Zwischen Reformation und Republik

Among other things, you can meet traveling musicians from Salzgitter who played music and danced to the delight of their audiences on all continents in the 19th century. The original instruments and documents, such as passports, illustrate the lives of these musicians. The trades in Salzgitter, exemplified by the carpentry, pottery and pewtering trades, underwent a profound change at the beginning of the 19th century. During the Kingdom of Westphalia (1807-1813), the supremacy of the guilds was abolished. The associated freedom of trade and commerce meant that, for the first time, craftsmen were able to practice their profession without the consent of the guilds.

Visitors to the exhibition also get to know the day laborer Heinrich Friedrichs and Heinrich Julius Ahrens, a member of the German National Assembly from Salzgitter. Both fought for a better, democratic world in the middle of the 19th century. The festive table, which comes from the house of a wealthy farmer, vividly documents the change in eating habits among the rural population. On holidays and feast days, people wanted to eat just as well and as varied as the citizens in the city.

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