Historisches Museum Bremerhaven

In the location's words:

The house

In 1991, the museum moved into a new museum building on the banks of the Geeste, giving it its own building for the first time in its history. The design came from the architects Bendig, Wessels und Partner from Nordenham and was awarded first prize in an architectural competition for the redesign of the southern bank of the Geeste. At the time, the architectural quality of the project was recognized beyond the region. The editor Marc Koch wrote in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: "The light-flooded building of the Morgenstern Museum [...] is the latest gem of significant architecture in Bremerhaven". The expert jury of the Association of German Architects (BDA) was particularly impressed by the "cheerful", diversely structured yet open interior structure. The mixture of sculptural austerity and playful details is also typical of the time and exemplary. For example, "water creatures" sculpturally enliven the inner courtyard and a silver attachment crowns the handrail to the forecourt, where a bench, meandering like the Geeste, between concrete reliefs of the towns of Lehe, Geestendorf and Bremerhaven, introduces visitors to the local history.

The permanent exhibition was set up in sections after the opening until 1999. Following the previous recognition of the architecture, the museum concept also received national recognition with the nomination for "European Museum of the Year" in 2000.