Bayerisches Vogtland Museum

The history of local life and culture in Hof is largely coloured by the industrial developments of the 19th century. Countless architectural testimonials to that era bear witness to Hof’s industrial heritage as well as the collections on view in the local-history museum, which is housed in the historic rooms of a centuries-old hospital.

The main focus of the museum is on exhibits pertaining to local crafts, guilds, merchants and industry. The comprehensive documentation of the textile industry is particularly impressive. Apart from the economic history of the town, a complementary exhibition contains documents and testimonials of historico-cultural interest. Biedermeier period furniture, portraits of local families, artefacts from the “Gründerjahre” (the “founders years” after German unification in 1871), antique square pianos and many other objects illustrate the life-style of the nineteenth century, which was also noted for the inventive talent of people like chemist Wolfgang Doebereiner (1780 – 1849), a native of Hof.

The picture is completed with objects of daily use which used to be found in the households of the citizens of Hof or the farming population of the surrounding areas and with various models of the town itself. Besides there is an extensive natural history collection containing taxidermist displays of almost all European mammals and birds and collections of insects, reptiles, amphibians, fungi, fossils and minerals from the region.

Every years special exhibitions are staged – whether on beer mug lids, the fashion of the fifties or the former china factory in Moschendorf – which attract visitors from far and near to the half-timbered building next to the Hosptalkirche (Hospital Church) near the Unteres Tor (the site of the former lower town gate).