Another Saturday, another day to go exploring. Many museums are free on the last Saturday of the month. Today we decided to go into town to visit the Historical Museum here in Frankfurt.
We stopped for a Brat along our way, and then John found a nice pastry shop.
The museum is right by Dom Römer. Lots of people were out and about today, eager for spring weather to visit us.
Here’s a view of the museum from the other side of the river:
We spent several hours in the museum, trying to make sense of it. It was an eclectic place, with different floors and levels and exhibits. They weren’t in any particular order (that we could make out). It was hard to feel like we were really learning much about Frankfurt’s history. We just wandered and read about things and odd collections of things. The signage wasn’t great for English explanations.
I took just a few pics of the things that were interesting to me, like these words from people who knew Anne Frank:
It wasn’t easy to tell, but it seemed that many of the exhibits were collections that belonged to people who had lived in Frankfurt. For example the gallery below (there were no artists listed).
My favorite things in the museum included the maps and these reproductions of Frankfurt after the bombing.
I also found this exhibit very interesting. It was a collection of every day things, grouped in interesting boxes, or as the artist calls it, “An Archive of Contemporary History.”
More old maps. I like to get my bearings.
More odds and ends from Frankfurt’s history:
This diorama up on the top floor was fantastic–this is Frankfurt and surrounding neighborhoods and it’s made out of everyday items.
And I LOVED seeing this display about the Stopersteine, or stumbling blocks. I look for these blocks everywhere I go. You can read more about them here.
Here’s a piece of an old harbor wall from a long time ago (1300s??).
In the pictures below you can see the very old toll booth (built 1454-56) that’s incorporated into the Frankfurt Historische Museum here on the Main River. In the tower we learned about the area’s port and trade, floods, and toll and tax payments. The pictures below give you an idea of what it was like in the olden days.
Inside the tower today:
Our Frankfurt Germany Mission 