Heterogeneous collection from the Werdenfels Museum handed over to the Center for Traditional Costumes

Created: 09/26/2022, 09:00

Expert view: (from left) District Administrator Anton Speer, District Councilor Thomas Schwarzenberger and District President Josef Mederer inspect a traditional hat.

© Antonia Reindl

Region – The Werdenfels Museum in Garmisch-Partenkirchen has now handed over around 260 items of clothing and accessories – mostly from the 19th century – to the center for traditional costumes in the district of Upper Bavaria.

The basis for the handover at the municipal level is the long-standing, trusting cooperation between the two institutions.

The center for traditional costumes in Benediktbeuern houses a unique and valuable collection of clothing, accessories and literature from all over Upper Bavaria and is currently expanding its depot with a new building.

"This gives us the opportunity to store around 20,000 original garments from three centuries even better," says Josef Mederer, District President of Upper Bavaria.

"On the basis of these very good conditions, we would like to place the Werdenfelser Land as part of Upper Bavaria with its unique culture in a larger context and present it to the public." Anton Speer, District Administrator of the Garmisch-Partenkirchen district: "As a district councilor, I am also happy that our collection remains in municipal hands and is in very good hands in its new home, in the district of Upper Bavaria.”

Behind this cultural treasure is a history of more than 100 years of collections by private individuals and the Werdenfels Museum itself. Some embroidered lederhosen and very rare quilted men's jackets from around 1850, a large number of colorful women's jackets from the early 19th century and gold-embroidered ones deserve special mention and bodices made of silk – some from before 1800. But also more inconspicuous objects such as a pair of hand-knitted green and white trousers (around 1920) or green linen braces from around 1840 enrich the collection of the center for traditional costumes.

Many of these objects can otherwise only be seen on old prints or drawings and are no longer available in the original.

The inventory of the Werdenfels Museum includes countless exhibits and ensembles that tell the history of the district of Garmisch-Patenkirchen and reflect its art, culture and crafts.

The very elaborate and complex storage and preservation of the naturally fragile textiles is one of the core competencies of the center for traditional costumes in Benediktbeuern.

This specialization enables the ideal conservational storage of the unique textile pieces in the in-house depot.

There the garments donated by the Werdenfels Museum are now being cleaned, photographed, inventoried and carefully packed in acid-free boxes.

In the future, the items of clothing will be made available to the public online.

At the same time, the objects can be shown in exhibitions at the center for traditional costumes in the district of Upper Bavaria and also in cooperation with the Werdenfels Museum.

This results in a gain for everyone involved and especially for the preservation of the valuable collection objects.