The Brushmakers' Museum () in Ramberg is a

local history museum A local museum or local history museum is a type of museum that shows the historical development of a place/region (local history) using exhibits. These museums usually maintain a collection of historic three-dimensional objects which are ex ...

in the village of Ramberg in the German state of

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

. The responsible body that set the museum up in 1997 and has run it since then is the Local History and Museum Society of the Brushmakers' Workshop, Ramber (''Heimat- und Museumsverein des Bürstenmacherhandwerks Ramberg e. V.'').

Geography

Ramberg is part of the collective municipality of Annweiler am Trifels in the county of

Südliche Weinstraße Südliche Weinstraße (; ; ) is a district (''Kreis'') in the south of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from west clockwise) Südwestpfalz, Bad Dürkheim, the district-free city Neustadt (Weinstraße), Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis ...

. The specialist museum in the village centre west of the high street (''Hauptstraße''), the ''

Landesstraße ''Landesstraßen'' (singular: ''Landesstraße'' ) are roads in Germany and Austria that are, as a rule, the responsibility of the respective German or Austrian federal state. The term may therefore be translated as "state road". They are road ...

'' 506, is housed in an old brush factory that, following a major strike in 1907 was formed on a

co-operative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democr ...

basis.

History

Since the 18th century, the municipality of Ramberg has been known beyond the boundaries of the

Palatinate region The Palatinate (; ; Palatine German: ''Palz''), or the Rhenish Palatinate (''Rheinpfalz''), is a historical region of Germany. The Palatinate occupies most of the southern quarter of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate (''Rheinla ...

for its brushmakers and brush merchants; for a long time these were almost the only occupations that were undertaken in this remote corner of the

Palatinate Forest The Palatinate Forest (; ), sometimes also called the Palatine Forest, is a List of landscapes in Rhineland-Palatinate, low-mountain region in southwestern Germany, located in the Palatinate (region), Palatinate in the state of Rhineland-Palatina ...

. Initially brushmaking was a

cottage industry The putting-out system is a means of subcontracting work, like a tailor. Historically, it was also known as the workshop system and the domestic system. In putting-out, work is contracted by a central agent to subcontractors who complete the p ...

with

brush A brush is a common tool with bristles, wire or other filaments. It generally consists of a handle or block to which filaments are affixed in either a parallel or perpendicular orientation, depending on the way the brush is to be gripped during u ...

es and

broom A broom (also known as a broomstick) is a cleaning tool, consisting of usually stiff fibers (often made of materials such as plastic, hair, or corn husks) attached to, and roughly parallel to, a cylindrical handle, the broomstick. It is thus a ...

scrubbers ''Scrubbers'' is a 1982 British drama film directed by Mai Zetterling and produced by Don Boyd starring Amanda York, Kathy Burke, and Chrissie Cotterill. It was shot primarily in Virginia Water, Surrey, England Surrey () is a Ceremonia ...

and similar everyday articles made painstakingly by hand in the home, it later became a factory-based activity. For example, in 1907 there were eight brush and brushwood factories in Ramberg. The raw materials, especially

wood Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...

and

Common Broom ''Cytisus scoparius'' ( syn. ''Sarothamnus scoparius''), the common broom or Scotch broom, is a deciduous leguminous shrub native to western and central Europe. In Great Britain and Ireland, the standard name is broom; this name is also used for ...

, were obtained ''inter alia'' from the

Holpertal The Holpertal is a valley, just one and a half kilometres long, in the central Palatine Forest of Germany. It lies within the municipality of Ramberg in the county of Südliche Weinstraße in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Its V-shaped cross- ...

valley, which begins just northeast of Ramberg. The Ramberg brush merchants sold their wares not just across the whole of Germany, but also in other European countries.

Museum

The museum offers insights into the occupations of the brushmakers and brush merchants. With the aid of diverse exhibits it portrays the industrial and social development in Ramberg from about 1800 to the time around 1970. Guided tours by experts inform the visitor about the history, manufacture and marketing of brooms and brushes. On view are, for example, technical implements used in brush production, a range of still working

machine A machine is a physical system that uses power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromol ...

s and the live-size figure of a Ramberg brush merchant in his original dress and equipment. In addition there is an overview of family life in Ramberg from 1780 to 1960.

References

Literature

External links

Website of the ''Heimat- und Museumsvereins des Bürstenmacherhandwerks Ramberg e. V.''

Annweiler Collective Municipality: Brushmakers' Museum

pfalz.de: ''Lehrreiche Besenkammer: Das Bürstenbindermuseum in Ramberg'' ("Informative Broom Cupboard: The Brushmakers' Museum in Ramberg")
{{Authority control Heritage sites in Rhineland-Palatinate Museums in Rhineland-Palatinate Buildings and structures in the Palatinate Forest Buildings and structures in Südliche Weinstraße