Burgmuseum Pewsum

About the museum

The Manningaburg in the center of Pewsum, between the market square and the bus station, goes back to a chieftain who first appears in records in 1404. In 1458 Poppo Manninga had the castle rebuilt; his son Focko began building an upper castle around 1530, which was among the finest noble seats in the country. The high costs plunged the family into debt, and in 1565 the property passed to the Counts Cirksena. Countess Katharina von Wasa and later several princely widows used it as a residence.

In the 18th century the upper castle decayed and was demolished; the lower castle survived and served as an administrative building for the court and local government. In the 19th century it changed owners several times. Later the Edenhuizen family lived here, from whom the first German woman doctor, Hermine Heusler-Edenhuizen, came. During the Nazi era it housed a party training school, during the Second World War a military hospital, and afterwards it sheltered expellees.

In 1954 the Heimatverein Krummhörn (local heritage association) acquired the castle and saved it from decay. Since 1980 it has belonged to the municipality of Krummhörn; restored with heritage conservation authorities and the Ostfriesische Landschaft, it was redesigned as a museum. Today the house informs visitors about the chieftain families Manninga and Cirksena, East Frisian castles, church building and faith in the region, and about Hermine Heusler-Edenhuizen.

Highlights

• Preserved lower castle of an East Frisian chieftain's castle
• Models of East Frisian and Groningen castles
• History of the Manninga and Cirksena families
• Exhibition on church building and piety in East Frisia
• Section on the first German woman doctor, Hermine Heusler-Edenhuizen

Permanent exhibitions

• Ostfriesische Häuptlingsburgen und die Familien Manninga und Cirksena – The exhibition shows how Frisian castles developed from simple stone houses into fortresses, and tells the history of the chieftain and count families of Pewsum.
• Kirchenbau und Frömmigkeit in Ostfriesland – Part of the permanent exhibition is devoted to regional church building and the faith of people in East Frisia.
• Hermine Heusler-Edenhuizen – A dedicated section commemorates Hermine Heusler-Edenhuizen, born in Pewsum, Germany's first officially recognized gynecologist in private practice.

Operated by

Heimatverein Krummhörn e. V. (Eigentümerin: Gemeinde Krummhörn)

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