Wrackmuseum Cuxhaven

The Wrackmuseum was a maritime museum in Cuxhaven, Lower Saxony. It opened in June 1980 to display wreckage and artefacts from ships lost in the German Bight, Ems, Weser and Elbe rivers. The core of the collection came from Peter Baltes, a local collector who first exhibited such items in 1978 under the title Aus gesunkenen Schiffen. After the city council asked him to create a permanent display, the museum opened with around 1,500 objects. Its exhibits showed the remains of vessels that had foundered in storms or collisions over many decades. Visitors could see broken hull plates, twisted propellers, navigational instruments and personal effects recovered from the seabed. The wrecks ranged from small fishing boats to larger cargo ships, each piece telling part of a maritime story. In February 2013 the museum closed its doors. Later that year it merged with the nearby Fischereimuseum to form the Windstärke 10 – Wrack- und Fischereimuseum Cuxhaven, which continues to present similar collections in a new setting.