Panoramic Tour

Museum of Saxon Folk Art

Making furniture from newspaper, painting flea markets finds, crafting earrings from crown corks: For quite some time now, things that can be built, repared or made beautiful without professional help have been back in style. The Museum für Sächsische Volkskunst in Dresden, as the only “do-it-yourself” museum in Germany, is in touch with this development. After all, the museum’s founder Oskar Seyffert understood Volkskunst, or folk art, to mean the art of regular folks: non-academic art. 

  • Opening Hours daily 10—18, Monday closed 29/03/2024 10—18 (Good Friday) 31/03/2024 10—18 (Easter Sunday) 01/04/2024 10—18 (Easter Monday)
  • Admission Fees normal 5 €, reduced 4 €, under 17 free, groups (10 persons and more) 4,50 €

[Translate to English:] Darunter fällt keinesfalls nur erzgebirgischer Weihnachtsschmuck

This comprises much more than the Ore Mountains Christmas decorations such as the miner’s figure or the angel; it also includes artifacts from the once-booming toy-making industry in Saxony as well as doll houses, traditional costumes of the Sorbs, who are protected as a minority, and the reconstructed living room of a damask weaver who lived and worked in tight quarters with his family. All of this can be enjoyed at the Jägerhof not far from the Golden Rider, the equestrian statue of August the Strong. A highlight of the permanent exhibition is a mechanical theatre from the first half of the nineteenth century that shows seven scenes from the Passion of Christ, from the Last Supper to Resurrection. These highly dramatic “moving pictures” were cinema before cinema was invented: Elias Augst once presented his invention in a barn and asked ten pfennigs for admission.

Dorf mit Bewohnern in gebirgiger Landschaft
© SKD, Foto: Hans Christian Krass
Szene aus dem mechanischen Heimatberg

[Translate to English:] Haus für alle Generationen

The mandate of the Museum für Sächsische Volkskunst is to be a museum for all generations. With this in mind, it has developed a special exhibition just for children, which is included in the permanent exhibition. Beneath an original dolls’ kitchen from 1840, small visitors can make dinner in a modern play kitchen. They may also ride through the museum on a wooden horse, make bobbin lace or crack nuts. Every year, special exhibitions are held at Christmas and Easter, always accompanied by an extensive programme of events in which the DIY spirit has its place, from sing-alongs to crafting straw stars. 

zwei große Puppen in Uniform
© SKD, Foto: Frank Höhler
Figürliche Bienenbeuten, 19. Jh.

Exhibition list

Further Exhibitions

Kunstgewerbemuseum

in Schloss Pillnitz

gelber Kasten mit vier Füßen

Münzkabinett

in Residenzschloss

Münzen, Medaillen und Orden

Josef-Hegenbarth Archiv

in Josef-Hegenbarth-Archive

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