Kreismuseum Bitterfeld

The Kreismuseum Bitterfeld stands in the town of Bitterfeld-Wolfen in Saxony-Anhalt. Founded in 1892 by Emil Obst, it began as a civic collection of Saxon antiquities from the town and district. The museum moved into its current home in 1901, a former girls’ school built in 1839 beside the town church and historic town hall. The museum’s value lies in its long history and the figures who shaped it. Emil Obst spent fifteen years gathering books and objects before persuading the city council to create the collection. Max Dietze followed as director and enlarged the holdings with works by local artists such as Hermann Schiebel and Walter Möbius. After the Second World War Walter Bellmann expanded the institution into a district museum. Visitors find the displays in the restored 1839 schoolhouse on Kirchplatz. The permanent exhibition covers local archaeology, regional history and art from the 19th and 20th centuries. A library of 10 000 volumes supports research into the area’s past. The building itself, once a girls’ school, sits between the town church and the old town hall.