Description [EN]
The Geschichts- und Museumsverein Reinbek e. V. has been engaged since 1989 in building, caring for and presenting a local history collection of the city of Reinbek and serves as a point of contact for those interested in local history.
The association’s origin was an initiative launched at the end of 1985 by the Volkshochschule Sachsenwald: a working group on town history that began with exploratory walks through older districts and systematically collected information and historic photographs. The group received support from the Volkshochschule and personnel assistance for research and documentation work.
As part of Reinbek’s 750th anniversary celebrations, the working group staged the exhibition „Reinbek vor 100 Jahren“ at Reinbeker Schloss in 1988, which attracted considerable public interest. From this response came the decision to transfer the work into an association; in October 1989 the Ortsgeschichtliche Museum Reinbek was founded.
The city of Reinbek provided storage space, enabling a substantial photographic collection and extensive textual documentation on the town’s history to be assembled. In cooperation with the Stadtarchiv Reinbek, association members also arranged the publication of pictorial and historical volumes, including Reinbek in alten Ansichten (1996), Wege durch Reinbeks Geschichte (2009) and Reinbek – Die Stadtteile in historischen Aufnahmen (2020). In everyday usage it was soon referred to as the „Museumsverein“, and in 1999 it was formally renamed Museumsverein Reinbek e.V.
Today the association’s work includes the acquisition and management of historical material as well as the cataloguing and presentation of local history, making the collection an important source for the city’s historical memory.