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Colombischlössle Archeological Museum

Colombischlössle Archeological Museum, Freiburg

The Colombischlössle Archeological Museum is a museum in Freiburg im Breisgau in southwest Germany which features the prehistoric inheritance of the High and Upper Rhine. It was founded as the Museum of Prehistory and Early History in 1983. The focus of the museum is on the human development of the High and upper Rhine from the Paleolithic Age to the Early Middle Ages.

History[edit]

The origin of the collection can be traced back to Alexander Ecker, Heinrich Fischer, and Wilhelm Deecke – the latter having been the manager of the Geological Institute of the University of Freiburg. He expanded the collection of the Museum of Prehistory and Ethnography, which had existed since 1867, and housed them at the Geological Institute in Hebelstraße 40 starting in 1926. To look after this museum, Deecke appointed the prehistorian Georg Kraft to Freiburg. Under Kraft's leadership, in 1936, the Museum of Prehistory and Early History was separated from the Geological Institute and became an independent institute of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University. This opportunity was used to have it moved to newly designed rooms in the Adelhauser monastery. Georg Kraft was now in charge of the university institute, the archaeological monument preservation, as well as the collection now called “Museum of Prehistory”.

The new museum was supported by the city administration and now also managed the city's collection on prehistory.

In June 1938, the "Museum of Prehistory" was opened. Kraft led the institute until his death during the bombing of Freiburg in 1944 (Strategic bombing). Due to a lack of space after World War II, the museum was no longer accessible to the public. The now separate Institute for Prehistory and Early History, detached from the museum, and the State Monument Conservation, also separated from the museum and institute, were now housed in the same building. [1] In 1961, the collections were stored with monument conservation, as the former monastery building was converted into the future Natural History Museum. [2]

In 1978, the city council decided to re-establish the Museum of Prehistory and Early History in the Colombischlössle Freiburg, and planning began in 1979. In 1983, the museum was reopened by Lothar Späth.