The Kreismuseum Walderbach

Founded in 1965, Kreismuseum Walderbach (Walderbach District Museum) is run by the District of Cham in the Upper Palatinate. It is located in the former Cistercian Abbey of Walderbach. The accessible 400 m² space houses temporary exhibitions on the everyday culture and practices of the population in the region.

Behind the museum was the teacher and local historian Ewald Stark (1902–1985). His local history collection went on display for the first time in 1962 in one section of the baroque abbey. Two years later, it was recognised as a "private museum". Finally, the district authorities acquired the collection in 1965. When Ewald Stark left the museum in 1974, the "Förderkreis Museum" (friends of the museum) and the district municipal affairs department took over its management. The local history collection thus grew into a regional folklore and ethnology museum, which reached new groups of visitors with a number of special exhibitions each year.

The museum sees its mission as preserving, documenting and presenting the region's material and folk culture from the past 200 years. The collection covers the district of Cham. The museum has objects that bear witness to everyday culture and practices, items produced in the region, and a number of special collections.

These include items acquired from the carpentry workshop and later furniture factory Schoyerer in Cham, founded in 1850. Alongside furniture, accounts, catalogues and photographs, this special collection also includes nearly 2000 design drawings, with around 100 furniture designs by the Munich architect and folklorist Franz Zell (1866-1961).

• The objects of the "Kreismuseum Walderbach" available on bavarikon

Collections of the "Kreismuseum Walderbach" available on bavarikon

• Franz Zell: Architect and Trendsetter 1866-1961

Exhibitions under the participation of the "Kreismuseum Walderbach" available on bavarikon

• Franz Zell: Architect and Trendsetter 1866-1961