Das kleine Museum

The small museum is a private art museum in Schweinfurt, Lower Franconia. It sits in the basement of the Luitpold Hotel, at the western end of Luitpold Street, beside the Gründerzeit quarter. The building once housed the local labour office before its 1980s conversion into a hotel. In December 1988 it opened as a museum three days before Friedensreich Hundertwasser’s eightieth birthday. The space was designed to echo the playful forms of Antoni Gaudí. The museum’s permanent display shows more than a hundred works by Hundertwasser across over two hundred square metres. The collection spans five decades and includes prints, paintings, ceramics, objects and even postage stamps. Loans from galleries in Germany and New York fill gaps in the private holdings. Nearby rooms also show works by Udo Lindenberg and Elvira Bach in a separate gallery. Visitors find a single large gallery with Hundertwasser’s vivid colours and curved lines. The room feels like a miniature Gaudí interior, with walls and fittings shaped to his style. Themed exhibitions are planned, including a first showing of the artist’s late works. Outside, the Gründerzeit quarter’s grand façades and the Luitpold Hotel’s entrance frame the entrance.