the history of the Oderland

Permanent exhibitions

• Kulturlandschaft Oderbruch – From the fishing settlements in the marshland through the draining from 1753 to the arrival of colonists from many regions.
• Kur- und Badestadt Freienwalde – Town history from the mineral spring of 1684 and Freienwalde's rise as a spa town, with its characteristic 18th- and 19th-century buildings.

Founded

1889

Operated by

Albert Heyde Stiftung

Director

Reinhard Schmook

Admission & discounts

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