Museum

Over the more than 100 years of the German Leather Museum’s existence, the institution has developed into an all-round museum on leather design; its collection documents and presents craftsmanship and artistic creativity across a period of six millennia. Today, the museum includes utility and luxury items ranging from arts, crafts and design to fashion, and even objects relating to everyday culture. 

Starting with the oldest exhibit, an Egyptian receptacle dating from the fourth millennium B.C., the collection ranges from slip cases and lover's boxes, samurai armor and African shields to artistically crafted luxury objects such as gilded leather wallpaper from the homes of the 17th and 18th century noblemen and upper classes and even objects made of vegan and substitute materials similar to leather. Prestigious showpieces from courts, functional everyday items, clothing and traditional costumes, tools and objects of religious and ceremonial significance, along with items relating to hunting and warfare complete the collection. A comprehensive bag and purse collection portrays the development of the latter items from the end of the Middle Ages right up to the present day. Something else worthy of a mention is the great variety of shadow-play figures from Asia made of parchment and rawhide. 

One particular highlight is the German Leather Museum’s high-caliber shoe collection, consisting of more than 10,000 exhibits made from different materials and not only from leather. Alongside creations by reputed designers such as Beth Levine, Roger Vivier and Vivienne Westwood, the collection’s unique inventory assembles footwear dating from four millennia and traces the development and significance of footgear. Boots from the days of the Roman Empire, Venetian platform soles from the late 15th century, moccasins with embroidered beading from North America and platform sandals for Turkish bath from Damascus are as much part of the spectrum of shoes as the elegant silk boots once in the possession of the Empress Sissi of Austria and a pair of trainers belonging to Joschka Fischer, the ones he was wearing when he was sworn in as the first Hessen Minister of the Environment for the Green Party back in December 1985. Vegan sneakers made of recycled plastic garbage are also to be found in the inventory. Sample specimens, shoe lasts and shoemaker’s tools, equipment typical of the shoemaker’s guild, illustrations, and posters represent complementary material on this important field. 

The starting point for the German Leather Museum’s collection was the personal purchase of three leather objects in South Tyrol by architect and later Museum founder Hugo Eberhardt (1874–1959) during a vacation in South Tyrol in 1912. A baroque case with ornamental leather carving dating from the 16th century and two other smallish leather objects represented the original idea behind a museum which was to devote itself exclusively to the material that is leather. 

Leather is a versatile material obtained by tanning untreated animal hides. In the tanning process the skin is preserved, but without losing its characteristics such as its suppleness, elasticity and tensile strength. In principle, all animal pelts and skins, even those of fishes, amphibians and birds can be tanned. However, it is most frequently the skin of mammals such as cattle and sheep that is processed for leather production. The leather of snakes, lizards and crocodiles is known as reptile leather and, following the Washington Agreement, which was signed by Germany in 1976, such skins can only be traded in special circumstances.

The German Leahter Museum has a scientific library with more than 8,000 media, which can be viewed on site for research purposes after prior registration.

Further information can be found on the website of the Frankfurt Museum Libraries.

Deutsches Ledermuseum, the German Leather Museum, was established in Offenbach by architect Hugo Eberhardt (1874–1959) on March 13, 1917. During its early years, the objective of what was to become the cornerstone of the modern-day museum collection was to develop and refine the good taste of young artisans, designers and leather goods manufacturers at Technische Lehranstalten (now the Offenbach University of Art and Design). The Museum’s founder served as its director from 1907 through 1940. 

At the time, Offenbach occupied a preeminent position on the international leather goods market and leather goods from Offenbach were world-famous. Products from the Offenbach region, with their highly-skilled workmanship and contemporary designs, were aimed at continuing to secure the economic success of this sector, with its long-standing tradition. 

The history of the development of the leather goods trade in Offenbach stretches back to the end of the 18th century. This period saw the emergence of the first wallet businesses, which specialized in producing small leather goods such as little leather cases and caskets. In 1776, Joseph Anton Mönch, who was appointed to the Isenburg court as a bookbinder, established, together with his son Johann Karl Mönch, the first Etui- und Souvenirmanufaktur (leather case and souvenir manufactory). Further businesses were to follow and by the end of the century a highly qualified wallet trade had become established in the region. Most of the company founders and their employees came from local leather-processing professions such as the bookbinder’s trade, the fashionable saddlery industry and the strap-making trade. 

Out of what was originally a collection for teaching and exemplary purposes, the collection that was, for its first eight years, housed with the Technische Lehranstalten, soon grew into a broadly-based educational establishment for anybody interested in the subject. The aim was to produce a universal museum dedicated to the raw material that is leather, a museum that not only reflects the global diversity of crafted leather goods that demonstrate great artistic prowess but also shows how animal hides can be preserved, treated and designed – one of the oldest crafts known to man in the world.

Prof. Hugo Eberhardt established and ran the German Leather Museum on a voluntary basis from 1917 until his death in 1959, with the exception of a four-year interruption between 1946 and 1950. 

Recent historical research has now allowed for a new, critical view of Eberhardt’s person and his work. In order to further pursue the interests of the German Leather Museum, and particularly so as to augment its collection and, in the 1930s, to acquire a fixed and more prestigious location, in his double role as Director of Meisterschule des Deutschen Handwerks (formerly Technische Lehranstalten, nowadays HfG Offenbach) and Head of the museum, Eberhardt collaborated with the Nazis while they were in power. In 1941, he became a member of the Nazi Party and actively distanced himself from the museum’s former, Jewish patrons. At a denazification tribunal in April 1948, he was deemed to be a “hanger-on”. 

After the end of World War II, the museum building was occupied by the US Army until November 1950. Then, after conversion work on its interior, it served various purposes. As early as spring 1945, the west wing of the ground floor was set up as a temporary 'Leathergoods Store', selling leather products from Offenbach to soldiers and relatives of the Allied troops. It was possible for the museum to use several rooms for restoring and housing its collection’s inventory. The Dutch and French objects acquired by the museum during the Nazi era were restituted in 1946. The German Leather Museum opened some of its rooms to the public again for the first time after the War on October 4, 1949, to mark the occasion of a sales exhibition: 'Lederwarenindustrie und Marshallplan' (The Leather Goods Industry and the Marshall Plan). The following year, this exhibition was expanded, becoming the Offenbach Leather Goods Trade Fair. 

In 1951, the major shoe collection was set up with its own showrooms, known as 'Deutsches Schuhmuseum' (German Shoe Museum). There have been two major conversion projects (1960–61 and 1980–81) which have extended the premises. Subsequent to these projects, the museum had more than 4,000 m² at its disposal; this space was divided up into exhibition space, a large events area, storage rooms, and archives.

On May 23, 1995, an LRT stop at 'Ledermuseum' opened on Berliner Strasse.

Further expansion and conversion work followed in 2010–11. At the same time, a provenance research facility was established at the German Leather Museum for a period of three years, aimed at investigating objects that had once been in Jewish ownership. 

In October 2013, the Julius-Mayer-Portal (Julius Mayer portal), a partial reconstruction of the entrance portal to an Offenbach-based leather factory, Julius Mayer & Sohn, was erected on the museum forecourt, since when it has stood in memory of two families of Jewish entrepreneurs, the Mayer and the von Hirsch families. The corporate building was erected at the beginning of the 20th century after architectural plans by Hugo Eberhardt.

Since the mid-2010s, the museum has realigned itself in terms of its main focus. Instead of continuing with its existing policy of organizing its exhibits into three sections – applied art, ethnology and the Deutsches Schuhmuseum (German Shoe Museum) – the museum has been focusing on presenting various approaches to its highly diverse collection. 

In 2017, the German Leather Museum celebrated its 100th anniversary. Since then, there have been signs positioned along the A3 interstate, guiding tourists to the museum. 

THE GLOVE More than fashion

In the form of THE GLOVE: More than fashion Deutsches Ledermuseum is tracing the varied cultural history of an accessory whose importance is often underestimated. The sheer diversity of this article of clothing is demonstrated by means of selected exhibits, from warming Inuit mittens, boxing gloves, disposable rubber or latex gloves, and Pontifical gloves, to models by renowned designers such as Marc Jacobs and Dries Van Noten.

TSATSAS past present future

Since 2012, Esther and Dimitrios Tsatsas have been creating leather bags and accessories that deviate from fashion’s established design concepts and take a new approach free of aesthetic limitations. With the exhibition and publication TSATSAS. past, present, future, published to mark the TSATSAS brand’s 10th anniversary, the Deutsches Ledermuseum showcases the work of this internationally successful designer label that is still produced locally in Offenbach am Main.

STEP BY STEP: Shoe.Design through the Ages

Shoes are far more than functional and fashionable cladding for feet. Alongside the design of various shoe types over centuries, their roles as a protective item of clothing, a status symbol, a fashion item or a political statement for the wearer form the focus of the exhibition and the catalog.

LEATHER.WORLD.HISTORY.

100 YEARS OF THE GERMAN LEATHER MUSEUM (1917–2017)

The catalog marks the 100th anniversary of the museum’s foundation, presenting highlights of its extraordinary collection in their cultural-historical contexts and recounting intriguing tales about their former owners or how they came to be in the museum. Alongside texts on the history of the museum and its collection, it also includes photographs from the extensive archive, as well as a glossary for leather.

The Patrons of the German Leather Museum was founded in 1987 with its objective as stated in its statutes being to support the museum in its work, particularly in terms of financial assistance for purchasing items, realizing exhibitions, and developing international contacts. From the outset, the association has worked primarily to expand the collection. Around 1,250 exhibition items have already been acquired by the museum thanks to funding from the Patrons association.

With its members, which include companies, associations and private patrons of the arts, it also provides advice to the museum on the realization of new exhibition and presentation formats.

The German Leather Museum is relying on the Patrons’ assistance for lots of exciting projects and purchases in the future, too.

Frankfurter Strasse 86
63067 Offenbach/Main

Germany