The only museum in North Rhine-Westphalia dedicated entirely to ethnology presents the inhabitants of the earth with their customs and peculiarities. It helps visitors to put themselves in other worlds. The collection of 65,000 exhibits includes a huge Indonesian rice store as well as many items of clothing, art and cultural objects.
When people from foreign cultures greet you in a friendly manner before embarking on a themed expedition around the globe, the tour of the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum has only just begun. The introduction of the inhabitants of the earth in the "Prologue" of the institution is just as much a part of the varied program as the farewell to the guests in the "Epilogue". In nine different themed areas, the museum succeeds in creating a modern encounter with foreign cultures, eliminating prejudices and broadening horizons for new things.
Even a close look at the 7.50-metre-high rice barn from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, which has always been the museum's landmark, allows visitors to imagine themselves in a different world. The wooden rice barn was once used to supply the local islanders. The detailed decorations bear witness to its importance and the craftsmanship with which the building was made.
Wilhelm Joest's estate forms the basis of the collection
Afterwards, the 3600 square meters of exhibition space are used to familiarize visitors with different lifestyles. Over 65,000 exhibits and 100,000 ethnographic photographs help to understand the similarities and differences between peoples and cultures. The dynamic sequence of individual chapters - in contrast to the strict classification into large geographical areas - is the unique selling point of the only municipal museum in North Rhine-Westphalia that deals with ethnology.
Items of clothing from Africa, Asia, America, Oceania and Europe are just as much a part of the collection as furniture, art and cultural objects. The collection is based on the estate of the Cologne geographer and ethnologist Wilhelm Joest, who lived from 1852 to 1897. He left around 3500 ethnographic objects from all over the world to his sister Adele. She financed the first museum building in Cologne's Südstadt district in his memory.
Today, visitors can find the museum in Cäcilienstraße in Cologne's old town. Together with the Schnütgen Museum, which should also be visited on a day trip, it is located in the cultural quarter on Neumarkt.
