Deutsches Tabak- und Zigarrenmuseum

The Striediecksche Hof, built in 1830, is the centerpiece of the museum complex. Until the 1930s the listed building was home to the Striedieck & Martin cigar factory, before it was taken over by the city of Bünde and opened as a museum in 1937. The foundation of the collection was laid at that time by numerous locally based cigar companies. Today the half-timbered house contains a modern museum with a wide range of exhibits, interactive stations, and various educational offerings. The ground floor presents the cultural history of tobacco and smoking. The tobacco plant arrived in Europe at the beginning of the 16th century. At first it was used as a medicinal remedy and later gained importance as a recreational commodity. More than 700 exhibits provide insight into the social role of tobacco consumption in past centuries. The giant cigar and the giant pipe are known beyond the region. The 170 cm-long cigar was rolled in 1936 by the Bünde firm Kessing & Thiele with a circumference of 68 cm and is one of the Tobacco Museum’s landmarks. In 1967 the Bünde firm Pollner produced the giant pipe, 365 cm long and weighing 173 kg. This probably largest smokable pipe in the world can be filled with 23 kg of tobacco. The upper floor is devoted to regional tobacco history and serves as a special exhibition area. In the early 1840s the cigar-making trade established itself in the Bünde region. Connection to the railway network from 1855 paved the way for a new era. From then on raw tobacco could be imported many times faster and more efficiently, from which the local cigar industry and numerous suppliers profited enormously. Already around 1900 more than 80 cigar companies were based in Bünde and the surrounding area; by the mid-20th century there were over 200 — around 90 percent of the population worked in the tobacco industry.