The museum
In 1967, the then car factory Automobilwerk Eisenach (AWE) opened an exhibition pavilion on Wartburgallee right next to the B19 road which it used until 1995. Thanks to the dedication of the car manufacturing museum association Verein Automobilbau-Museum e. V., sponsorship of the museum was transferred to the City of Eisenach at the end of the 1990s to allow the technical cultural assets shown in the museum to be kept in Eisenach and presented to the public there in the long term. As the exhibition pavilion had to be vacated, the City of Eisenach was able to acquire a listed industrial building in the grounds of the former car factory in 1998. Under its new name automobile welt eisenach (automotive world eisenach), the museum has been showcasing German automotive history in Eisenach since 4 June 2005.
The automotive tradition in Eisenach
Cars have been built below the Wartburg Castle in Thuringia since 1898. Under the brand names DIXI, BMW, EMW, IFA, WARTBURG and OPEL, they have made Eisenach’s engineering skills and automotive traditions well known all over the world. automobile welt eisenach is a car museum aiming to preserve this heritage and make it accessible to the public.
Since 1 April 2014, the Automobile Welt Eisenach Foundation has sponsored the car museum and operated it independently at its own risk and its own expense.
In 2005, automobile welt eisenach opened as a municipal museum in the industrial and administrative building O2 which BMW built in 1935 in the grounds of what was then the Eisenach car factory. Fraught municipal finances have always made it difficult for the City of Eisenach to support all of its cultural institutions single-handedly in the long term. automobile welt eisenach was finally transferred to the Foundation after several years spent developing an exhibition concept and presenting a new operating scheme.
The Automobile Welt Eisenach Foundation
The Automobile Welt Eisenach Foundation was established in 2009 as a legally independent foundation under civil law. In accordance with its statutes, it commemorates the car manufacturing tradition in Eisenach and works towards preserving the museum at this site. The goals of the Foundation include the operation, extension and expansion of the vehicle exhibition and the creation of a permanent public access to the archive, the aim being to widen the range of scientific and cultural-historical services offered in the field of Eisenach technological history. From the very beginning, the intention was to transfer the automobile museum to sponsorship by the Foundation, a step which was finally taken on 1 April 2014.
For this to happen, however, the Foundation had to have the necessary financial status and conceptual framework. The sponsorship of the car museum is an exacting and financially demanding task seeking to preserve the historical legacy of technical development and mobile cultural heritage.
You too can help to give direct support to these aims and projects with your donations. A second way to support our work is to make an endowment contribution. Contributions of this kind increase the nominal capital and with it the revenues of the Foundation and have a permanent long-term effect.
You are welcome to make use of this website to find out about us and the work we do. We are at your service if you require details on ways of making a donation and would be happy to welcome you to the car museum we call automobile welt eisenach.