Hunsrück-Museum Simmern

The Hunsrück-Museum stands in Simmern’s Neues Schloss, a former residence of the dukes of Simmern. It holds collections on local history, including a notable fossil collection and the art of Friedrich Karl Ströher. The museum also includes the Edgar-Reitz-Filmhaus in the nearby Ziegelmayer complex. The museum grew from a 1921 appeal by the Hunsrück Historical Society. Under Karl Wagner it moved in 1930 from the Schinderhannesturm to the castle. Willi Wagner led the museum from 1978 to 1998, cataloguing its holdings and publishing new research. Fritz Schellack redesigned the displays after the 2000 renovation, and Kristina Müller-Bongard has led it since 2022. Visitors find changing exhibitions on regional themes such as medicine, migration and German emigration to Brazil. The art gallery on the top floor shows Ströher’s sketches, paintings and watercolours. The geological collection displays fossils from the Hunsrück’s ancient sea floor. The Schinderhannesturm nearby holds artefacts linked to the outlaw Johannes Bückler.