Apart from my exhibition “Märchenbilder — Bildermärchen” there was another event that kept me busy during the last few weeks: the Museum’s Day 2009.

Explanation: in my spare time I work as the manager of the Pleinfeld museum for local history and brewery. This museum takes up nearly a whole wing  and three floors with hundreds of objects of the Steward’s Mansion. The exhibits range from a wooden plough to a historical shop, from to a book of town council minutes from the 17th century to an antique Roman spear point.

The Museum’s Day is the highlight of the year for the Pleinfeld museum.

The International Museum’s Day, which is celebrated by museums around the world in the middle of May since 1977, presents a great opportunity to show that even small museums for local history have a lot to offer. And this year Pleinfeld also had an anniversary to celebrate:

160 years railway station Pleinfeld!

As a part of the Ludwig South-North Railway, Pleinfeld was connected to the railway already in 1849.

With a lecture from Dr. Rainer Mertens (an expert on railroad history from the German Railway Museum in Nuremberg) and a discussion round about “Railroad Memories — history and stories” on Saturday evening, a model train market, two special exhibitions and the presentation of a newly edited and supplemented chronicle of local railway history on Sunday,  the Museum’s Day was a big event, and a great success.

Saturday evening I counted nearly 60 visitors, on Sunday almost 150 adults and 40-50 children came up to the mansion to have a look at the model train market, the exhibitions and the museum. Local newspapers sent reporters over on both days.

The weather was wonderful and the atmosphere very relaxed and comfortable. From the feedback I got, I think that all visitors enjoyed themselves.

For me it was a LOT of work. I had to edit and supplement the railway chronicle, put together the exhibition, organise all the individual events during the course of the weekend including the catering … when my husband and I finally made our way home on Sunday evening, I’d been on the go from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. nearly without a break! My feet were absolutely killing me.

… and now I know more about railway history than I ever wanted to know. But I guess that’s an occupational hazard of a museum manager!

(Note: This post is only a summary of a longer entry in German that may be found HERE.)