Archabbey of St. Ottilien Mission Museum

The Missionsmuseum stands in the Erzabtei St. Ottilien, a Benedictine monastery near Eresing in Upper Bavaria. Founded in 1887, it holds ethnological and natural-history collections gathered by missionaries from German East Africa, Korea, Manchuria and Zululand. The museum documents the work of the Missionary Benedictines and shows how their outreach shaped the collection. The displays explain the spread of the congregation’s missions from 1887 onwards. Objects from East Africa illustrate traditional religions, ancestor cults and divination, while Korean and Manchurian items reveal Buddhist practices, household tools and clothing. A large diorama in Room II shows East African antelopes, gazelles and monkeys in lifelike poses, and vitrines hold elephant skulls and tusks. Visitors move through seven rooms. Room V holds a statue of Pope Gregory the Great and memorial tablets listing missionaries killed in Africa and Korea. Room VI displays Zulu beadwork and the paraphernalia of a Zulu diviner. Rooms VIII to XI focus on Korea, with armour, musical instruments and scholar’s robes that tell of daily life and belief in the Far East.