Rhein-Museum Koblenz

Current exhibitions

About the museum

The Rhein-Museum goes back to an association founded in Koblenz in July 1912 at the suggestion of regional court director Wilhelm Spies. The goal was a museum documenting the cultural landscape of the entire Rhine; support came from riparian states, cities and companies. Its first home was a former girls' school near the Kastorkirche in Koblenz's Rheinanlagen, whose facade still bears the lettering today.

This building was destroyed in an air raid in 1944. For decades, the salvaged holdings could only be partially displayed, until the museum found a new home in Ehrenbreitstein in the early 1990s: the brick school building on Charlottenstraße at the foot of the fortress, built between 1887 and 1890 and expanded with an extension in 2000. The listed building lies within the Upper Middle Rhine Valley UNESCO World Heritage Site; the writer Joseph Breitbach was born in this house in 1903.

The museum is still run by the nonprofit association Rhein-Museum e. V., with volunteers handling most of the supervision and ticket sales. Across some 1,600 square meters, themed rooms cover Rhine shipping from the dugout canoe to the motor ship, steam engines, Rhine–sea shipping and river pilots, waterway construction, hydrology, fish and fishing, castles, Rhine Romanticism and human prehistory. The centerpiece of the entrance hall is the Ehrenbreitstein ship, a 17th-century find that belonged to the first pontoon bridge between Koblenz and Ehrenbreitstein. Only a small part of the roughly 15,000 objects in the collection is on display; a special exhibition is added each year. Since 1926 the association has published the series "Beiträge zur Rheinkunde."

Highlights

• Ehrenbreitstein ship – a 17th-century ship find
• Models of Rhine vessels and a model of the Koblenz pontoon bridge several meters long
• 30-ton steam engine
• The last wooden pilot boat on the Rhine
• Rhine Romanticism with paintings, castle models and souvenir kitsch
• Digital tour as an audio guide in German and English

Permanent exhibitions

• Rheinschifffahrt – Vom Einbaum zum Großmotorschiff – Two rooms with models of sailing ships, steamships and motor ships, along with original objects, trace the development of shipping on the Rhine.
• Ehrenbreitsteiner Schiff – This 17th-century ship find belonged to the first pontoon bridge between Koblenz and Ehrenbreitstein and forms the centerpiece of the large hall.
• Romantik und Reisen am Rhein – Paintings, travel souvenirs and castle motifs show how the Middle Rhine became a place of longing and a tourist destination.

Founded

1912

Operated by

Rhein-Museum Koblenz e. V.

Admission & discounts

Currently cash only.

Accessibility

• Partially wheelchair accessible
• Elevator
• Accessible restroom
• 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

Largely accessible thanks to the elevator; only a small area around the Ehrenbreitstein ship is not accessible. Accessible restroom on request. Tours for visitors with visual impairments by arrangement.

Kids & families

Great for kids & families

• Family tours & workshops

Children's tours by registration, tailored in content to the age group (e.g., shipping, fish, castles on the Rhine). The museum shop carries child-friendly paper craft sheets.

Getting there & parking

Amenities & dining

• Museum shop

The museum shop offers, among other things, paper craft sheets for children.

Events & venue rental

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

Plan your visit