120 years of the Historical Museum: Inventing, reinventing its museum

Three exhibitions at the Historical Museum from September 20, 2025 to April 26, 2026 and a unique meeting with a major donor.

Bringing together knowledge: Haguenau's first museum

The Historical Museum will offer visitors the chance to discover the genesis of this original building, unique in the region, in its form, its content, and its origins. The institution was born from the City's desire to bring together archives, a municipal library, and the beginnings of collections, combined with the compelling desire of an archaeologist and collector mayor to create a tailor-made museum to house the legacy of his own collections.
Strasbourg architects Kuder & Müller, chosen in a competition held in 1899, designed a veritable temple of learning in the neo-Renaissance and neo-Gothic styles popular at the turn of the century. With its exceptional decor, this building, completed in 1905, has become a permanent tribute to the power and past independence of the city of Haguenau. It displays architectural qualities that are still too little known today.

Photographs of Haguenau at the time of the museum's construction
(from September 20 to October 12 at the Chapelle des Annonciades then at the Historical Museum until April 26, 2026):

Immerse yourself in an immersive, audio-enhanced exhibition exploring Haguenau at the time of the museum-library's construction. Through the rich collection of old photographs and postcards from the Haguenau Municipal Archives, visitors will stroll through the heart of the town, where washhouses came to life on wash days and where carts and bicycles crossed the roads. This setting, sometimes long gone, is also sensitively evoked by a local figure: the pharmacist of Place d'Armes, Léon Huffel. He worked hard to complete the museum and kept an almost daily diary. A few excerpts written between 1895 and 1898 bring back beautiful seasonal impressions, moments of encounters, and anecdotes that make Haguenau so vibrant at the time!

Sharing the ceramic art of Léon Elchinger: the Syring donation

Driven by the desire to make the artistic productions of the Elchinger dynasty known to the general public, Rainer and Sophie Syring decided to donate their collection to the City of Haguenau, offering the museum the opportunity to write a new chapter in the history of its collections. This donation made it possible to welcome nearly 2,000 ceramics tracing the production and know-how of this exceptional workshop over several generations. As the Haguenau museum was coming to an end, Léon Elchinger, succeeding his father, headed the Soufflenheim company and instilled a new creative dimension inspired by the precepts of Art Nouveau. The exhibition retraces the early career of this remarkable artist through around a hundred exceptional pieces and provides a glimpse of the richness of this exceptional collection.

October 11 at 15 p.m., meeting with donor Rainer Syring

It took the museum four years to photograph, inventory, and transfer the works that Rainer Syring dedicated his entire life to assembling. The story of this passion will be explored during a special conversation with this major donor. Throughout his life, Rainer Syring has constantly scoured auction rooms and flea markets in search of emblematic pieces of the Elchinger family's creations, guided by aesthetic richness but also by the evolution of inspirations and technical creative processes.