Furniture

Furniture as a central component of living can be found in almost all museum collections with a cultural-historical focus. As a material 'culture of things' of everyday life in Frankfurt, the collection of the Historisches Museum describes and explains ways of living. It demonstrates a wide and varied spectrum of living, representative and working furniture from the 17th century to modern design objects.

The collection comprises around 1,500 individual pieces. The focus is on the 18th and 19th centuries as well as the 20th century, which is represented by some outstanding individual pieces. In addition to the craftsmanship, it was above all the reference to the history of the city of Frankfurt that was the decisive criterion for inclusion in the collection. One of the earliest additions to the museum's furniture collection was the furnishing of the so-called Peace Room in the Hotel zum Schwan in Frankfurt in 1882. It was here that Chancellor Otto von Bismarck and the French Foreign Minister Jule Favre signed the "Peace of Frankfurt" between France and the newly founded German Reich on May 10, 1871, and parts of the ensemble are on permanent display in the exhibition "Frankfurt Einst".

Frankfurt cabinets

A special feature of the HMF is the large number of Baroque cabinets that have found their way into European furniture history as so-called Frankfurt cabinets. The collective term is applied to various cabinet types (column cabinet, pilaster cabinet, wave cabinet, nose cabinet, studded cabinet), the development of which is attributed to the Frankfurt cabinetmakers' guild. It is not only the inventiveness and craftsmanship of the master carpenters that account for the great importance of Frankfurt cabinets, they also point to the dynamism of a strong craftsmen's guild that had to meet the luxury demands of a wealthy bourgeoisie in the trade fair and coronation city.

The Frankfurt kitchen

Within the more recent history of furniture, the "Frankfurt kitchen" is another special feature of the metropolis on the Main. The Austrian architect Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky developed this forerunner of today's fitted kitchen, which was intended to provide new ways of rationalizing housework against the backdrop of women's increasing employment. Her invention was developed in several versions on the initiative of Frankfurt architect and urban planner Ernst May and built in series. From 1925, the standardized kitchen was an integral part of the "New Frankfurt" housing estates planned by Ernst May.

Furniture by famous Frankfurters

The collection also includes special individual items, such as Marcel Reich-Ranicki's desk, the Barckhaus family's art cabinet, a cabinet from the von Günderrode family decorated with sculptural figures and trophies, Renaissance and Baroque cabinets and an interesting group of model furniture - all of them handcrafted treasures of early furniture art.

Since 2015, the collection has also included a Renaissance chest table from the Weinberg family and a cabinet from the Gans family. The Frankfurt industrialist families Gans and Weinberg had a close family connection since the 19th century and together founded the rise of the Cassella company to become the world's largest manufacturer of synthetic dyes.