Braith-Mali-Museum

Braith-Mali-Museum

Hospital zum Heiligen Geist
Museum Biberach
Location within Baden-Württemberg
Established	1902
Location	Braith-Mali-Museum Museumstraße 6 88400 Biberach an der Riss Germany
Coordinates	48°05′53″N 9°47′25″E / 48.09792°N 9.79015°ECoordinates: 48°05′53″N 9°47′25″E / 48.09792°N 9.79015°E
Type	Museum with different collections
Key holdings	Paintings and woodcuts of the expressionist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Historical artist's studios[1]
Collections	Natural history, Art, History, Archaeology, Weaving
Owner	City of Biberach an der Riss
Website	www.museum-biberach.de (German)

The Braith-Mali-Museum is a museum with several sections in Biberach an der Riss in Upper Swabia. The museum resides in one of the oldest and biggest buildings from the 16th century in this city. It belongs to the considerable collections in Baden-Württemberg.

On 2.800 square meters it presents archaeology, history, art and natural history. Models, all sorts of installations, also computer animations explain origin and settlement of the Upper Swabian landscape. Beyond it, the life and the terms of employment of the people are explained during the last centuries like the notable weaving in the town since the 17th century. Prominent pieces of art from former times until the present enrich the knowledge of the visitors.^[2]

The art-historical division gathers, beside key works of the Upper Swabian art creating, the important works of the German expressionist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.

History

Since 1898 numerous founders and sponsors laid the basis for a Biberach civil museum which was opened in 1902 in the historical rooms of the hospital to the Holy Ghost (German: Hospital zum Heiligen Geist).

View into the town's historical section

With the takeover of the heritage from the Munich painters Anton Braith (a Biberachian by birth, 1836–1905) and Christian Mali (1832–1906) in the years 1905–1908 their representative and richly equipped atelier rooms got hold of the museum. Today the Braith Mali drawing rooms apply as the only completely preserved artist's studios from the 19th century.^[1]

Collections

The museum encloses the divisions:

1. Natural history with realistically formed biotopes.
2. Archaeology of Upper Swabia (among other the collection of the Biberach dentist and pioneering archaeologist Heinrich Forschner (1880 – 1959)). Exhibits document the settlement of Upper Swabia back to the ages of Celts, ancient Romans and Alemanni as far as to the Bronze Age and Stone Age 13,000 years ago.^[3] This collection encloses about 22,000 finds from more than 300 usually Upper Swabian sites.^[4]
3. Gothic art
4. Art from the 17th to the 19th century (with works from Johann Heinrich Schönfeld and Johann Baptist Pflug as well as the painter's family of Pieter Francis Peters (1818–1903) from Stuttgart).
5. Historical artist's studios of the animal painters Anton Braith and Christian Mali from the 19th century.
6. Gallery of the modernist art with works from Jakob Bräckle (including his studio), Julius Kaesdorf, Romane Holderried Kaesdorf and paintings and graphics from Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.^[5]
7. History of the Free Imperial City of Biberach, under it tin toys from the probable oldest manufacturer Rock & Graner.

An information point in the stairwell presents designer Heinz H. Engler.^[6]

A 3-D model of the city of Biberach in the ground floor can be visited without admission fee and is also shown on town guidances.

Samples of the exhibits
Is the city's name of Biberach derived from this animal (German: Biber)?  Bracteates, Biberach c. 1220  Workshop of Niklaus Weckmann: Apostles Petrus & Paulus, lime wood, Ulm, c. 1500  Goblet, Venetian glass, 16th century, latrine find  Piggy bank from the 2nd half 16th century, probably a mascot  Johann Heinrich Schönfeld: The Plunderers, oil on canvas, around 1635  Johann Sebastian Dürr: French soldiers in front of Biberach, Gouache, around 1800 (→ Battle of Biberach (1800))  Historical studio of the painter Anton Braith, 19th century  Tin toy from Rock & Graner, around 1900  Christian Mali: Winter evening after the cattle market, oil on canvas, 1904, detail  Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: Boy with arrow (Hunter in the wood), water colour, 33,4 x 26,9 cm, 1928  Dishes "B 1100", Heinz H. Engler
Museum Biberach

Literature

• Büchner, Dieter (17 February 2011). "Zwei Münchner Malerfürsten in Biberach" [Two Munich painter principals in Biberach]. Denkmalpflege in Baden-Württemberg [Historic Preservation in Baden-Württemberg] (PDF) (in German). Landesamt für Denkmalpflege im Regierungspräsidium Stuttgart in Verbindung mit den Fachreferaten für Denkmalpflege in den Regierungspräsidien. p. 61 ff. Retrieved 16 May 2014.

See also

• List of museums in Germany

Notes

1. "Museum Biberach" (PDF). Museum Biberach. 28 September 2007. Retrieved 16 May 2014.
2. "Biberach" (in German). Gerrit-Richard Ranft. 14 November 2012. Retrieved 16 May 2014.
3. Andresen, Dierk (9 June 2003). "Forschner-Sammlung ins Denkmalbuch" (in German). Der Biberach Führer. Retrieved 18 May 2014.
4. "Wie Archäologie zum Abenteuer wird" [How archeology becomes an adventure] (in German). Schwäbische Zeitung. 21 December 2005. Retrieved 18 May 2014.
5. Andresen, Dierk (9 May 2008). "Romane Holderried Kaesdorf" (in German). Der Biberach Führer. Retrieved 18 May 2014.
6. "Heinz H. Engler, Margarete Frauer, Biberach". MODish.net. 8 May 2013. Retrieved 20 May 2014.