Historical Museum Frankfurt

After extensive restoration works, the Historisches Museum Frankfurt (Museum of History Frankfurt) reopened in 2012. Three new permanent exhibitions on the Collectors and Donors of Frankfurt, the Staufer Era, and the Toll Tower show the historical buildings from new perspectives. iart was commissioned by the exhibition designers Gillman Schnegg to conceive and plan the media of the exhibitions and was in charge of some of the production of the audio-visual media and the system integration.

The major exhibition "Collectors and Donors of Frankfurt" presents twelve collectors and donors of the seventeenth to the twentieth century. On four floors, their extensive collections are shown in the context of the collecting person and his or her penchants, preferences and characteristics. In addition to the exhibits, projections, video and audio installations, each room features an interactive station for children, which provides tasks related to the featured collector, his or her collection, and the activity of collecting.

In the exhibition about the Staufer Era, visitors can immerse themselves in the architecture of the twelfth and thirteenth century. An interactive city model shows the historical development of the city of Frankfurt from the Celtic period until today by projecting a video onto a physical city model. Imperial insignia are displayed in a glass cabinet and are further explained by an audio commentary.

Since its opening in May 2012 the Toll Tower has been accessible to the public for the first time in its history of more than five hundred years. It hosts an exhibition on the historic and current life on the banks of the river Main. The river itself is the main theme on the basement level. A media stele made up of three monitors displays historical photographs and film sequences from the nineteenth and twentieth century about swimming, shipping and fishing, flooding, ice, and periods of low water.

The next floor up, where the "toll office" was housed from the end of the fifteenth century onwards, deals with the history of commerce and business in Frankfurt. The historic painting "Das Mainufer am Fahrtor" by the Frankfurt artist F.W. Hirt can be explored interactively on a screen and is accompanied by an audio play.

On the first upper storey is the "clock room", which features a historical tower clock mechanism and an interactive clock, where visitors can playfully activate the sounds of ringing bells and other historical sounds by turning the dial.

In 2017 the Historisches Museum Frankfurt will open its new building. iart is in charge of planning the media.