Photo: museums and exhibitions, German Leather Museum, Hesse

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German Leather Museum in Offenbach – the Largest Collection in the World

Museums and Exhibitions

The German Leather Museum was established in 1917. Itshuge exhibition area consists of three parts. The first part is the Museum ofApplied Arts (Museum für Angewandte Kunst) where handicrafts and industrialproducts from different eras are displayed. Here you can see all the stages of leatherworking from various animal skins. The showcases demonstrate sandals of the ancientEgyptians, leather armor of the Romans, bindings of medieval chronicles, themilitary portfolio of Napoleon Bonaparte. The famous Louis Vuitton and Rimowabags are also presented here. The collection of bags in Offenbach Museum isconsidered the largest in Europe.

The second part of the German Leather Museum is the Museum of Ethnology(Ethnologisches Museum), which also exhibits leather crafts and theirdiversity. Here you can see the samples of the Indian leather art from theAmerican continent, as well as from Japan, Africa, Tibet and the polar regions.

The third part of the Leather Museum is the Shoe Museum (DeutschesSchuhmuseum), which is the largest and the most interesting European collectionof its kind. More than 15,000 pairs of shoes are displayed here, among whichyou can find, for example, fine silk boots of Elizabeth of Bavaria (Empress Elizabethof Austria, nicknamed “Sissi”), or footwear of the ancient man Ötzi, whose icemummy was found in 1991 in the Ötztal Alps. But more emphasis is put, ofcourse, on modern exhibits, which enter this room directly from theprofessional International Exhibition for Footwear in Dusseldorf(Internationalen Schuhmesse).

German Leather Museum in Offenbach – the Largest Collection in the World

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