Wilhelm-Fabry-Museum

In Hilden the Wilhelm-Fabry-Museum is devoted to the history of medicine and industry in both regional and scientific contexts. It bears the name of the surgeon Wilhelm Fabry (Latinized Guilelmus Fabricius Hildanus, born 1560 in Hilden, died 1634 in Bern), a pioneer of scientific surgery who was born only a few hundred metres from the museum’s present location. The museum is a member of the European Association of Museums of the History of Medical Sciences (EAMHMS) as well as of the Arbeitskreis Bergische Museen.

The museum collection has a longer prehistory: initial initiatives for a local history museum began in 1924, and in 1927 exhibits were shown in a classroom of the Volksschule Steinhofstraße. In 1933 the collection moved to a house on Elberfelder Straße with 120 square metres of exhibition space; the building was demolished in 1972, holdings were relocated and the Fabry collection was temporarily presented in a Realschule. With the founding of a support association (Förderverein) in 1984 and the acquisition of a suitable site on Benrather Straße, the museum was reopened in 1989 after concept development and renovation. The museum is operated by the city of Hilden; a local Förderverein supports the museum’s work.

The site comprises two building structures, including a brick hall built in 1867 that belonged to the former Kornbrennerei (grain distillery). The distillery was established from 1864 behind a residential house and received its licence in 1867; after a fire in 1875 and several changes of ownership the operation was discontinued in 1979. Typical for the facility is a horizontal single-cylinder steam engine with centrifugal governor, built in 1876 (factory no. 76), which drove the mill, sack hoist and stirring mechanism via transmissions; today it runs with an electric drive. In the fully preserved distillery the working processes of a grain distillery around 1900 can be traced.

The exhibitions combine medical-historical holdings with art as well as local and regional history. On display are first editions of writings by Wilhelm Fabry and his contemporaries, portrait prints and historical surgical instruments; the barrel room serves as a lecture space. Since 1998 the Kinder- und Jugendartothek, with over 300 works, has given young people the opportunity to borrow artworks. The collection comprises 605 exhibits of instruments, books, prints and paintings and addresses doctor and patient, diagnosis and therapy, as well as the changing notions of illness and healing. The archive also holds collections, among others from Joachim Klinger (1932–2024) and Axel Hinrich Murken.