Georg Schäfer Museum

If you cross the Main River at the Max Bridge into town, you will see an impressive modern building which nevertheless seems to fit perfectly in the historic environs of the Old Town. Since 2000 the Georg Schäfer Museum has presented the world’s most significant private collection of 19th century art from the German-speaking region. The collection was compiled by the Schweinfurt industrialist Georg Schäfer (1896–1975) and contributed to a foundation by the heirs. With paintings and works on paper emanating from the 18th century to the beginning of the 20th century, the museum offers a panorama of the most varying art movements of this era – from Late Rococo via Classicism and Romanesque to Impressionism.

The quality of the collection is based on high-caliber individual works and significant paintings from less well-known masters.
Thus the Georg Schäfer Museum is on a par with the collection of English art in the Tate Gallery (London) or the collections of German art in the National Gallery (Berlin) and the New Pinakothek in Munich.

Carl Spitzweg is represented here with the worldwide largest collection of his works: 160 paintings and 110 illustrations. The collection features over 100 paintings, gouaches and illustrations from Adolph Menzel. Moreover, numerous works from Caspar David Friedrich, Georg Ferdinand Waldmüller, Hans Thoma, Wilhelm Leibl and his circle as well as from Max Liebermann and Max Slevogt are to be marveled at.
 
Opening hours: 
Tuesday 10.00 to 20.00; Wednesday - Sunday 10.00 to 17.00
Brückenstraße 20

Information about alternating exhibits and supporting programs: 
Telephone: 5 19 20 and 5 19 25
http://www.museumgeorgschaefer.de/

Otto Schäfer Museum

The Otto Schäfer Museum is dedicated to book art, graphic arts and applied arts. The industrialist Otto Schäfer (1912–2000) began collecting printed graphic arts in his youth. In 1951, he acquired his first book illustrated with woodcuts: The famous Schedel’s Chronicle of the World, printed in Nuremberg in 1493. Today the museum enshrines about a thousand illustrated prints, of which most stem from the 15th and 16th centuries. Amongst the collection’s artists are Michael Wolgemut, Albrecht Dürer, Hans Baldung Grien, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Hans Holbein the Younger, Matthäus Merian the Elder, Caspar David Friedrich, Adolph Menzel, Max Slevogt, Lovis Corinth, Aristide Maillol and H. A. P. Grieshaber.

Otto Schäfer dedicated another collection to German literature. It features around 5,000 volumes, for the most part first editions from the Goethe era. But the collector’s interest was also devoted to precious bindings, and in addition to innumerable, expensive gold-embossed leather-bound volumes attests to the binding art of bygone centuries.

The collection combines about one thousand works on paper with contemporary graphic arts (amongst others, Olaf Gulbransson, Alfred Hrdlicka or Ernst Fuchs). The museum’s newest section is dedicated to antique glass. 

Opening hours:
Saturday: 14.00 - 17.00, Sunday 10.00 - 17.00, Holidays 10.00 - 17.00, Exceptions: 24./25./31.12.
Closed on August

Judithstraße 16
Telephone: 3 87 09 70
http://www.museumottoschaefer.de/

Kunsthalle / Ernst-Sachs-Bad Art Gallery

Photo: Peter Leutsch

On June 10th, 1931, Privy Councilor Dr. Ernst Sachs personally laid the cornerstone to the first indoor swimming pool in Bavaria, founded for the citizens and for the sport of swimming. Built according to the plans of Prof. Roderick Fick (Munich). In use until 2005. The striking architecture and the generous spaciousness of the building were ideal conditions for an art gallery. The permanent collection includes Discourse: Post-1945 German Art, as well as a permanent on-loan collection of works by expressive realist painter Joseph Hierling and works from artists from between the two world wars. The magnificent showroom in the former swimming pool building boasts impressive exhibit space, making it the ideal venue for temporary exhibitions or other cultural events.

Opening hours:
Tuesday–Sunday 10.00–17.00; Thursday 10.00–21.00
Rüfferstraße 4

Guided tours and events, educational guides for museum visitors of all ages from children to senior citizens, plus foreign-language guides and guides for visitors with disabilities.
Museum Service MuSe, Telephone: 0 97 21 51-2 15
www.kunsthalle-schweinfurt.de

Altes Gymnasium Museum – currently closed for renovations

The Museum in the Altes Gymnasium – a Renaissance building from 1582 – is the headquarters of the Museums and Galleries of the City of Schweinfurt, which was established in 1890. The main emphases of the local heritage collection are the early history since the 9th century, the imperial city era, the civic culture, the guild life and the beginning of industrialization. A tour through the museum provides an insight into the medieval and imperial city past, and exhibits highlights from the product range of early industrialist Wilhelm Sattler (1784–1859), the first pedal crank bicycle from Schweinfurt inventor Philipp Moritz Fischer and a ball mill from 1890 featuring the pioneering era of ball bearing manufacture. A separate section is dedicated to the work of the poet and orientalist Friedrich Rückert (1788–1866). 

Gunnar Wester Haus Museum

Photo: Dieter Bauer

The cultural-historical collection pertaining to the development of fire creation and illumination is a donation from Friedrich Graf von Luxburg (1871–1956). Beginning with a qualitative selection of antique oil lamps, the museum contains a great number of valuable cultural-historical objects of fire creation as well as lamps, lights and lanterns from the Middle Ages up into the 19th century. Early fire devices from the Baroque and Biedermeier periods are highlights.

The Fritz Glöckle Icon Collection offers an insight into the sacral Russian art of the 16th to 19th centuries with 106 icons in three rooms on the ground floor.

Opening hours:
Friday 14.00–17.00; Saturday and Sunday 10.00–13.00 and 14.00–17.00
Martin-Luther-Platz 5

Natural History Museum

A historical bird collection is on view since 1988 in the Harmony Building, a classicist building erected in 1833 as the clubhouse of the Harmony Society. It was compiled by the Schuler brothers, who donated it to their hometown in 1892.

Opening hours: 
Friday 14.00–17.00; Saturday and Sunday 10.00–13.00 and 14.00–17.00
Brückenstraße 39

Künstlerhof Oberndorf

The former dwelling and studio of artist Gustl G. Kirchner (1920–1984) serves today as a dwelling and studio for the sculptor Norbert Kleinlein and his wife Heike, who works as a ceramics artisan. The Kirchner Exhibition accommodated on the ground floor and the Kirchner Archives can be viewed according to telephonic advance notice.

Hauptstraße 13
Telephone: 0 97 21 51-4 79

Schweinfurt City Theatre

The Schweinfurt City Theatre, a regional center for the performing arts, offers each season Europe's outstanding opera companies, theatre groups, concert orchestras and dance ensembles. They bring to our community a superb selection of breath taking newness and cherished traditions.

Rossbrunnstraße 2
Telephone: 0 97 21 51-49 55